In the second and third part of Micheal Pollen’s book In Defence of Food, he prescribes his audience to eat pre-industrially; to forage, hunt and cook meals ourselves so that we are in full conscious of what we are eating. However, this prescription merely reinforces the ‘individualisation of responsibility’ and exacerbates the ecological problems which manifest from it. Individualisation refers to the mentality that any person should be able to do as they wish as long as no harm is brought to others. This mode of thinking inherent in green consumerism is limited in-so-far as it fails to consider the potential long-term harms.
Put simply, it is not an affordable reality for most people to buy ‘green’. Pollen’s recommendation does not inspire the collective citizen action which restructuring the world food system would require. The green consumerism Pollen espouses of, merely shifts the market towards green products instead of incentivising reductions in individual consumerist behaviour. Green consumerism tells us that we are consuming the ‘wrong’ products, but not that our level of consumption is exploitative. By going shopping and purchasing green alternatives, the wealthy indulge themselves in false sense of satisfaction that they are ‘doing their part’ for the environment. Given green consumerism is a luxury option, it merely functions to cleanse the conscious of the rich whilst demonising the poor for purchasing cheaper ‘unethical’ food products. Rather than idolising green consumerism and stupefying fat people in the process, we need to cultivate a collective sense of responsibility which will empower citizens to challenge the very system which make healthy food exorbitant to start with. By championing his ability overcome ‘King Corn’ and sustain a ‘perfect’ organic diet, Pollen undermines the agency of overweight and obese America whom he portrays to ‘consume uncritically’. By reducing ‘fat’ and ‘poor’ Americans to mere subjects of the industrial food system, Pollen politically disempowers the population groups it effects most.
Given green consumerism involves the same institutions producing different products, buying green will not restructure the institutions themselves. As aforementioned, this would necessitate collective political action. Apolitical in its orientation, the ‘consumer-choice’ based approach currently embraced by Western elite is thus unlikely to be successful.