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Shopping and cooking: the organization of food practices, at the crossing of access to food stores and household properties in France

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Abstract

This paper explores different ways of organizing food practices in shopping, cooking, and managing leftovers and shows how these relate to sustainability. We conducted an ethnographic study in France based on in-depth and repeated interviews with around 30 ‘ordinary’ consumers aged between 30 and 87 years. We analyzed the interviews using a practice–theory approach and distinguished meanings, materials, and skills linked to food products and eating. We identify four patterns of everyday food practices, each coherently linking specific ways of provisioning, storing, cooking, waste sorting, and other practices. We show how households adopt patterns according to their social characteristics and place of residence and how they switch from one pattern to another according to circumstances. Each pattern comprises some sustainable practices, although not always at the same level. We highlight not only the role of material infrastructure in framing access to food products, but also the necessity to consider temporal organization, financial resources, household size, and social position to understand food practices. Food practices also differ according to definitions of proper eating, which may vary in the long run according to life course events, and in the short run according to the context of meals. We conclude by discussing different ways to promote more sustainable eating.

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Notes

  1. In France, organic consumption remains quite limited, although it is growing fast; in 2016, the market share of organic food products for home use was 3.5%, but it was 1.3% in 2007 (Agence Bio 2017).

  2. This was part of a larger research on sustainable food practices, funded by Ademe and the French Ministry for Economy, Environment and Sustainable development. We thank Ana Perrin Heredia, who conducted the interviews, and the other members of the team: Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier and Marie Plessz.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ana Perrin-Heredia who conducted the interviews, and Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, Anne Lhuissier, and Marie Plessz for helpful comments on a previous draft of this paper. We are very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers who helped us revise the manuscript by their constructive remarks.

Funding

The research was funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, Ademe (Grant Dimensions Durables de l’Alimentation Domestique No 1110C003) and by the French Ministry for Economy, Environment and Sustainable Development (Grant 13-MUTS-MOVIDA-6-CVS-019 2013-No CHORUS).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CMH, INRA, CNRS, ENS, EHESS, 48 Bd Jourdan, 75014, Paris, France

    Séverine Gojard & Bérangère Véron

  2. AgroParisTech, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75005, Paris, France

    Bérangère Véron

Authors
  1. Séverine Gojard
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  2. Bérangère Véron
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Séverine Gojard.

Appendix

Appendix

Pseudonym

Age

Occupational status

Family situation

Place of residence

Viviane

60

Primary schoolteacher on sick leave

Married, two independent children

Paris

Yves

69

Former vice-president of an advertisement agency

Married, two independent children

Paris

Hélène

59

Part-time medical secretary

Married, three independent children

Paris

Pierrette

65

Former primary school teacher

Married, two independent children

Paris

Isabelle

67

Former bank employee

Married, one independent daughter,

Paris

Georges

69

Former employee in heat engineering firm

Remarried, one independent son, one son at home aged 23

Paris

Christiane

61

Former English teacher in high school

Married, two independent children

Paris

Odile

62

Housewife

Married, two independent children

Paris

Jacques

62

Former employee in car equipment firm

Married, two independent children

Paris

Monette

65

Former journalist

Divorced, three independent children

Paris

Bernard

65

Former chemist in a pharmaceutical company

Married, one independent child

Paris

Chantal

64

Former secretary

Married, one independent child

Paris

Corinne

45

Linguistics researcher

Divorced, in couple, two children aged 8 and 13

Paris

Naima

38

Tax inspector

Civil partnership, one child aged 3

Paris

Stéphane

30

Tax inspector

Civil partnership, one child aged 3

Paris

Valérie

42

Part-time employee in a home care association and bar manager

Divorced and remarried, two children aged 10 and 20

Paris

Nadège

33

Interior designer

Married, one child aged 2, pregnant

Paris

Patricia

45

Part-time building caretaker

Married, one son aged 12

Paris

Elyane

54

Cook and housecleaner

Married, three independent children

Paris

Anne

44

Part-time secretary

Married, three children aged 14, 9 and 6

Noraville

Renée

73

Former housecleaner then child-minder

Married, two independent children

Noraville

André

78

Former mason

Married, two independent children

Noraville

Christine

56

School principal

Married, two independent children, one at home aged 19

Noraville

Huguette

60

Former schoolteacher

Two independent children

Noraville

Eric

39

Student

Single

Noraville

Roselyne

60

Specialized helper in pre-school

Divorced, two independent children

Noraville

Gisèle

60

Former primary school teacher

Married, two independent children

Noraville

Daniel

64

Former state employee

Married, four independent children

Noraville

Nathalie

45

Spanish teacher

In couple with a woman, one child aged 5

Noraville

Louise

87

Former shorthand typist then housewife

Widow, eight independent children

Noraville

  1. Note: italics indicate that the interviewee is the spouse of the previously named person

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Gojard, S., Véron, B. Shopping and cooking: the organization of food practices, at the crossing of access to food stores and household properties in France. Rev Agric Food Environ Stud 99, 97–119 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41130-018-0068-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41130-018-0068-7

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