This talk will focus on the cultural and symbolic aspects of making foods into “superfoods” within the context of a neoliberal and global agri-food regime. It will first consider consumption-side approaches to explaining superfoods. Then, using the case of Turkey’s avocado producers, it will point towards the need to place consumers and producers on equal cultural footing, across the global North/South divide, for a more complete understanding of how and why superfoods emerge as a 21stcentury phenomenon.
Dr. Baran Karsak is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph. He holds a PhD degree in Sociology from Northeastern University, and his research focuses broadly on the sociology of food & agriculture.