Eataly, Slow-Food and the Commodity Fetishism

Interview with MAGGIE GRAY - by LELE LEONARDI

An interview with Maggie Gray – author of Labor and the Locavore (University of California Press, 2013) – revealing the class dimention and the forms of exploitation in the production and circulation of organic and "local" food.

The Locavore ethics needs specific "temples of consumption" to be properly performed. Local farmers' markets are one obvious example, but recently new commercial chains - such as Eataly - have emerged as crucial sites for the diffusion of the "go local!" attitude. It seems to us that exploitation is happening also in these contexts. For example, last week the first strike against the Eataly group took place in Florence: workers claimed working conditions were not fair (amongst other things, underpayment was an issue) and protested against the disproportionate use of short-term contracts which were not renewed. The company responded that almost everybody in today's economy is underpaid, that since the incentives of the start-up period are now over the non-renewal of some contracts was expected from the beginning, and that working conditions may not be the best but working at Eataly is "cool". How do you think exploitation occurs on the circulation side of this process?

Much of the Locavore ethic is grounded in our romance with smaller farms and craft production.  Yet there is a grand contradiction at work. On one hand the local food movement has thrived as consumers move away from corporate, industrial produce which is most often procured at standard, corporate supermarkets.  Local food is an antidote, an alternative market; one can support craft producers with their purchase and keep food dollars nearby while eating tastier and fresher goods.  So, yes the farmers’ market becomes a temple of consumption.  But on the other hand, shopping at niche grocers such as Eataly also represents a decision not to buy “corporate.”  Eataly epitomizes the artisan purveyor with foods on display as they might have been a century ago and with the vast array of delicious, prepared foods demonstrating how one can cook with the goods on offer.  Eataly also blurs the line of what we imagine local involves as it markets itself through a “manifesto” that states the company yearns for stories behind its food, builds community around food, encourages customers to learn (not just shop and eat), and promotes the idea that Eataly is “scrupulously honest.”  In short you have commodity fetishism with a twist.  The product takes on a heralded quality, one that is even seen as closer to securing produce from your neighbor as opposed to a market exchange.  But we are encouraged to identify with the farmer, who we are told is the producer.  All the same the laborers have been erased. 

In your book Labor and the Locavore you show how the food ethics which has recently gained worldwide momentum is grounded on small- and medium-sized family farms' exploitative practices. Could you explain us how exploitation occurs on the production side of this process?

Consumers readily recognize that exploitive labor practices take place on factory farms, such as those found in California and Florida in the U.S and in Southern Italy.  Other regions are populated by “local” producers on small- and medium-sized farms, including my research site.  On the farms that I visited, I learned about labor conditions and violations that mirrored those on the factory farms.  Moreover, U.S. federal law and that of most states has a lower standard of labor rights for farmworkers than for other workers.  In New York, for example, farmworkers to do not have a right to overtime pay or a day of rest, and do not have collective bargaining protections.  Most states have similar exclusions and this makes agricultural workers a lower class of workers by law.  In addition to how the law is structured, the vast majority of workers—on farms of all sizes, are non-citizens who are desperate for income and afraid to complain.  What is unique on the smaller farms is that paternalism complicates the labor relationship.  Many workers feel that their employer offers a degree of safety from outside threats, including immigration authorities.  In addition, workers secure benefits such as free access to farm products and farm vehicles or living with non-farmworker wives and children in farmer-owned housing.  These are nice perks, but in order to secure their continuation, workers don’t speak up and address their problems.  As such, paternalism serves as an efficient form of labor control.

It seems to us fairly evident that the Locavore ethic is not for everyone. Do you see a class/social/racial divide at play with regard to the access to "slow" products? If so, how could this be overcome, or at the very least put to question?

Like many trends, especially if they are more expensive than the norm, it is those with means who can afford the cost of food and the time it can take to shop.  Even when lower income individuals can afford to shop at the farmers’ markets, it can be inconvenient compared to the one-stop shopping offered at the supermarket.  Yet , I think we are starting to see a change.  Wal-Mart, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., is the largest buyer of organics and its stores now boast “local produce.”

Due to the persistence of the global crisis (with a consequential massive increase of the unemployment rate) some Italian workers (not a huge amount, but also not an irrelevant one) have abandoned wage labor to "go back to the land" and try their luck in organic farming. However, big players like Eataly are pressuring new farmers in such a way that either they accept to sell their products for an extremely low price, or they have huge problems in finding alternative distributive channels. Is this phenomenon occurring also in the US? If so, do you think there are ways for small farmers to resist big players' pressure?

Many U.S. farmers rely on a wholesale business, and they are squeezed by both the retailer and the middlemen (including transportation).  In places like New York’s Hudson Valley, smaller farmers could thrive on a wholesale business thirty years ago, but today it is unsustainable.  There are other options.  In 2004 there were 3,706 farmers’ markets across the country, a decade later that number has more than doubled to 8,268.[1]  There has also been increased cooperation among farms to create cooperative farm stores or food distribution.  Another example of smaller farmers finding alternative channels is a business like Organic Valley, a dairy cooperative with almost 1,800 farmers in the U.S. that has just passed the billion dollar mark.  Because of their coordinated marketing, the company is large enough to provide organic products on supermarket shelves next to the more industrial businesses.