Violence of “Non-Food”: Side-Effects of Transnational Expansion of Cosmopolitan Taste

Under the consequences of globalization there emerged “nothing” and correspondingly “non-food” – both refer to social forms that are generally centrally conceived, controlled, and comparatively devoid of distinctive substantive content and make sense only when paired with “something” including that of food the content of which has a bio-cultural integrity and is inseparable from the institutionalized local cultural values, norms, beliefs, and rituals, governing not only the essence of the diet, but the actual human relations. Transnational network enterprises produce flows of non-foods overcoming barriers of countries and boundaries of their places of origin that is accompanied by the transnational expansion of cosmopolitan taste. The side-effects of the global agribusiness pursuing pragmatic interests of increasing profits by imposing non-foods are expressed in violence against the values of indigenous foods and national lifestyles producing new challenges to Food Sovereignty and Food Safety.