ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how new information and communication technologies mediate novel forms of consumer activism and food governance. Digital food activism, by contrast, occurs largely on and through digital media platforms, with the medium as a central part of the message. In the case of foodwatch, the core values guiding the organization's agenda setting are food industry transparency, truth in advertising; focus on food safety, health and food security, and linking local and global food issues. Data are at the heart of all three activist platforms – but the types of evidence that count and the expertise that supports it are diverse. The digital platforms, then, were conceptualized by the social entrepreneurs who developed them not as supporting consumer action, but as fostering and mediating both consumer and producer activism. Expertise is crowd-sourced; names of expert scientists or activists are not invoked, and the reliability of data and claims depends on the collective of Buycott users.
