The Coloniality of Food Governance in Sweden : An explorative feminist decolonial discourse analysis of the Swedish Food Agency

Abstract: The Swedish Food Agency is responsible for giving guidelines and recommendations for businesses producing, importing, selling, and serving agricultural products in Sweden. The general discourse of these guidelines and recommendations are based on the notion of safeguarding the consumer from potential risks and harms. The discourse is further based on the European Union legislation of good governance which dictates the terms and conditions for businesses operating withing the EU market. In this explorative feminist decolonial discourse analysis I am analyzing the guidelines and recommendations for businesses dealing with agricultural products in Sweden communicated on the Swedish Food Agency’s website. The analysis is investigating the colonial epistemic and ontological assumptions underpinning the discourse. The analysis concludes that the discourse is based on modern/colonial assumptions about whom is to be kept safe and from what, and which products, countries, and territories are not safe to consume from. The discourse assumes humans as a homogenous group separate from animals and plants, and assumes that modern-scientific knowledge production will safekeep all humans and animals, and that food, supplements, and medicines should be understood as separate categories of foods. It is within and through these assumptions that the coloniality is being produced and reproduced in the discourse of the Swedish Food Agency. The discourse allows little to no room for other ontological and epistemic ways of relation to production, distribution and consumption of agricultural products. The discourse is limiting Swedish businesses in their ability to explore decolonial and unconventional business practices through border thinking, being, and doing at the colonial difference by engaging with other ways of relating to the world and the production, distribution, and consumption of food of the land.