Food Ethics and Practices of Care in the Uncanny Anthropocene

The future is messy but not without hope in the “uncanny” Anthropocene of the new materialists. In opposition to grand narratives that glide over situated differences, Tsing’s (2015) “patchwork” of localities don’t scale neatly into any discernible whole. Like Tsing, Esing (2022) invites us to look beyond the grand notion of the Anthropocene to see “what else is there”. She argues that survival of all species on earth requires “renewed care and attention to the complexities of multispecies resurgence” and a “making space for the resurgent dynamics of natural ecologies” (2023).

This paper explores the potential of care ethics to inform the planning and development of value-based territorial food networks (VTFNs), contesting the agrilogistics (Morton 2016) or “dark uncanniness” of an Anthropocene - an earth ‘sacrificed’ to agriculture. It applies feminist political ecology and new materialism approaches in analyzing where and how care ethics contribute to the relational dynamics of VTFNs.

The concept of an ethics of care has its roots in feminist philosophy, dating back to Françoise d’Eaubonne’s Le féminisme ou la mort (1974), and moral theory. It informs postcolonial and ecocritical thought including eco-feminist perspectives that emphasize relationships, responsiveness, and interdependencies. Practices of care intersect with what Thompson (2016) calls the overarching goal set of food ethics – the right conduct, social justice and sustainability. Following Puig de la Bellacasa (2017), this research reveals how care in VTFNs is relational and situated between multispecies, objects and emerging forces in a more-than-human world making and remaking itself. It demonstrates how affective, ongoing practices of care are generated in the agri-food entanglements we are pulled into by crisis in the Anthropocene.