A practice theoretical perspective on everyday dealings with environmental challenges of food consumption

Expectations concerning the contribution of ordinary consumers to solving a broad array of societal problems have risen. This is particularly prevalent in issues such as environmental sustainability and food consumption, where ordinary food routines are being challenged through mediatised discourses on the environmental responsibilities of food consumers. In this article, in order to discuss the potential of ordinary food consumers in contributing to sustainability, we start from a theoretical stance and discuss how two different understandings of food consumption lead to different possibilities of "environmentalising" food consumption. Discussion is based on three Danish empirical qualitative research projects about food practices. We argue that it is difficult to judge which position offers more openings for sustainability: to consider environmentalised food consumption as part of broader food practices, or rather as a part of practices themselves? This is related to the interdependency of social actors and the dynamics of food.