Cultural sustainability of Finnish food system: Young consumers' approach

Summary in the original language of the document

• Discourse represented competent SD jargon
• Critical stance visible towards SD and organic food
• Economic reason connected as ruling entity with law,
science, politics, moral and education
• Only economically feasible and innovative solutions
accepted
• Evidence based political decisions and public
organization of activities such as organic school food
expected
• Alignment with reasonable individual practical effort
• Moral demand for SD and organic food addressed to
wealthier people and given up by less well-off people
• Cynicism visible in the situation of perceived
sustainability threat and disbelief in individuals’ effort,
‘fairness’, lack of caring for one self and others
• Young peoples’ discourse indicated their high level
education, intellectual and moral quality, in age conformity
• Focus on every-day practices seemed virtuous as
commitment to improvement of ‘basic needs’ – paper,
electricity, public traffic, even food
• Some difficulties with practices reported (recycling, snacks)
• Leads easily to virtues and vices and strength of will
• Interestingly, context dependent organic food use reported
(in summer cottage) and structural change as vitamin D
addition into organic milk suggested
• Three things disturb this positive image: the lack things of
higher personal interest, additional examples of personal
commitment and suggestions for structural changes
• Tendency to emphasis on political decisions based on
scientific evidence and fair sharing of costs/labour
• How much more can we expect of them in terms of cultural
sustainability compared with what we expect of ourselves?