Climate-sustainable institutional catering and the transformation of food culture in Finland

An investigation of meanings, affects and norms related to plant-based food and meat

Abstract

Food services can reduce their climate impact by increasing the share of plant-based food in meals served. Transitioning to increased plant-based eating in large catering settings requires a change in the cultural meanings attached to food. Our project developed 30 vegan, low-impact main course recipes for food services. As part of testing the recipes, we conducted a customer survey at nine lunch restaurants. In this article, we examine the meanings that food service customers assign to vegan and meat lunches. Using Sara Ahmed’s (2014) approach to affective investments, we argue that it is essential to see this food issue as a question of social and cultural norms invested affectively and through repetition. Our article suggests that individuals have an affective attachment to meat, which is defined by habit and multisensory processes, thereby resulting in normative, yet unsustainable, meat-centric eating practices. However, our article also demonstrates the formation of new meanings of vegan foods where, for instance, experimenting with plant-based eating creates potential for a dietary change. In addition to the gendered nature of affective investments, we touch upon food-related nationalism, cultural appropriation, and exoticization in the debate on climate- sustainable food cultures.