Sustainable Food Production in Serbia, an Exploration of Discourse/Practice in Early 2020s

The matter of sustainable food production is a convoluted one; it is inexorably linked with ethics, ideology, economic and political arguments, corporate power contrasted with sole enterprises, traditional ways of life and so on. This includes widely publicised issues, such as those of vegetarian and vegan ethics, discourses and realities of animal cruelty, environmental protection, access to clean water and unpolluted land—and by extension, mining, mass exploitation, industrialisation and land ownership by powerful groups and individuals. Among the latter, weighty stakeholder groups, including state actors, justifications of post/industrial, quasi/scientific experimentation and the spectre of genetic modification are used as arguments for progress, eradication of hunger, reach/supply, distribution, cost-effectiveness and access to sustenance among the poor. At the heart of the ideological discourses underpinning all this are the notions of freedom, utility and choice, as axiomatically inherent concepts of neoliberal thought so deeply embedded in the past 40 years of state and supra-state policies that the neoliberal brand of policymaking, business strategy and their very logos as thought, seems discerned only by those initiated in the breach between multiple parties involved, and thus seldom questioned. Food, land, water and air as the most fundamental needs—and rights—of human and non-human life are the subjects that arouse passion in many—including advocates, activists, farmers and producers—and the detached, utilitarian elaborations of those currently holding dominant positions that cross geographical, organisational and economic strata. This text explores contemporary practices and positions concerning traditional, sustainable and health-promoting food production in Serbia against the backdrop of international, national and local contexts of socio-political, environmental, economic and industrial significance. Fieldwork, conducted online during the pandemic finds that food production in Serbia largely fits within the forceful global patterns, with health food producers displaying a traditional/reflective slant but are by no means backward in their ethically driven stance. Indeed, a critical rethink of agriculture and health priorities appears to permeate Serbian discourse across ideological and socioeconomic spectrums. Young professional families appear to be embracing health food lifestyles and village life. Arguably though, this relates to the wealthier minority able to make such choices. Scarred by the turbulent century behind it and civil strife awarded by unremitting structural transition, Serbians redefine their sense of Self by either embracing or angrily rejecting traditionTradition – traditional – traditionalist and family values. Such patterns are not unfamiliar to the affluent West. Yet, here they tend to define everyday life in a different way, impacting on health, community and civic duty. Discursive drives range from mining to re-industrialisation, enduring impact of the tumultuous Nineties, ‘modernising’ regulatory frameworks, imported anticompetitive practices and from resistance to the extinction of inherited egalitarian notions to the capillary attempts to reclaim communal prerogatives. Organisational, regulatory and policy challenges surface, and this essay contextualises those recounted by practitioners, the public and key scholars in such complex circumstances.