Sustainable Consumption, the Middle Classes and Agri-food Ethics in the Global South

全球南方的可持续食品消费空间和做法至关重要，但由于大多数研究假设道德消费者位于全球北方，因此研究不足，理解不足。全球南方国家中产阶级消费的扩大被视为对全球经济增长提供潜在刺激的同时，也是对环境可持续性的威胁。联合国可持续发展目标12（确保可持续消费和生产）认识到需要支持发展中国家加强其技术能力，以实现更可持续的消费模式，促进可持续的公共采购做法，并确保消费者拥有可持续生活方式的相关信息和意识。作为回应，本研究通过对食品供应和监管系统、日常消费习惯以及食品消费趋势和时尚的检查，评估了全球南方可持续消费的动员和实践。它借鉴了巴西、中国和南非的案例研究，这些国家都有大量且不断壮大的中产阶级的有力证据。这项研究对于理解可持续食品消费是如何在不同的全球南方背景下被动员和实践的，在政治不稳定和社会不稳定加剧的时期，这可能会受到什么影响，以及这与全球人口增长和全球化消费主义的更广泛背景有什么关系。在案例研究国家进行的试点研究表明，数字技术越来越多地与社会和粮食系统交织在一起：消费者在线分享、接收、购买和审查食品信息；食品零售公司在IT技术的帮助下优化分销；国家采购系统也越来越多地转向网上。认识到这些现实，该研究对全球南方可持续食品消费的在线和离线空间的相互联系进行了创新调查。这项研究分为四个阶段。第一个重点是可持续粮食消费的制度和文化驱动因素。它分析了政策和媒体报道、商业战略、法规、政策和大众领域的活动和倡议。采访了主要的信息提供者，包括负责食品采购和标准的政府部门、活动人士、主要的食品零售商、批发商和餐馆老板。第二阶段的重点是消费者习惯和日常趋势，包括在广州、里约热内卢和约翰内斯堡的中产阶级住宅区进行人种学研究。访谈内容涉及家庭食品消费习惯、对“好”食品的判断以及大众对食品伦理和环境价值观的影响。数字人种学研究消费者的在线行为，包括他们如何收集信息、在线购物或评论，以及社交媒体对道德判断和创造可持续食品市场的影响。伴随的购物访谈和共同烹饪会议捕捉到食物选择、道德判断、与政府和企业道德倡议的接触以及食品购买和使用的普通道德的细微差别。第三阶段，关注时尚和趋势，使用社交媒体的文本挖掘来追踪可持续食品消费的影响线。为了扩大研究范围，并提供对政策和商业行为者具有吸引力的材料，最后阶段通过基于网络的可持续食品消费驱动因素调查和由此产生的行为意图收集定量数据。这项研究是对全球发展中国家不同背景的创新分析，在这些背景下，向可持续粮食消费的转变可能会产生全球影响。这三个案例研究对粮食可持续性的不同驱动因素的潜力进行了比较。

Sustainable food consumption spaces and practices in the global South are of critical importance yet remain under-researched and poorly understood because most studies assume that ethical consumers are situated in the global North. Expanding middle class consumption in global South countries is seen simultaneously as providing a potential stimulus to global economic growth and a threat to environmental sustainability. The UN's Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production) recognises the need to support developing countries in strengthening their technological capacity to enable more sustainable patterns of consumption, to promote sustainable public procurement practices, and to ensure that consumers have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable lifestyles. In response, this research evaluates the mobilisation and practice of sustainable consumption in the global South through an examination of systems of food provision and regulation, everyday consumer habits, and trends and fashions in food consumption. It draws on case study research in Brazil, China, and South Africa, where there is robust evidence of large and growing middle classes. The research is essential to understand how sustainable food consumption is mobilised and practised in distinct global South contexts, how this might be affected during times of increasing political instability and social precarity, and how this relates to the wider context of global population growth and globalising consumerism. Pilot research in the case study countries suggests that digital technologies are increasingly interwoven into societies and food systems as follows: consumers share, receive information about, purchase and review food online; food retail companies optimise their distribution with the help of IT technology; and state procurement systems increasingly move online. Recognising these realities, the research provides an innovative investigation of the interconnectedness of online and offline spaces of sustainable food consumption in the global South.The research is organised into four phases. The first focuses on institutional and cultural drivers of sustainable food consumption. It analyses policy and media reports, business strategies, codes, campaigns and initiatives in the policy and popular domain. Key informant interviews are conducted with government departments responsible for food procurement and standards, campaigners, and leading food retailers, wholesalers and restaurateurs. The second phase, focusing on consumer habits and everyday trends, comprises ethnographic research in middle-class residential areas of Guangzhou, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. Interviews address household food consumption practices, judgments about 'good' food, and popular influences on food ethics and environmental values. Digital ethnographies examine the online practices of consumers, including how they collect information, shop or review online, and the influence of social media on ethical judgment and creating markets for sustainable foods. Accompanied shopping interviews and co-cooking sessions capture the nuances of food choices, moral judgments, engagement with government and corporate ethical initiatives, and the ordinary ethics of food purchase and use. The third phase, focusing on fashion and trends, uses text mining of social media to trace lines of influence in sustainable food consumption. To widen the reach of the research, and provide material with traction with policy and commercial actors, the final phase gathers quantitative data through a web-based survey of the drivers of sustainable food consumption and the behavioural intentions arising from these. The research is an innovative analysis of different global South contexts in which shifts towards sustainable food consumption are likely to have global impact. The three case studies offer comparisons of the potential of different drivers of food sustainability.