Abstract

I examine two ways of thinking about food-related practices through the lens of taste. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept, the taste of necessity, is an internalized classificatory system that prioritizes quantity over quality and substance over form among those constrained by limited resources. Sustainable taste is then an internalized classification that generates practices that assure a sustainable food system. Inspired by the work of Paul B. Thompson on the normative foundations of sustainability, I take his perspective on taste and food systems as a bridge to discuss how poverty and food-assistance programs are intrinsic to imagining a form of agricultural sustainability. I argue food and nutrition assistance policies impose moral standards for acceptable food-related practices among program recipients, producing an official taste of necessity. Through measures such as the Thrifty Food Plan, and purchasing restrictions and incentives, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both shapes food-related practices and generates a market for American agricultural products. These approaches to implementing food and nutrition assistance carry with them distinct imaginaries of the food and nutrition system. The valuations of system elements embedded in these imaginaries provide insight into the compatibilities between these two forms of taste.