Food Sharing

Discussion

Anna Davies et al.:

"Our research into food sharing initiatives over the past four years has demonstrated that reinvigorating opportunities to share food – whether that is eating, growing or redistributing food together with others – can support greater food democracy as well as sustainability. So how do we get there?

People often blame modern technologies – smartphones, apps, web platforms and the like – for disconnecting us from each other and creating a world in which solo dining becomes commonplace. Smartphones mean we live in an “always on” culture. Fast food of any description is waiting to be delivered straight to our desk, with no need to leave home or the office. Meanwhile, apps allow us to connect seamlessly with people halfway round the world at the expense of those next to us on the bus or in a restaurant.

But the internet also provides many opportunities to reconnect over food. Whether it is identifying opportunities to grow together via interactive maps of community gardens, or discovering the location of social dining experiences in your neighbourhood, thousands of grassroots and community-led initiatives use food as the catalyst to bring people and communities together. These initiatives are often local, small-scale and run by volunteers – but their online presence means we were able to locate them in all four corners of the world.

We systematically mapped these food sharing initiatives in 100 cities developing an online interactive tool to explore why, what and how food is shared. We prepared detailed sharing profiles for cities including Dublin, Berlin, London, Melbourne and Singapore. This was no easy process given the diversity of people and places covered, but it gives important visibility to activities that easily fall below the radar of politicians and the media.

We found that different sharing initiatives occur at all stages of the food chain – from growing food, to preparing and eating it, to distribution of waste." (https://theconversation.com/for-a-sustainable-future-we-need-to-reconnect-with-what-were-eating-and-each-other-123490)