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Citizen-consumer ! The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1469540515623609

meanings of organic food joc.sagepub.com

consumption in Israel
Rafi Grosglik
Tel Aviv University, Israel; Brandeis University, USA

Abstract
Organic food consumption is associated with ‘‘citizen-consumer’’ practice, which is an
act of promoting different aspects of social and ecological responsibility and the inte-
gration of ethical considerations in daily practices such as eating. This article analyzes
aspects of organic food consumption in Israel and the symbolic meanings given to it by
its consumers. The study shows how practices attributed to ethical eating culture are
used in identity construction, social status manifestation, and as a means to demon-
strate openness to global cultural trends. Organic food consumption is carried out as
part of a symbolic use of ethical values and its adaptation to the local Israeli cultural
context. In addition, organic food consumption patterns are revealed as fitting the
cultural logic of globalization, which spread in the last decades in Israel. Analysis of
the socio-cultural aspects related to organic food consumption points to the polysemy
embodied in the term citizen-consumer and shows how the actual implementation of
this term in Israel is based on the assimilation of cosmopolitan meanings.

Keywords
Citizen-consumer, organic food, cultural cosmopolitanism, ethical consumption, food,
global habitus, Israeli culture

Introduction
Over the past three decades, organic food production and distribution have devel-
oped into a globalized system (Raynolds, 2004). Concomitantly, organic food con-
sumption has spread beyond North America and Western Europe (Willer and
Klicher, 2012: 121–126). Nowadays, organic food consumption is prominent

Corresponding author:
Rafi Grosglik, Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, 201 Pearlman Hall, MS 071, Waltham, MA 02453,
USA.
Email: grosglik@brandeis.edu; rafig@tauex.tau.ac.il

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within global trends of ‘‘ethical eating’’ and is perceived among many as part and
parcel of an ‘‘eating for change’’ ethos (Johnston and Cairns, 2012).
The societal meanings embedded in organic food consumption (and other similar
ethical-foodstuffs) are disputed in the research on food consumption. Some com-
mentators highlight its potential in promoting different aspects of environmental
justice and social equity (see, for example, Barnett et al., 2005; Bell and Valentine,
1997). Others present a critical outlook on the notion of organic food as ethical
(Goodman et al., 2010; Guthman, 2003). However, most of this debate relies on
European and North American case studies. Thus far, very little work has focused
on the social meanings of organic food consumption outside the global North (see a
few exceptions: Grosglik, 2011; Pugliese et al., 2013; Zamwel et al., 2014).
This article contributes by taking a non-Euro-North American-centric perspective
and analyzing the significance of diverse organic food consumption patterns in a
specific context – Israeli society. Analytically, there are two objectives. The first is to
discuss the possibilities and contradictions of organic food consumption. The second
is to explore the ways in which consumer discourse and practices designated as ‘‘ethical
eating’’ are in fact used in the construction of cosmopolitan consumer identity.
The ethical meanings of organic food are manifested within the definition of the
term ‘‘organic’’ formulated by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture
Movements (IFOAM, 2014), which attributes to organic food values such as
health, ecology, fairness, and care. Consumption of organic foods (as well as
other consumption practices dubbed as ethical) is often related to the hybrid
expression ‘‘citizen-consumer’’ (Seyfang, 2006). This concept combines environ-
mental responsibility and reducing social inequality, on one hand, and quality,
taste, naturalness, and health, on the other hand (Johnston, 2008). Several scholars
portray organic food consumers as active-political participants in the construction
of alternative food networks, in decentralized and localized networks of production
and distribution and as supporters of sustainable local production and commu-
nities (for a more detailed description of this approach, see Lockie, 2009).
DuPuis and Goodman (2005), however, suggest the need to think critically
about food agendas that rely primarily on ethical labels (such as ‘‘organic’’ –
which is discussed here). Accordingly, organic food production, distribution, and
consumption have been used by empirical case studies to explore the concept of
‘‘citizen-consumer’’ in practice and to draw a critical perspective on ‘‘ethical
eating’’ in a broader sense. Practices relating to organic food were examined,
and a gap between the ‘‘ideal’’ perception of ‘‘citizenship-consumerism’’ and the
actual implementation of this concept was identified. Sociologist Josée Johnston
(2008) demonstrates that North American organic retail–commercial chains (such
as Whole Foods Market) act in a superficial manner with reference to ethical values
and violate the balance between consumption and citizenship, embodied in the
ideal type of organic food. In this vein, organic retail–commercial chain consumers
are revealed as motivated by hedonistic consumerism and demonstrate an ‘‘alter-
native cultural-culinary repertoire,’’ which expresses high social status and sym-
bolic-class distinction (Johnston and Szabo, 2011).

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In this article, I join this critical perspective by examining the case study of
‘‘citizenship-consumerism’’ in Israeli society. I relate to the citizenship-consumer-
ism hybrid as a polysemic concept, which is realized by different actors in different
manners (Johnston, 2008; Sassatelli, 2006: 225). Thus, I question whether and how
ideologies of citizenship and ethical aspects are weaved into the discourse and
praxis of organic food consumers in countries beyond North America
and Europe, and in what ways global-Western ideas relating to environmental
and social engagements – such as consuming organic food – are assimilated and
modified in Israel.
The organic marketplace in Israel is characterized by four main trends: upscale
organic supermarkets; organic food produced and distributed by community-
supported agriculture (CSAs) and organic box delivery schemes; prominent
presence of organic food in urban upscale farmers’ markets; and organic food
production in New Age collective settlements. What follows is an analysis of the
Israeli organic discourse and practices, divided into the mentioned fourfold
typology:

1. Upscale organic supermarkets represent the commodification and conventiona-

lization of organic food – that is, the appropriation of organic food by the
conventional food system (Buck et al., 1997). This practice is presented herein-
after by consumers of Israeli organic retail chains.
2. CSAs and organic box delivery schemes represent a local-community approach
signified here by organic food consumers of CSAs. In this case, we will see how
the communal aspect of CSA dissolves into the background of what becomes an
upgraded form of consumption.
3. Urban upscale farmers’ markets represent an urban–environmental approach,
which is associated with organic food consumers who visit those markets.
This case demonstrates the use of organic food in the construction of a ‘‘man-
ufactured authenticity.’’
4. Organic food consumption in New Age collective settlements illustrates how organic
values are interwoven with self-care aspects of New Age culture.

I will explore and evaluate the range of meanings embodied in these four tracks
of consumption and argue that organic food consumption in Israel tends to dimin-
ish the ethical dimensions usually associated with organic food and to reaffirm the
dimensions of consumption associated with globalization and with the construction
of cosmopolitan identities.

Organic food, culinary culture, and cosmopolitanism in Israel

In recent years, a considerable increase in demand for organic food products has
been observed in Israel. The rate of growth in organic food consumption in Israel
stands at about 30% a year on average (Dovrat-Meseritz, 2010). This is the food
sector with the highest yearly rate of increase in demand.

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The increase in organic food sales can be seen as part of broad changes taking
place in the Israeli culinary culture. These changes are related to the strengthening
of consumer culture in Israel and to a general transformation from national to
global culture (Ram, 2008). Consumption of material and cultural products with
global meanings – including consumption of foodstuffs and the adoption of eating
practices – constitute a habitus (Bourdieu, 1984) in which contemporary cosmo-
politan culture and identity are realized (Cappeliez and Johnston, 2013). Significant
culinary expressions of this habitus are the Americanization of culinary culture
(such as fast food; see, for example, Fantasia, 1995), as well as the proliferation
of foods representing ‘‘ethnic’’ and ‘‘exotic’’ images (Warde, 2000). Examination of
organic food consumption patterns illustrates that cosmopolitan identity is
not only formed solely by consuming products clearly identified with cultural-
globalization (i.e. material or cultural objects representing Americanization or for-
eign trends), but also by consuming products and representations that apparently
undermine the global cultural tendency.
The emergence of the cosmopolitan perspective is described by some researchers
as a benign and beneficial development, as an expression of the creation of global
citizenship operating in trans-national social spaces (see, for example, Beck, 2000).
Some see in the appearance of the ethical eating culture and in the proliferation of
commodities labeled as ‘‘fair’’ or ‘‘green’’ a materialistic expression of the new cul-
tural cosmopolitanism representing ‘‘globalization with a human face’’ (Morgan,
2010). Accordingly, the appearance of citizenship-consumerism is perceived as part
of consumers’ intention to improve global environment and human society. Contrary
to this perception, I will demonstrate how the consumption of artifacts representing
alleged social and environmental ethic is mainly carried out subordinated to various
global-consumer trends and aesthetic cosmopolitanism (Regev, 2007).

Methodology
This study is based on extensive fieldwork, which was conducted during the years
2009–2012. It relies on the ‘‘extended case method’’ (Burawoy, 1998), which main-
tains that observation from an individual’s viewpoint (‘‘from the bottom’’)
contributes significantly to understanding social processes and broad phenomena
such as globalization and alter-globalization. Accordingly, the article is based on
ethnographic fieldwork consisting of observations, text analysis, and mostly on
interviews. A total of 28 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with
organic food consumers: 6 consumers of organic retail chains, 12 consumers of
CSAs, and 10 consumers who identify with the anthroposophical way of thinking.
In addition, I conducted informal interviews with 16 consumers whom I met at the
various sites where organic produce is sold (nine interviews were conducted at
farmer’s markets and seven at organic retail stores). The consumers interviewed
belong to the Israeli middle and upper-middle classes, some of them employed in
managerial and professional occupations, such as lawyers, marketing and commu-
nication professionals, engineers, and high-tech employees. Others are practitioners

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Grosglik 5

in counseling professions, therapy, complementary medicine, education, and the

arts. Most of them enjoy high economic and cultural capital (in Bourdieu’s terms
(1984)). Exceptional in this regard are students and other young interviewees, who
live in large cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv) whose cultural capital tends to be higher
than their economic capital.
I will now discuss the four organic food consumption patterns enumerated
above.

Organic retail-chain consumers

For the past decade, a few retail chains have branded themselves as significantly
distinct from conventional retail chains. These are supermarkets that wear images
conveying naturalness, health, ecology, and being ‘‘organic.’’ The most prominent
is the chain Eden Teva Market. The name literally means ‘‘heavenly natural
market.’’ It is designed according to the model of the American supermarket
chain Whole Foods Market. The first store of the chain was actually the first
store in Israel calling itself an ‘‘organic supermarket.’’
‘‘Eden,’’ as the chain is called for short by the consumers, clearly symbolizes the
process of conventionalization of organic food in Israel. This is expressed, for
example, in the chain’s advertising slogan that declares, ‘‘In Eden Teva Market
you will find a huge selection which ensures that everyone can find the exact prod-
ucts that suit them. Just like any other supermarket . . . only healthier!’’. The chain’s
advertising campaign includes a series of aesthetic and textual expressions, seeking
to identify the chain with ‘‘variety, quality and health.’’ This marketing strategy –
which was borrowed directly from Whole Food Market – is an on-the-mark
description of how Eden Teva Market is perceived by its consumers. This range
of images works to dissociate the organic food from the asceticism and tastelessness
that it connoted for many years, before the appearance of the chain. Therefore,
when buying organic food at Eden, consumers can capitalize on this practice to
gain cultural capital and to manifest their prestigious habitus, which consists of
conspicuous affluence, freedom of choice, special taste, and self-care. Thus, for
example, Noa, a 41-year-old woman, testifies,

Since Eden opened, I became an enthusiastic consumer of organic supermarkets. I was

fed up with depressing health stores, and I do not get along with the vegetable box
scheme [. . .] I invest a lot of time and money in cooking, it’s my hobby. I host a lot and
plan in advance what to cook [. . .]. I want to be able to pick and choose the best
product. Variety, that’s the big benefit of Eden!

Indeed, the stores of the chain have a huge selection of food products – organic
and non-organic. A tour in Eden conveys the sense of a visit to a ‘‘global cultural
supermarket’’ (Mathews, 2000: 18), with its dozens of legumes, spices, and dried
fruits imported from around the globe; food products from the Far East; and items
from many more countries. Similar to the way in which the American organic

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supermarket chains operate (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market, and the like) – so
the proposed consumption experience in Eden is based on the principle of ‘‘seduc-
tiveness of variety’’ (Bauman, 2011: 1–17) and on a conspicuous exhibit of ‘‘plenty’’
– which expresses luxury and wealth (Campbell, 1987; Veblen, 1994).
All consumers interviewed – who visit Eden Teva Market regularly – referred to
the wide range of products and to their quality. Some indicated familiarity with
American supermarket chains, which this chain wishes to resemble. Some of the
consumers who were interviewed described their experience in Eden as an experi-
ence of ‘‘a short trip abroad.’’
Many consumers credit the chain with adopting administration and marketing
methods similar to American discount stores (which are widespread in the conven-
tional retail food sector in Israel). Eden has indeed applied ‘‘conventional’’
marketing methods to the organic sector, such as demonstrating low prices (due
to the advantage of the chain’s purchasing power in bargaining with suppliers),
launching private brands of organic food products, creating ‘‘sale’’ events, a cus-
tomer club, special discounts, and so on. This facet of the chain brought about its
integration into shopping centers, which are central recreational places for the
middle class in Israel (Ram, 2008). The chain’s name (Eden Teva Market) –
which is a cross between the English and Hebrew languages (teva means nature
in Hebrew) – is in line with the names of global and Israeli major retail chains
located nearby in shopping centers that have non-Hebrew or Hebrew–English
hybrid names (McDonald’s, Home Center, Shufersal Deal (the largest conven-
tional supermarket chain in Israel) and others).
Some consumers maintained that the emergence of the chain and its operation in
the retail food sector in Israel is a matter of utmost importance. The importance
stems, so they maintained, not necessarily due to the fact that the chain promotes
environmental or social values, but rather due to the fact that the chain contributes
to the spread of the ‘‘free market’’ neoliberal model in the field of Israeli organic
food (I refer to neoliberalism as a political-economy project that advances an
institutional framework characterized by free markets and free trade (Harvey,
2005: 2)). The words of Baruch, a 50-year-old engineer whom I met on one of
my visits to an Eden store, represent a clear neoliberal perspective, which is quite
common in Eden’s consumers’ discourse:

I have no doubt that Eden Teva Market did a good thing [. . .]. Fifteen or twenty years
ago, we bought two tomatoes a cucumber and an apple and payed 200 NIS. Today I
sometimes find organic [food] cheaper than non-organic– so what’s wrong with that?
It’s the same also in America. We lived [pointing to his wife] for a while in Palo Alto.
There you can get organic [food] at reasonable prices. Now it is also happening in
Israel. The competition [between Eden Teva Market and other organic supermarket
chains] lowered the prices.

Baruch sees the way Eden Teva Market operates as an expression of the ‘‘American
way’’ that is promoting pleasurable experience and cheaper organic food.

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Grosglik 7

Furthermore, there are some that consider consumption from Eden Teva Market a
practice that actually contributes to society and the environment. For example,
according to Yoav, a 38-year-old male from Tel Aviv,

I don’t shop here every week, it’s a bit expensive. But listen – there is awareness and
care [in the way the chain operates]. So even if I spend a little more [money], at least
I’m doing something for the environment.

Yoav’s words illustrate the assimilation of environmental messages and images seen
in Eden Teva Market, which are expressed in the multiplicity of green colors, in the
fabric bags in which the products are packed, the recycled paper packing for baked
goods, and the verbal and visual signs that appear on the walls of the supermarket
which refer to ‘‘nature,’’ ‘‘environment,’’ and ‘‘earth.’’ Yoav’s words coincide with
the main message exhibited by the organic supermarket chains in Israel and in the
Western world: ‘‘shopping for change’’ and ‘‘environmental conservation through
consumption’’ (Johnston, 2008; Johnston and Szabo, 2011).
However, I found almost a total lack of consideration for the negative conse-
quences of the chain’s operation. Only few consumers protested about issues such
as the closing of small organic stores unable to compete with big supermarket
chains, the increase in air pollution and carbon footprint due to the use of private
vehicles (since most of the chain’s stores are located in remote commercial areas
and in suburbs), and the deepening inequality and inequitable access to healthy
food products due to cultural capital and economic capital required to consume
from the chain.
Thus, the translation of the term ‘‘organic’’ by the consumers of Eden is revealed
as composed of predominantly consumerist patterns and access to global material
and cultural goods. In the course of symbolic consumption of ‘‘organic,’’ they in
fact celebrate the expansion of their access to global taste cultures. The health
representations connected to the ‘‘organic’’ concept express individual meanings,
healthy lifestyle, fashionable, Western/American, and up-to-date style. The ethical
in the organic is subordinated to the neoliberal paradigm, which individualizes the
care and responsibility for the environment. Therefore, the hybridization of ‘‘citi-
zenship’’ and ‘‘consumerism’’ in the case of Eden Teva Market is revealed as
composed of global-American consumerism and of civic-ethical attitudes limited
to an individual-neoliberal logic.

Consumers of CSAs
CSA is a model for growing, marketing, and consuming agricultural produce that
first appeared in the second half of the last century in Switzerland, Germany, and
Japan. According to this model, a group of consumers join a farmer and commit to
regularly purchasing his crops. The farmer, in turn, ensures quality, reliability, and
locality. Ideally, the relationship between growers and consumers (also called
‘‘community members’’) is based on partnership and mutual support between

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growers and consumers (Cone and Myhre, 2000). The CSA model is acknowledged
as ‘‘alternative,’’ ‘‘ecological,’’ and ‘‘communal,’’ and its consumers are perceived
as typical ‘‘citizen-consumers’’ (Barnett et al., 2005; Johnston, 2008).
In Israel, there are currently 20–30 farms operating in the CSA model. All of
them grow organic produce. Each one of these farms provides weekly boxes with
organic fruits, vegetables, and other organic food products to between tens and
hundreds of households.
Many of the Israeli consumers of these initiatives know the meaning of the term
‘‘community-supported agriculture,’’ but do not identify themselves as ‘‘commu-
nity members’’ or ‘‘agricultural supporters.’’ For them, this is one option chosen
over others for organic produce consumption. ‘‘We’re just getting an organic box
directly from the farmer to our home,’’ some of them claim. This lack of essential
communal feeling may be derived from the way CSAs in Israel operate. According
to the Israeli model, customers are actually subscribers who receive a weekly
organic vegetable box and pay a monthly fee for the vegetables they consume.
They do not contribute to the establishment of the farm, do not share in its man-
agement, and few of them take an active part in the growing process. Furthermore,
in most of Israeli CSAs, the relationship between growers and customers is carried
out just by an active web site and a weekly newsletter put out by the growers. Thus,
it seems that a sense of community is created not through a physical meeting, but
through a virtual meeting and the exchange of textual information. Global net-
working technology, virtual in character, is what re-establishes, in practice, the
sense of partnership between growers and consumers.
Israeli CSA consumers are not referred to as ‘‘subscribers’’ or ‘‘members’’ by
the growers, but rather as ‘‘families.’’ Most of them are middle class, profes-
sionals, residents of major cities, suburbs, and settlements of the wealthiest muni-
cipalities in Israel, and indeed, the majority of them are families. Several scholars
have already pointed out the role of ‘‘eating in’’ as structuring the social categories
of family and home (DeVault, 1991: 79; Lupton, 1996: 39). In Israel – as well as
other capitalist societies – the ‘‘family meal’’ is increasingly abandoned, due to the
individualization of the eating experience and the growing Western practice of
‘‘eating out’’ (Ashley et al., 2004: 134). This process led to a decrease in parental
control, a sense of insecurity, and lack of knowledge about the quality of the food
that children eat. These feelings are in keeping with the sociologist Ulrich Beck’s
(1992) description of the current social state as a ‘‘risk society.’’ Therefore, it seems
that the grower–consumer relationship in Israeli CSAs receives the meaning ‘‘safe
consumption’’ in a threatening and unreliable food sphere. Anat, mother of three
children, describes this feeling exactly:

You know why I insist on [buying] organic [food] and why I order from Yossi [a
farmer running a CSA]? Because I’ve read studies that show that by age five, all the
development in a child’s brain takes place, so I decided that until the kids are five –
I’m guarding them. I nourish! I’m a warrior! I’m a lioness! I will do all I can do so that
they get the best nutrition possible [. . .] I trust Yossi. I’ve visited his farm and I’ve seen

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Grosglik 9

how they work. I don’t trust the large marketing [conventional] chains, and I don’t
trust Eden [Eden Teva Market] either.

Several consumers stated that the preference of consuming organic food via
CSAs is derived from the desire to support local private growers. In the words
of Oren, father of two from Jerusalem,

The problem with conventional [agriculture] is all over the world, and not only in
Israel, so I buy organic food from Gilad [(a name of a CSA farmer)]. It is not cheap
but I do it for my children, and I also like to support him. I know where my money is
going.

Similarly, Hila – a CSA consumer – itemized the advantages of buying directly

from a farmer as ‘‘comfort, quality and taste.’’ Then she added, ‘‘and by the way,
my money goes to people I trust.’’ Therefore, even though Oren and Hila’s words
indicate a certain interest in supporting the private growers, they emphasize that
their health motivations and need for reliability (‘‘people I trust’’) are main motives
in being CSA consumers.
Some CSA consumers referred to this practice as ‘‘local’’ and significantly
different from buying organic food from organic retail chains. However, the
CSA consumers who emphasized the local meaning were the ones holding the
cosmopolitan cultural capital and those with significant global habitus (Illouz
and John, 2003). For them, the connection between ‘‘organic’’ and ‘‘local’’ was
formulated while living abroad for prolonged periods (e.g. relocated hi-tech work-
ers, academics, and businesspersons). Thus, paradoxically, they first experienced
the uniqueness and adventure of consuming ‘‘local’’ vegetables in the ‘‘global’’
sphere. For example, Rotem – a CSA consumer from Jerusalem – describes the
uniqueness, adventure, and innovation of consuming ‘‘local’’ vegetables and the
associative attachment developed in her memory between exotic vegetables and the
experience of her stay abroad:

The CSA in California was especially cool. It was fun cooking there! What vegetables!
Fresh and local heirloom tomatoes [. . .] we got all the bizarre vegetables that grew
there. Who even knew what heirloom tomatoes were? It really challenged me, culinary
speaking. Or this vegetable, ‘‘kale’’ [a type of a leaf cabbage]. We only got it here [in
Israel] years later from Nadav [The name of the CSA owner from whom she buys].
What excitement it was! [. . .]. It really reminded me of California.

The vegetable known as ‘‘kale’’ indeed grows in a CSA near Jerusalem and is
therefore considered ‘‘local’’ in the geographic sense, but from Rotem’s words,
its ‘‘locality’’ is recruited to confirm her Californian cosmopolitan identity. In
this way, the varied political meanings embodied in ‘‘locality’’ of organic food
(environmentalism, anti-corporate ideas, community, etc.) are reduced to ‘‘quality’’
(fresh) and ‘‘uniqueness’’ (kale, for instance) and paradoxically express ‘‘globality.’’

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This can also be seen as an expression of ‘‘boutiquization’’ of organic food con-

sumption. Here, for example, Yehuda, a consumer of organic food who works in
Hi-Tech, says,

I travel a lot overseas on short business trips. There I saw the organic vegetable
scheme a while ago. I order [an organic vegetable box from a CSA] because it is so
much fresher [. . .]. In my childhood, I grew in a Moshav [cooperative settlement].
For years I’ve longed for vegetables this fresh. When I get home from work and the
box is waiting by the door [. . .] I pick up the box and like I do with a good glass of
wine, I shake and smell . . . ah . . . the smell [. . .] It reminds me of my childhood where
we would eat [vegetables] straight from the field.

Therefore, the Israeli CSA model of ‘‘local’’ food seems to be an expression of

the global trend of local eating, and a form of ‘‘communal’’ consumption without a
real community, motivated by a search for trust in a neoliberal market society.
Despite the evidence that Israeli CSA consumers seem relatively interested in civic
values (such as supporting local private growers rather than large corporations), it
seems that these values are mostly secondary when choosing to consume
from CSAs.

Urban authenticity: ‘‘Orbanic’’ consumers

In recent years, there has been a global (Western) trend of ‘‘resurgence of food
markets’’ (Zukin, 2008), in which farmers’ markets in urban areas became popular
and thriving sites, where ‘‘green,’’ ‘‘alternative,’’ ‘‘local,’’ and ‘‘authentic’’ foods
were marketed. Present day farmers’ markets gained recognition as sites reflecting
actual re-localization (or re-embeddedness) of culinary culture. Organic food has
become an integral component of farmers’ markets in Europe and North America
and is a significant part of the product supply in these new markets. In Israel, the
fashion of farmers’ markets and local food markets has also spread.
One of the initiatives of the Israeli Organic Farming Association was the estab-
lishment of an urban farmers’ market, in which only organic produce was offered
for sale. From the beginning of its establishment, the market was attributed cosmo-
politan images as a strategy to attract consumers: ‘‘[Organic Farmers’ Markets are]
happening in Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, and now . . . also in Israel!’’ – this was
written on commercial signs and advertising leaflets distributed in preparation for
the opening of the market. The name selected for the market ‘‘Orbanic’’ (a com-
bination of the words ‘‘organic’’ and ‘‘urban’’) symbolizes the founders’ intention
of providing a sense of updated-global-urbanism.
The market was established in ‘‘Hatachana’’ (The Station) in Tel Aviv, an old
train station compound that went through a gentrification process and became a
site for recreation, leisure, and upscale shopping. Forty decorated and beautifully
arranged stalls operated in the market square. Each stall prominently displayed a
certificate from an organic supervision firm attesting to the food products being

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Grosglik 11

‘‘strictly organic.’’ In most of the stalls, organic fruits, vegetables, and other
organic foodstuffs (local and imported) were arranged in wooden crates and
old farm carts. This design seeks to give visitors a sense of nostalgia – an imitation
of the way vegetables and fruits were packaged in the past. This can be seen
as a kind of ‘‘staged authenticity,’’ a commercially manufactured ‘‘authenticity’’
(MacCannell, 1976), or a simulacrum of authenticity – to use the terms of Jean
Baudrillard (1994).
Here, for example, is a description of one of the consumer’s impressions, which
she summarized in her personal blog:

Friday morning [and] I have a tight schedule: first – a visit to the organic market, then
a yoga class. [. . .] I meet a friendly and smiling stall owner. We start an organic
conversation and tastings of a special strain of purslane that comes from France
[. . .] It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such crisp purslane. Purslane leaves are
healthy and contain a lot of omega 3. The celebration continues and I become familiar
with ‘‘spaghetti squash’’ – a pumpkin rich in carotenoids, which protect against heart
disease, diabetes and even cancer. I add it to my ecological basket. During another
visit, my eyes were attracted to the purple eggplants. I was already imagining how they
will go into my Sicilian pasta.

This description thoroughly represents the associative and symbolic range from
which the ‘‘organic discourse’’ in Orbanic market was composed. It points to the
health and culinary virtues of the vegetables, emphasizing their exotic uniqueness
and the global-gastronomic experience they represent, while the use of a fashion-
able cloth bag is presented as an act of ecological significance.
Geographers Benjamin Coles and Philip Crang (2011) maintain that naming a
space in which food products are sold as ‘‘local market’’ gives the consumer a sense
of participation in ethical action as well as an up-to-date fashionable experience.
This generates de-fetishization of foods, on one hand (by revealing different aspects
of the production process – for example, identifying farmers or places of origin),
and re-fetishization, on the other hand (e.g. by hiding different exploitative social
relations in the production process and labeling the products as ‘‘ethical’’ or
‘‘local’’). Accordingly, the experience of shopping in Orbanic created a de-
fetishistic coupling between the label ‘‘organic’’ and the term ‘‘local,’’ mainly due
to the fact that there was an encounter between consumers and growers in the
market. At the same time, the images ‘‘organic’’ and ‘‘local’’ express re-fetishization:
while wandering in the market, I noticed that consumers and vendors alike
responded to the imperative that encouraged them to engage in ‘‘locality.’’
Consumers often asked about the source of the crops and the vendors responded
willingly and spoke about their lives in the rural areas. Thus, during a conversation,
organic foods – both farmers’ products and imported organic products which were
offered for sale – were intentionally loaded with meanings of localism.
However, paradoxically, these communicative interactions between organic
farmers and consumers – which are perceived as an engagement in ‘‘locality’’ –

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actually strengthened the global symbolism of the market. Here, for example, is a
text written on an on-line magazine that deals with topics of lifestyle:

‘‘Hatachana’’ Organic Market – Buying Local: Equipped with my dynamic shopping

cart I go shopping, like in a small village in Italy or Greece: fresh produce in small
stalls.

This description illustrates how the consumption experience in the market was
perceived: hedonistic, trendy, young, vibrant, and even a feel of being a tourist.
However, gradually, there were fewer and fewer consumers at the market, until
it stopped operating after a brief period of a year. Some consumers argue that the
reason the market closed is because the atmosphere in the market was fake, too
clean, and ‘‘inauthentic.’’ Whether it was or not, the fact is that even though the
market boasted having supervised and documented ‘‘organicness,’’ and direct per-
sonal contact with the farmers, the link between ‘‘organic,’’ ‘‘authenticity,’’ and
‘‘up datedness’’ was not created successfully in this market. This link actually exists
in other older urban markets, such as the renewed Carmel Market in Tel Aviv and
in new farmers’ markets built under the auspices of the global Slow Food move-
ment. In these markets, organic food appears as ‘‘boutique food,’’ alongside
non-organic gourmet and unique foods. Thus, it integrates a mixture of culinary
representations of authenticity and locality.
One of my observations was in an organic store-stall, which opened in the
Carmel market in Tel Aviv. The store is located on the main street of the
market, across from a new lively café and a shop selling local and imported bou-
tique cheeses. Many customers crowded together at the entrance of the shop.
Among them, I met a few consumers who frequented Orbanic market before it
closed. Most of them did not express any regret that the market closed.
They actually noted their preference for the integration between organic foods,
unique food products, and ‘‘authentic’’ atmosphere as a ‘‘consumer experience’’
that fits their urban lifestyle. Here, for example, Ido and Meital, Tel Aviv
residents, say,

Every Friday we ride our bikes to the Carmel market. There we eat breakfast, buy
organic vegetables and some special pasta [. . .]. We host our friends for dinner very
often. We prefer healthy foods. Sometimes we go to the farmers’ market in Tel-Aviv
port. We don’t go into Eden. It’s such a bourgeois supermarket! We also don’t order a
delivery of organic boxes [from CSAs]. We buy here in the [urban] market. It’s much
more authentic and much more fun.

This description illustrates the integration of organic food in the culinary repertoire
of the young urban group in Israel, characterized by high cultural capital and taste
made up of stylistic differentiation from the ‘‘mainstream’’ culture.
Sociologist Sharon Zukin describes the geography of farmers’ markets as pro-
jects of establishing space with the image of ‘‘oasis of authenticity’’ and which

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Grosglik 13

operate in gentrification processes (Zukin, 2008: 725). The organic food offered for
sale in the Israeli urban food markets takes on a role of creating a sense of ‘‘authen-
ticity’’ in its cosmopolitan-urban version and speaks to Israeli Westernizing elite,
who are willing to demonstrate their cosmopolitan identity. However, it should be
noted that organic food in itself, as it appeared in the Orbanic market (i.e. pure
organic food, without any other ‘‘authentic’’ or ‘‘gourmet’’ foods), attracted a
small number of consumers. For the majority, ‘‘organic’’ plays a secondary role
to ‘‘authenticity’’ in their cultural repertoire (Swidler, 1986). For them, the prefer-
ence for organic food is part of a multi-faceted taste package, symbolizing fresh-
ness, healthiness and localness.
Thus, the examination of organic food consumption patterns in Israeli farmers’
markets shows that the ‘‘citizenship-consumerism’’ hybrid is revealed as consisting
of global-urban consumerism and of symbolic representations of citizen ideals such
as locality and authenticity.

New Age organic consumers

The fourth social-cultural category is the New Age participants, those who include
in their private and public lives alternative activities to the mainstream, and hold
onto the perception of mutual ecology, which sees the world as an integral holistic
entity. This category is prominently present today in Israeli society and is part of
the new middle-class lifestyle in Israel (Simchai, 2009). The image of organic food
as ‘‘ecological’’ and ‘‘alternative’’ is appropriate for this approach and therefore
very common in different settlements of New Age participants.
One of these settlements is kibbutz Harduf. The kibbutz was founded by a group
of young people who, while visiting Europe in the 1980s, were captivated by the
anthroposophical philosophy (propagated by Rudolf Steiner) and sought to estab-
lish a cooperative community that would operate by it. As a source of livelihood,
they established an organic and bio-dynamic agricultural sector. For almost
20 years, kibbutz Harduf members produced organic food products for self-con-
sumption and they marketed it only on a small scale. In the late 1990s, their organic
agricultural undertaking was purchased by Tnuva – Israel’s largest food corpor-
ation, which was then controlled by the global private equity and venture capital
firm Apax Partners and nowadays is controlled by Bright Food (a multinational
food and beverages manufacturing company headquartered in China).
Subsequently, the kibbutz products (and other organic food products, many
imported from abroad) have been distributed on a mass scale under the brand name
Harduf. The products on which the logo Harduf is displayed include organic cereals,
organic chocolate milk, organic ketchup, frozen poultry grown on farms outside the
kibbutz, organic frozen meat imported from Argentina, organic Italian pasta, and
more. Thus, kibbutz Harduf has changed from a marker of ‘‘alternative organic agri-
culture’’ to a clear representative of the industrialization of organic agriculture in Israel.
Most of my interlocutors espousing anthroposophy – whether they are residents
of kibbutz Harduf or followers of anthroposophy who live in other places – identify

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14 Journal of Consumer Culture 0(0)

the brand with the kibbutz, and not with Tnuva. Many of them show a preference
for organic products labeled as Harduf. For example, Dorit, an affiliate of anthro-
posophy from another kibbutz, says,

We buy organic packaged food at Rami Levi [a name of a conventional retail store
chain]. There are all sorts of organic products there, but [among all organic products
offered for sale in the supermarket] we prefer those of Harduf. [When I buy Harduf
products] it’s a bit like connecting myself to kibbutz Harduf.

Most of the consumers interviewed did not criticize the sale of Harduf to Tnuva,
and even when explicitly asked about it, they answered that they thought this move
was acceptable. For example, Narkis, who is involved in an anthroposophic edu-
cation institute, maintains,

I don’t think that makes Harduf any less organic [. . .]. I think it’s even better, because
with the help of Tnuva the access to healthier food can be expanded. But the truth is
that there are things in Israel that concern me a lot more. For example, education,
which is, by the way, another issue that Harduf excels at.

Indeed, the main drive for the popularity of the anthroposophic movement in
Israel is education. In this educational system, a lot of attention is directed to the
food served to the children, and even the curriculum includes an extensive reference
to nutritional studies, agriculture, and cooking. Dalia, the appointed menu devel-
oper in one of the anthroposophic education institutes, explains,

We explain to the children what organic food is and how important it is for their
health [. . .]. The food in the kindergarten is not one hundred percent organic, but it is
vegetarian and includes only healthy foods [. . .]. The food is meticulous, healthy,
nutritious, and vegetarian, strengthens and nurtures [. . .] True, it is not completely
organic, but it is good and healthy food.

Dalia’s remarks indicate that the anthroposophic educational system serves as an

intermediary and translator of the abstract concept ‘‘organic’’ to ‘‘healthy and
vegetarian.’’
Moreover, the process of formulating the Israeli culinary-anthroposophic rep-
ertoire is based on ‘‘cross-cultural consumerism’’ (Howes, 1996), that is, introdu-
cing individuals to ideas, experiences, and knowledge about ‘‘other’’ cultures. For
example, Gila, a 49-year-old anthroposophist living in kibbutz Harduf, describes
her first encounter with eating habits that match the spirit of anthroposophy while
visiting abroad:

I started studying anthroposophy in Berlin. In Israel, at that time, no one knew

anything about it. Take the topic of ecology, for example. There [in Berlin] I learned
about the importance of the subject [. . .]. Then I lived for five years in the San

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Grosglik 15

Francisco area. Everyone there talked about healthy food and stuff like that [. . .].
Today it has become completely mainstream, eating healthy and organic food. But I
was already dealing with nutrition and ecology 30 years ago.

‘‘Ecology,’’ as Gila said in her remarks, is an important component of the anthro-

posophical philosophy. Anthroposophical ideas relating to agriculture as a holistic
practice are part of a wide ecological discourse, which is interwoven with New Age
culture. This discourse is based on the recognition that human beings have an
obligation to care for nature and its conservation and to strive for a society living
in harmony with nature (Simchai, 2009: 90). Thus, one would expect that organic
food would be an example for realizing theoretical anthroposophical ideas and that
progressive projects and alternative action relating to food and environment would
be woven around it in areas where people who espouse this doctrine live. However,
at the heart of the anthroposophic discourse lays the concept of ‘‘personal trans-
formation,’’ and social (and environmental) change is subjected to personal change
(Simchai, 2009: 92–97). The words of Sivan – an anthroposophist consumer aged 32
– expose the predominance of the ‘‘personal’’ on environmental ecology and
community:

We just buy organic out of habit [. . .]. Look, you ask about ecology and fair trade,
and it all speaks to me, but it’s not in my practical awareness. [. . .] What is important
to me is that the food will be full of life, food that nourishes you both spiritually and
physically [. . .]. I truly believe that everything begins in our body.

The expression ‘‘food full of life,’’ as well as other similar expressions such as
‘‘food that heals the body,’’ was repeated by many other New Age consumers. The
main meaning of organic food – as arises in these sayings – is in creating individu-
alistic spiritual and physical nourishment. Moreover, the act of consuming organic
food is carried out on the personal level and not integrated into a collective action.
A description of organic food as a means of connecting between the personal
body and soul, as a source of ‘‘positive energy’’ and personal ‘‘energetic nourish-
ment,’’ recurred in the words of most of my interviewees espousing anthroposophy
and are in keeping with perceptions and dogmas accepted in the New Age culture.
The British sociologist Steve Bruce claims that the New Age culture is charac-
terized by an alliance between individualism and self-sanctification and concerns
for the ‘‘other’’ (‘‘other’’ in its broad sense, including care for nature and environ-
ment; Bruce, 1996). To use terminology suggested by Bruce, it can be summarized
that the significance given to organic food as healthy illustrates the centrality of
individualism and self-sanctification in the fundamental levels of the practices of
anthroposophic organic food consumption. The concerns for the ‘‘other’’ (i.e. the
‘‘civic’’ dimension of the citizen-consumer hybrid) remain in symbolic levels. In
other words, civic values – such as ecology and locality – are declared, but in
practice, these values are marginalized and interwoven with the self-care aspects
of New Age culture.

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Conclusion
This article examines various configurations of citizenship-consumerism in daily
practices, such as organic food consumption. It shows how practices of ‘‘ethical
eating’’ are exercised in Israel in the service of displaying global values, experiences,
and habitus (Illouz and John, 2003; Skrbis and Woodward, 2013: 10–28). It also
shows that the discourse and practice of organic food consumers in Israel express
their eagerness to take part in the global cultural sphere. This is why they tend to
adopt prestigious cultural products and habits, be it American lifestyle, New Age
culture, Western dietary fashions and body care culture, symbolic environmental-
ism, locality, authenticity, urbanism, and community activity. Figure 1 summarizes
how these various cultural elements are internalized and translated by these con-
sumers. It represents the different positions of each one of the four organic food
consumption patterns that are documented in this article, regarding citizen and
consumer values and meanings.
If we look on the horizontal axis of the figure (consumerism), we see on the left
side categories promoting global/American consumer ideas. Both Eden and
Orbanic market consumers evince a prominent reference to the consumer values
embedded in organic food. They relate to organic food as a component in the
Israeli version of a new culinary culture as prevalent among the middle and
upper classes in Western countries. This culture is based on intense preoccupation

Citizenship
(Individualism)

Eden Teva Market Harduf - New

- Organic Age Consumers
Supermarket (Anthroposophy)
Consumers

Global Local Consumerism

Consumerism

Orbanic Market -
CSA
Consumers of Organic Food in
Consumers
Urban Markets

Citizenship
(Community, Authenticity)

Figure 1. The cultural meanings of organic food consumption in Israel.

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Grosglik 17

with eating as a cultural experience and a central leisure activity, characterized by

the search for gourmet, artisanal, authentic, and organic foodstuffs (Johnston and
Baumann, 2009). On the right side of the horizontal axis, we see anthroposophist
and CSA consumers, evincing alleged locality and alter-global consumer meanings,
such as parochial and alternative lifestyle – which are global trends in themselves.
The vertical axis (citizenship) reflects civic aspects indicated by Israeli organic food
consumers. The top part of this axis refers to the perception that regards individual
organic consumption a civic act in and of itself (as manifested by Eden and Harduf
consumers). In this sense, organic retail consumers (Eden) assert that their con-
sumption patterns contribute to lowering organic food prices, making it more
accessible and promoting ‘‘green’’ and ‘‘sustainable’’ production. These assertions
are equivalent, to some extent, to the perception of the New Age consumers
(Harduf), who see each individual’s self-transformation as a potential to an aggre-
gated ‘‘critical mass,’’ which will instigate comprehensive change (Simchai, 2009:
118; ‘‘change begins within me’’ as the saying goes). At the bottom of the vertical
axis, Orbanic Market and CSA consumers relate to the concept ‘‘organic’’ through
symbolic civic values of engaging in a community endeavor and establishing pro-
ducer–consumer relations. Nevertheless, these values are used at most to construct
an authentic self, which is formed in a consumer experience (Douglas, 1997), and
thus, they do not necessarily demonstrate critical attitude against environmental
and social injustice.
With regard to the tensions between consumer and civic values, this is not to
suggest that there are no proponents of a critical stance in Israel at all. On the
contrary, civic values – such as sustainability, fairness, responsibility, and social
justice – are well known and discussed, especially among organic food consumers
owning high cultural and economic capital. I found, however, that they tend to
adopt such values in a way that often narrows ethical aspects to merely the declara-
tive (rhetorical) level. While the consumers in my sample frame their practices of
organic food consumption and eating with civic meanings, they often do so by
subordinating these values to global-consumer aspects and use them in order to
display an image of engagement with cosmopolitan-civic society (Beck, 2000).
The actual implementation of citizen-consumer values is attained through a
constant translation of this concept into global-consumer notions and trends.
This explains the nuances, tensions, and contradictions at work in the Israeli
field of organic food. One emblematic example for such a contradiction may be
discerned with the complex coupling between ‘‘organic’’ and ‘‘local.’’ As described
above, Israeli organic food consumers relate to their organic-local taste preferences
in ways that are, paradoxically, connected to cosmopolitanism. These threads of
the paradox are revealed in all the Israeli approaches to organic food consumption:
from purchasing local organic products in American imaged Eden Teva Market;
through CSA consumers who discuss the benefits of local food in terms of cosmo-
politanism; to the consumers of organic-local foods in Orbanic Farmers’ Market –
which is designed as an urban-cosmopolitan place; and finally, in the attribution of
New Age and locality meanings to Harduf’s imported organic foods.

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18 Journal of Consumer Culture 0(0)

Thus, we have seen that within the general framework of cultural global flows in
the globalization period (Appadurai, 2013), rhetorical and symbolic displays of
criticism and resistance to global habits can, in fact, evince the actual practical
adoption of these very habits.

Acknowledgment
The author wishes to thank Uri Ram, Yehudit Shoham and JOC reviewers for their helpful
critiques and suggestions.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article.

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Author’s Biography
Rafi Grosglik received his PhD from the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. His dissertation
deals with the cultural field of organic food in Israel. He awarded the Jonathan
Shapira Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Currently he is a
visiting scholar in the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University, MA, USA.
He focuses on cultural globalization, sociology of food, ethical consumption and
sociology of Israeli culinary culture. He is founder and chair of Consumption and
Culture research network of the Israeli Sociological Association (ISA) and co-
founder of Environment and Society research network of the ISA.

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