Creating ethical food consumers? Promoting organic foods in urban Southwest China1
in Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
Author:
Jakob Klein
Jakob Klein
Department of Anthropology and Sociology
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG, UK
jk2@soas.ac.uk
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The article discusses recent attempts by an environmental NGO to promote the consumption of organic foods among residents in Kunming, Southwest China. Far from being elitist, activists engaged with popular environmental culture and with widespread concerns around health and food safety, and echoed advertisers' messages that associated the ‘healthfulness’ of organic foods with ‘nature’. The article also discusses two private organic food enterprises. Like the NGO, these enterprises attempted to both engage with popular concerns and educate consumers, and it is argued that the study of environmentalism and ethical consumption in urban China should include both NGOs and profit‐oriented enterprises.