ABSTRACT
Faced by the contradictions of “modern food” – i.e., the expert-led, market-oriented, industrial designs of agriculture and food policy – we have become increasingly interested in people’s everyday practices as a largely neglected public policy resource (Sherwood et al. 2013). In particular, we are interested in how food counter-movements are materialized and constructed through the interplay, contestation and negotiation of values and interests within specific public debates. Drawing on calls for a paradigm shift in the social sciences from “methodological nationalism” to “methodological cosmopolitanism” (Beck 2006; Beck, Block, Tyfield and Zhang 2013), this chapter explores the experience of Ecuador’s lively food sovereignty movement in confronting seemingly omnipotent power and political interests and ultimately shaping policy reforms.
