Depuis une dizaine d'années, des études démontrent que l'alimentation des pays méditerranéens a des effets bénéfiques sur la santé. Mais de quelle alimentation méditerranéenne parle-t-on ? Ce recueil de textes écrits par des sociologues, anthropologues, nutritionnistes ou économistes montre combien les aliments, la façon de les accommoder et de les consommer sont variés.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. In this book, the complexity and the significance of the foods we eat are analysed from a variety of perspectives, by sociologists, economists, geographers and anthropologists. Chapters address a number of intriguing questions: how do people make judgments about taste? How do such judgments come to be shared by groups of people?; what social and organisational processes result in foods being certified as of decent or proper quality? How has dissatisfaction with the food system been expressed? What alternatives are thought to be possible? The multi-disciplinary analysis of this book explores many different answers to such questions. The first part of the book focuses on theoretical and conceptual issues, the second part considers processes of formal and informal regulation, while the third part examines social and political responses to industrialised food production and mass consumption. Qualities of food will be of interest to researchers and students in all the social science disciplines that are concerned with food, whether marketing, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, human nutrition or economics.

Food (in)Security in the Mediterranean. Since 2007, the conjunction of the financial crisis and price hikes in animal feed, has led to corresponding increases in staple food products. Food security has come to the forefront of discussions in many fora. The Mediterranean, once a breadbasket for many countries, has now become a consumer of new products, as modern tastes change, and, ironically, the Mediterranean Diet features less in its birthplace. Witnessing the Arab Spring, reminiscent of the French Revolution, reminds us starkly that technological progress notwithstanding, without basic access to food and amenities, we cannot really advance. How will food supplies be secured for current and future generations? And at what cost? And for how long? With a Foreword by Minister George Pullicino and articles by E.U. Commissioner John Dalli, Paolo De Castro, Cosimo Lacirignola, Sébastien Abis, Salvino Busuttil, Jean-Louis Rastoin, Justin Zahra and Vincent Dollé.