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All human beings have the biological need to feed themselves in order to survive. It should be evident that everybody could fulfil this basic human requirement, but we see that 1 in 7 on this planet goes to bed hungry every day. This is one of the reasons why there are so many organisations and movements working on the issues of food security and food sovereignty. However, food is not only about nutritional statistics. Various anthropologists, such as Mary Douglas, Anna Meigs and Penny Van Esterik, have analysed the intricate relationship of food with culture, religion, social relations and reproduction. ‘We are what we eat’ is an expression that relates food to the root of our identity. Hence, this is another reason why we see many social movements fighting for the right for culture-specific foods, as it touches upon the right to choose how to live.

A main distinction is made, by Margaret Mead, between a food-as staple food approach and the view on food as being essential to the fulfilment of human, social, religious, cultural potentials. The staple food-approach views food as something which is a precondition for economic prosperity. Food becomes a commodity which fulfils a basic human need. This approach has become dominant nowadays and is apparent in various development programs and policies aiming at: liberalisation and privatisation of trade in agricultural ‘products’, increased food production and the introduction of ‘cash-crops’. In contrast to this approach, we see various movements highlighting the human, religious, social and cultural aspects of food. They feel that the change in approach to food produces changes in culture. Hence, this clarifies why food, more specifically culture-specific food, for particular groups in various societies becomes a root metaphor of resistance. Vandana Shiva, for instance, writing about the epistemological violence of the green revolution, clearly describes how a particular culture and its worldview are engrained within these rice seeds that in their introduction in farming communities constitute a clash of cultures, as their introduction is backed by specific power relations.

In this special issue on food and cultural change we wish to constitute a platform, for both academics and non-academics, in which the (contra?)distinction between the two aforementioned approaches to food is explored. Furthermore, we seek to elucidate the role of food in the production of culture. Therefore we look for contributions that illuminate following issues:

- How have particular foods been embedded in culture?
- How have changes in food (production and consumption) affected social and cultural change?
- How does food relate to a way of life and the (re)production of (new) culture?
- What can we learn from these experiences for the designs of new development programs, policies and projects, to become more culturally engaged?

Aiming to be interdisciplinary in both subject and form, we will also include two life stories of people being very much implicated in food issues, although from a different perspective. Furthermore, contributions of ‘food activists’ will add to the construction of bridges beyond academia. They will establish their views in section 2 and section 3, respectively, of this issue on food and cultural change.


Wim Van Daele has obtained his masters degree in social and cultural anthropology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, in 2001. After working, sometimes voluntarily, in various organisations and movements, he obtained his postgraduate degree in Cultures and Development Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven in 2005. Following his internship in Sri Lanka, he continued pursuing his research interests in agricultural change and post-disaster reconstruction. He has been working ‘in the field’ during 8 months in Sri Lanka and has additional travelling experiences in Africa (4months) and Asia (4months). Since January 2008 he is a research fellow at the Centre Leo Apostel, CLEA-VUB, where he has started conducting research, culminating into a PhD, on the alterglobalisation movement.