Petr Jehlička & Daniel Sosna (2024) Trajectory to the Centre of Knowledge: Subsistence Farming, Food Waste and Thrift in Czech households. Conference 'The Future of Food Consumption', 23 September 2024, Prague
Eastern Europe can be a source of inspiration
As a whole, Eastern European member states of the European Union (EU) have a one-fifth lower environmental footprint per person than the rest of the EU. The resulting picture is shaped mainly by culturally anchored ideas about sustainability and everyday practices that are not always well reflected. However, the lower ecological footprint suggests that these countries should be considered as a source of knowledge on resource efficiency that can be valuable on a pan-European scale. In practice, however, the trajectories along which scientific knowledge and practical know-how travel are set in the opposite direction. Using the example of food subsistence and household food waste in Czechia, this presentation identifies opportunities for moving the Eastern European region to the center of attention in sustainability research and argues that we need to actively seek ways to redress this unequal relationship in knowledge production.