6 research outputs found
Insects are not 'the new sushi': theories of practice and the acceptance of novel foods
Food geographies have long grappled with the interplay between
production and consumption. Theories of practice offer productive
new ways of conceptualising the mutual implication of supply and
demand in shaping food consumption, yet little work has approached
the subject of novel foods from this perspective. This paper applies
practice-theoretic analysis to two novel foods, aiming to demonstrate
the utility of the approach for a number of substantive areas and to
extend conceptual and theoretical debates within food geographies.
The paper compares sushi (a novel food successfully established in
the US in the 1960s) and insects (a novel âsustainableâ protein source
for Western markets, which to date has been relatively unsuccessful).
Many accounts portray sushiâs success as the result of marketing
efforts and the role of a âgateway dishâ, arguing that insects â as âthe
new sushiâ â can follow this model to achieve widespread acceptance.
It is argued that sushiâs initial Western establishment was instead
due to pre-existent practices âcarriedâ to a new location, where the
practicesâ relevant constituent elements were also present. Conversely,
European food insects are not clearly assimilable within pre-existing
practices; instead, integration into existing food practices has been
attempted. Such efforts are demonstrably problematic