Alternative Food Networks: Eaters and Their Feelings and Thoughts to Act

Abstract

Alternative food webs (AFW) have been analyzed through different perspectives and study objectives. This research aimed to identify the feelings and thoughts held by different AFW in the metropolitan area of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, based on the experience of participants from distinct groups related to the cultivation or marketing of agroecological foods. For this, the analytical category "eaters" was used, which staged the producer’s, consumer’s and other AFW food supply, in addition to food purchase and sale in alternative markets. The eaters expressed their feelings and thoughts in Dialogue Circles, in which they narrated what they experienced when traveling through the places where they produced, exchanged, cooked, and shared food. In all these networks, feelings and thoughts are generated and link the eaters to their territory through work for food self-supply, the pleasure of eating regional foods, care, and the teaching-learning experience. Likewise, the Dialogue Circles allowed the eaters to reread the world, obtaining greater awareness of themselves and their relationships in the social space.