Introduction to Understandings of Healthy and Unhealthy Food

Abstract

The introductory chapter begins by making a strong case for the food system transformation based on the argument that food system transformation currently has a very limited focus on social sustainability. More importantly, there is a lack of sufficient recognition for the inclusion of consumers’ perspectives in pathways for food transformation. In addition, the chapter argues for explicit and diverse transition pathways regarding food systems. Drawing on the dearth of knowledge in connection with what (un)healthy food means in some contexts, the chapter argues for a more inclusive global vision of (un)healthy food as a pathway for achieving a diversified transformation but also pluralising the voices within the transition process. By raising six key questions, the chapter further explains the geographic notions of place and space as the conceptual basis for describing the study's contexts. In conclusion, the chapter quizzed whether place or space has much influence in framing meanings of what is healthy or unhealthy. Without pre-empting the data gathered, the theory of sensemaking is also employed to explain plausible meanings of what is (un)healthy.