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On the epistemological limits of “real food” discourse

ABSTRACT As part of the wider discourse of “real food,” consumers today are exhorted to “know where their food comes from” and “know their farmers.” This paper presents a critical analysis of real food discourse through an analysis of popular food writing, supplemented with participant observation in farmers markets. Real food discourse argues for a “natural” way of knowing based on direct sensory experience of food and the land it comes from. Farmers figure prominently in this discourse because they are said to retain the natural wisdom that the rest of us have lost. I argue that, while intuitively appealing, ways of knowing advocated for in real food discourse obscure as much as they reveal. Specifically, I find that these ways of knowing mystify issues pertaining to labor and urban-rural relations, and conclude that their valorization limits the radical potential of local food politics.