I completely agree with the idea of sustainability and think it would be great if we can do something to achieve this ideal, but I do think there are certain ‘misinterpretations’ of this ideal, or certain ideologies of corporational or political entities could have infiltrated the actual practice of this beautiful idea of sustainable production and consumption. Actually, I will further claim the term ‘sustainability’ has a context, and itself originates from existing social orders and structures: it’s not an unprecedented idea or some novel, 100% original innovation that’s going to save the planet or humanity. That’s the basic tone of my arguments and stance from which I try to critically understand and analyze those lectures.
I think the first speaker’s background is quite interesting; the fact that she organically works in the fashion industry could provide insights on the nature of the idea of ‘sustainable food’ and how they are perceived or interpreted by consumers. I’ll put forth my argument directly: sustainability may have become a culture, and thus ideology. Sustainable food, despite its intension probably noble, has become a symbol for consumers to discriminate themselves against others. Different from, say 18th-century French bourgeoisie who enjoys the consumption of exquisite cuisines and exotic meals (nobility represented by extravagant and wasteful consumption), today’s consumers embrace a neoliberal ideal that marks their ‘cultural nobility’ by their careful selection of ‘eco-friendly foods’ or ‘fair-trade coffee.’ It is potentially problematic if the liberal idea itself lost touch with the ground in actual business practices, and ‘sustainability’ merely becomes a way of doing product differentiation or positive framing of firms. It’s not that it’s dangerous in itself, but the potential delusion that this is already the only needed solution (that is, to consume in a ‘responsible’ manner) and we don’t need further deeper structural reform over the whole food industry or reimagine the way to produce and consume.
This modern capitalist ideology is resilient in a way that it re-absorbs a rebel (against implications of its spreading) back into its own framework and eventually neutralizes it by nullifying it. It connects with the second speaker’s presentation on 光盘行动. Food wastage itself is a consequence of labor specialization and urbanized life, though the speaker didn’t analyze the origins of the problem itself and treat it as an object without history, context, or inner structure – probably an incidence like a comet going to impact the earth. Food wastage is responded to, by modern capitalism, with technical solutions: business innovations (synthetic meat), reuse of old items (make things with trash artificially, vintage market), or PR for ugly foods. They could indeed have real, actual effects – on part of the 1/9 part of the total wastage. Still, I think it has to be pointed out that it’s a form of re-absorbing a potentially counterproductive claim (of traditional capitalist production mode) to a new form of consumerism culture, and a probably null promise that this endeavor on the 1/9 is going to save the whole humanity.
Heterogeneous narratives being incorporated into the narrative of sustainability:
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- naturalism
- nationalism
- technological determinism
- hedonism