By greening, it is meant the processes by which environmental concerns are nurtured within social groups and modern environmentally related symbols become increasingly prominent in social discourse. In the context of this research, greening appears as a growing demand for the products with an environmental image, for example, organic products

Mononen, Tuija

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Organic Eprints

11FORSKNINGSNYTT • Nr 1 • 2003resting example of how such local self-reliance and local self-sufficiency couldbe institutionalized. It could be hypo-thesized that such structures allow con-sumers to have a relationship with a con-crete farm that in turn facilitates them tosee and understand the effects of theirconsumption patterns on the environ-ment. It could thus be expected that shortfood supply chains have the capacity tore-link people to a specific environment.In themselves, short food supply chainscould be thought of as institutional struc-tures, which combine the social networkof producers and consumers with eco-nomic activity. Short food supply chainsthus have the capacity to facilitate adap-tive management. Moreover, they havethe capacity to strengthen global foodsecurity as they function as relativelyautonomous entities. If something wouldhappen to one of them, other systemsare not necessarily profoundly affected.Petra VergunstE-mail: Petra.Vergunst@lbutv.slu.sePetra Vergunst has completed her PhD-studies at the Department of Rural Develop-ment Studies of the Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences.LitteraturVergunst, P. J. B., 2003. Liveability andecological land use – the challenge oflocalisation. Doctoral dissertation.Department of Rural DevelopmentStudies, Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences. Agraria 373.■Greening of the Finnish food system– A case of organic production, environmentallyfriendly food and alternative forms of consumptionSo-called green issues have been apart of the discourses of theenvironmental movement. Thesituation has changed, however, and theenvironmental movement no longerdominates the discourse on the environ-ment. By greening, it is meant the proces-ses by which environmental concernsare nurtured within social groups andmodern environmentally related sym-bols become increasingly prominent insocial discourse. In the context of thisresearch, greening appears as a growingdemand for the products with an environ-mental image, for example organic pro-ducts. This is a short description of anongoing Finnish research project aboutgreening and food systems. As the datagathering is in progress at the moment,some preliminary results may be lookedfor at the end of this year. However, thetimetable of the project is January 1st2002 – December 31st 2005.Focus on food systemsFood does not come to consumers’ tablesstraight from the farms, rather, there is awhole food system located between pro-duction and consumption. Food systemimplies the relations between the pro-duction and consumption of foodstuffsthat have become dietary standards.Production and processing of food havebecome as a focus of public debate andthe question of food has politicised in anew way. Recent food scares (BSE, footand mouth disease, for example) haveincreased consumers’ interests in the ori-gin of food and the conditions of pro-duction. Also the demand for food hasbeen fragmented and diversified. Finnishpeople have frequent expressed theirdesire to eat food that is produced andprocessed in Finland. Along with the (atleast rhetorical) greening of Finnishsociety, ecological and ethical values sur-rounding food have become importantfor consumers.Nature and societyResearch into agriculture and food, so-called agro-food studies, are criticisedon placing too much emphasis upon eco-nomic issues and neglecting culture andsocial actors in the food system. Criticismhas also been applied to modernist onto-logy and the dualistic separation of na-ture and society. In the modernist onto-logy of agricultural political economyand also rural sociology, agriculturalThe dualistic separation of nature and so-ciety is inappropriate for research onenvironmental questions and the food sys-tem. Foto. K. Ullvén12FORSKNINGSNYTT • Nr 1 • 2003regional, ”slow-food” etc). Simultaneous-ly, however, the Finns have become moreaware of the strong continuities of theirpeasant and forest food cultures, dis-covering again the flavors of the localand the authentic. Thus the lunch anddinner tables in Finland are set withcontradictory processes. Who are invol-ved in these contradictory processes, andhow are they involved? How do thesecontradictions evolve, and what is theirsignificance? These questions will beanswered in the final phase of our re-search.More information about the project, datagathering methods and specific researchobjectives from:Tuija Mononen, University of Joensuu,Karelian Institute, P.O.Box 111, FIN-80101 Joensuun yliopisto,tuija.mononen@joensuu.fiTiina Silvasti, Univeristy of Helsinki,Department of Social Policy, P.O.Box 18,00014 University of Helsinki,tiina.Silvasti@helsinki.fiMaarit Sireni, University of Joensuu,Karelian Institute, P.O.Box 111, FIN-80101 Joensuun yliopisto,maarit.sireni@joensuu.fiTuija MononenLitteratureLatour, B. 1993. We have never beenmodern. New York, London. Har-vester Wheatsheaf.■nature appears simply as an external, in-organic medium, acted upon and mani-pulated by human artifice. The moder-nist dichotomy of nature and society isseen to be disabling – methodologicallyand analytically as well as politically andethically. The externalised, mechanisticconceptualisations of the non-humanrealm militate against conversations withenvironmental and other alternativemovements. Food research only on pro-duction is inadequate for gaining andunderstanding of the social and culturalprocesses emerging and mediated throughfood. The same applies to research onlyon consumption. Instead, the whole foodsystem should be studied.The problem of solving the dualism be-tween nature and society is an extended,central and unsolved problem in scien-tific research. In the last few years, it hasreceived growing attention from diffe-rent disciplines. Tight separation is not,however, a fruitful starting point for re-search on environmental and food issues.Latour (1993), for example, sees dualisticthinking unsuitable for research on envi-ronmental questions because environ-mental problems are hybrids: combina-tions of technology, nature and society.ObjectivesMost of the recent agro-food studies havebeen relying on concepts developed inthe North American or third world con-texts. This study contributes by analyzingthe European and especially North Euro-pean experience. This may create somenew insights for discussing such issuesas the role of the small (or family based)food producers, the changing signifi-cance of state and regulation of the foodsystem. Understanding the process ofthe greening of the food system demandsa broad theoretical perspective, but italso calls for analysis of individual cases.In this research, the process of greeningis analysed through social constructionof it. The research outlined has four ge-neral objectives:■ To recognise and analyse the contra-dictory process of greening in diffe-rent parts of Finnish food system.■  To recognise the mechanisms andinteractions through which thegreening of food systems takes place.■  To analyse the role of the key socialactors in the greening of the food system.■  To discuss the social relevance of thegreening of food in comparative inter-national perspective.The research tackles greening of the foodsystem from three perspectives: 1 Pro-ducer, 2. Industry and trade, and 3. Con-sumption. Specific research objectives ofthis research:1. Organic production as a part of thegreening of Finnish agriculture (TuijaMononen)2. Food industry, trade and the challengeof the greening of food (Tiina Silvasti)3. Greening of food consumption: Thecase of catering firms and theircustomers (Maarit Sireni)Connecting the linksof food systemJettisoning culture is a serious limitationin understanding the development of thefood system’s reactions to the new chal-lenges. Agro-food networks do not workin vacuum. Instead, they are tightly con-nected to the cultural environment. Thus,one of the aims of this study is to developmore environmentally and culturallysensitive methods for agro-food studies.During the recent decade, Finland’sfood-market has opened to internatio-nal competition. Internationalization hasalso introduced Finnish consumers tonew environmental and ethical discour-ses about alternative food (organic, local/

Greening of the Finnish food system

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