Becoming A Food Citizen

Environmental citizenship is positioned as a platform where the rights of social and environmental justice converge with civic engagement and responsibility. As industrialized economies continue to exhaust the limits of finite natural resources and exacerbate conditions of global climate change, scholars have questioned if environmental citizenship models offer a method for deepening obligations to a sustainable movement. In the material culture enjoyed by Western civilizations, existing research supports that an individual’s purchases are seen as an indicator of their values and identities. Consequently the commitment to responsible buying behavior or sustainable consumption is in a sense an expression of eco-citizenship. My thesis offers a critical perspective of Andrew Dobson’s ecological citizenship theory, by asking how sustainable consumption can be conceptualized in the existing political and economic infrastructures. Using a thorough case study of globally traded fish provisions, I investigate the existing barriers for eco-citizens attempting to realize their obligations to sustainable consumption. This analysis allows me to draw conclusions on how these barriers may inhibit ecocitizenship theories and ultimately a sustainable social movement. The structure of this thesis is broken into three parts. First, I define existing theories of ecological citizenship and sustainable consumption, including the theoretical propositions, requirements, and limitations. Secondly, I rely on Dobson’s conception of ecological citizenship and an instrumental case study of Pacific Salmon provisions to illustrate the barriers eco-citizens encounter in the current market and regulatory system. Finally, this paper concludes by proposing individual and institutional changes that will assist in fostering an eco-citizen community and the contribution my findings may have on existing green citizenship research