TY - CHAP

T1 - Can the Taste of Necessity Be a Taste of Sustainability? an Examination of the American Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

AU - Dean, Wesley

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - I examine two ways of thinking about food-related practices through the lens of taste. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept, the taste of necessity, is an internalized classificatory system that prioritizes quantity over quality and substance over form among those constrained by limited resources. Sustainable taste is then an internalized classification that generates practices that assure a sustainable food system. Inspired by the work of Paul B. Thompson on the normative foundations of sustainability, I take his perspective on taste and food systems as a bridge to discuss how poverty and food-assistance programs are intrinsic to imagining a form of agricultural sustainability. I argue food and nutrition assistance policies impose moral standards for acceptable food-related practices among program recipients, producing an official taste of necessity. Through measures such as the Thrifty Food Plan, and purchasing restrictions and incentives, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both shapes food-related practices and generates a market for American agricultural products. These approaches to implementing food and nutrition assistance carry with them distinct imaginaries of the food and nutrition system. The valuations of system elements embedded in these imaginaries provide insight into the compatibilities between these two forms of taste.

AB - I examine two ways of thinking about food-related practices through the lens of taste. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept, the taste of necessity, is an internalized classificatory system that prioritizes quantity over quality and substance over form among those constrained by limited resources. Sustainable taste is then an internalized classification that generates practices that assure a sustainable food system. Inspired by the work of Paul B. Thompson on the normative foundations of sustainability, I take his perspective on taste and food systems as a bridge to discuss how poverty and food-assistance programs are intrinsic to imagining a form of agricultural sustainability. I argue food and nutrition assistance policies impose moral standards for acceptable food-related practices among program recipients, producing an official taste of necessity. Through measures such as the Thrifty Food Plan, and purchasing restrictions and incentives, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both shapes food-related practices and generates a market for American agricultural products. These approaches to implementing food and nutrition assistance carry with them distinct imaginaries of the food and nutrition system. The valuations of system elements embedded in these imaginaries provide insight into the compatibilities between these two forms of taste.

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-37484-5_11

DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-37484-5_11

M3 - Book chapter

AN - SCOPUS:85182847609

SN - 978-3-031-37483-8

SN - 978-3-031-37486-9

T3 - International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics

SP - 159

EP - 172

BT - Paul B. Thompson's Philosophy of Agriculture

A2 - Noll, Samantha

A2 - Piso, Zachary

PB - Springer

CY - Cham

ER -