Introduction

This chapter tries to establish three propositions about the world of food. First, that food cannot be wholly commodified because, in contrast to all other capitalist commodities, it makes a unique contribution to the wellbeing of people and the planet alike, which is why it is intimately associated with the pivotal concept of moral economy. Second, that we need to make the transition from moral economy as an ethical critique to the foundational economy as political practice because the latter can translate the values of the former into the policies and practices that are necessary to render the food system more socially and ecologically sustainable. And third, that a foundational economy of food can be fashioned through initiatives such as the Food for Life programme, one of the boldest and most ambitious food system reform programmes in Europe, a programme that began as a school food reform scheme that was predicated on concerted action on the part of municipalities, civil society intermediaries and local communities.

To illustrate the scope for as well as the limits to this radical food system programme, the chapter highlights the instructive experience of Oldham, one of the first local authorities to win a Food for Life Gold Award for its school meals service despite its Cinderella status as the ‘poorest town in England’. The experience of Oldham is instructive on two counts: (1) because it gives the lie to the notion that poor places are congenitally incapable of designing and delivering high-quality public services and (2) because it provides a compelling illustration of the power of purchase when it is deployed by a competent and confident municipal workforce.

The chapter concludes by assessing what else is required, besides harnessing the power of public sector procurement, to fashion a food system that embodies the intrinsically significant values of public health, social justice and ecological integrity, the core values of sustainable development.

The exceptionalism of food

Although it is customary to speak of ‘the food industry’ in the same terms as we speak of the car industry or the steel industry, we need to recognize that, from farm to fork, food cannot be treated as a conventional capitalist commodity.