C04: Sustainable food and nutrition practices of urban middle classes.

C04 intends to analyse changes in food consumption practices of middle class consumers in the rural-urban interface of Bengaluru also with regards to potential and constraints for food transition towards sustainability. Building on experiences and achievements of FOR2432/1 this project intends to continue with empirical research on the temporal, spatial and socio-cultural dimensions of changing food practices at the household level, particularly emphasizing on social categories such as gender, age, social status and religious affiliation. Feedback effects of changing food habits on rural-urban food production and marketing will also be analysed, taking millets and A2-milk as examples (in cooperation with A01 and A03). The focus will be on the perceptual behaviour of the target group, on their ethics and motives for transforming the regional agri-food system in accordance with requirements of sustainability. Furthermore, C04 will deal with factors, mechanisms and motives for the non-simultaneous and heterogeneous processes of change identified in Phase I. The effects of government policies, laws, regulations and norms on food consumption practices of middle class consumers will be analysed especially with respect to food safety, health and resource-friendly agriculture (in cooperation with A01 and A03). The sub-project moreover intends to cooperate with B02 concerning sampling and with C05 on health implications of changing diets. C04 will contribute to the conceptual framework of FOR2432 with data and information relating to the effects of changing food practices on the rural-urban food production and marketing.

Prof. Dr. C. Dittrich
Humangeographie
Universität Göttingen

Neda Yousefian 
Doctoral Researcher

Indian partner project:
Urbanisation effects on consumption patterns, dietary diversification, and human nutritional status in Bangalore
D. Vijayalakshmi, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Sustainable food consumption practices of middle class consumers

C04 starts from the assumption that middle class consumers are major drivers of social-economic and environmental transition and increasingly important demanders for rural-urban ecosystem services. C04 aims at understanding changing food consumption practices and food choices of middle class consumers in relation to their impact on supply chains, land use and the rural-urban environment. C04 also investigates potentials and obstacles for food transition toward sustainability. Sustainability issues concerning food, health and lifestyles are becoming increasingly important in the social discourse of middle class consumers. The already observable shift towards sustainable food consumption and governance may feedback to ecosystem processes and may open up new options to conserve and restore biodiversity and other ecosystem services.

The major objectives of C04 are to provide an evidence-based and process-oriented understanding of middle class household’s state of food practices in transition, to reveal drivers, social discourses, governance procedures and policies regarding the transition toward food sustainability, and to estimate impacts of middle class food practices on the rural-urban food system. This is complementary to issues on food/market access and security studied in C05, and in the context of rural-urban transitions is needed to cover the full range of socio-spatial dynamics. Data collection will primarily address GH3 and add the project specific key questions (1) How do food consumption practices of middle class consumers change (concerning intake, diversity, purchasing practices, preferences) under circumstances of socio-economic transition, globalizing urbanization and threatened natural resource systems?, (2) What is the current state of food transition toward sustainability among middle class consumers?, (3) What are implications of changing food practices on rural-urban food production, processing, marketing, and modes of food governance?

C04 builds on data input from A01, B01, A03, B02, and B03. Data collection will be carried out in collaboration with B02 and C05. To elucidate the role of middle class consumers as demanders of ecosystem services C04 is linked to C03. C04 will contribute to the overall theoretical framework by analysing resource system dynamics concerning socio-economic factors and the state of food transition among middle classes. It will estimate quantitative and qualitative dimensions (economic and socio-cultural factors, discourses, modes of governance and policies) of rural-urban food system transition, and provide spatially explicit data on patterns of middle class consumption preferences and the state of transition toward food sustainability. Concepts on food systems (Ericksen, 2008) have been developed in parallel to more socio-politically oriented SES frameworks (Ostrom, 2009), but C04 will consider them as example of SES and as such integrate this approach into the joint framework of FOR2432.

Dr. Mirka Erler