Local and green, global and fair: the ethical foodscape and the politics of care

The core values of the ethical foodscape—ecological integrity and social justice—can assume very different political forms unless they are fashioned into a coherent and progressive narrative of sustainability. This paper explores the politics of sustainability through the prism of three major issues. First, the <i>carbon-labelling</i> controversy is used to highlight the potential conflict between green campaigners (who extol the benefits of local food) and social justice campaigners (who support fairly traded food from afar). Second, <i>school-food reform </i>is used to demonstrate that local <i>and </i>global food, far from being mutually exclusive options, can both be part of the constitution of a sustainable food system if global food is framed in cosmopolitan terms. Third, the paper engages with the <i>politics of care</i> literature to explore a question that underlies the above issues, namely, how and why we care for others. It is argued that ethical consumerism, a key part of a progressive narrative of care, is not sufficient to counter the challenge of climate change—the greatest threat to ecological integrity <i>and</i> social justice.