Food Consumption in the City ─ Practices and Patterns in Urban Asia and the Pacific

The chapters cover different scales of analysis, from household research to national data, and combine different methodologies and approaches, from quantifiable data that showhow much people consume to qualitative findings that reveal how and whyconsumption takes place in urban settings. The book analyses trends in terms of factors such as a wider choice of food, changing domestic relations, greater exposure to foreign cultures, an increasing premium on convenience, and the greater affordability of food. The biophysical dimension of food consumption is considered including the material flows during purchase, storage, consumption and waste generation, as well as related impacts. Also considered are consumption practices, with an emphasis on food as part of everyday routines, especially among the rising middle classes.

Detailed case studies are included from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Hawaii and Australia. The book makes a timely contribution to current debates on consumption in relation to sustainable pathways and the challenges and opportunities for socially just and environmentally sound food consumption in urbanizing Asia and the Pacific.

Marlyne Sahakian is a Researcher in the Industrial Ecology Group, Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Czarina Saloma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, and a Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany.

Suren Erkman is a Professor and Head of the Industrial Ecology Group, Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.