316 Advances in Consumer Research Volume 41, ©2013 From Waste to Delicacy – Collective Innovation in Food Disposition Practices Through Blogging Elina Närvänen, University of Tampere, Finland Nina Mesiranta, University of Tampere, Finland Annilotta Hukkanen, University of Tampere, Finland ABSTRACT A significant amount of food produced ends up as waste. It has been estimated that up to a half of all food purchased by households is thrown away (Imeche.org 2013). This is alarming from the point of view of the environment, and relates to the negative consequences of Western overconsumption (Achrol and Kotler 2012). It has also been found that intentions of not wasting food do not correlate with actual food waste. Instead, routine practices of food purchasing and provi- sioning are more significant (Ropke 2009; Stefan et al. 2013). These practices are often unreflected upon by consumers yet they have a big impact on sustainability. Therefore, it is essential for research to focus on these practices in order to make a difference: to understand how waste emerges and to find ways to reduce it. The purpose of this study is to examine consumer practices aimed at actively reducing food waste. These practices, consisting of materials, meanings and competences (Shove, Pantzar, and Watson 2012), are investigated through a netnographic study of a Finnish food blog campaign. Special attention is paid on how consumer blog- gers and their audience turn reducing food waste into a collective project of innovation, making these practices more socially accept- able and even trendy. SUSTAINABILITY AND DISPOSITION PRACTICES Sustainable consumption has received increased interest among consumer researchers in the past few decades, for instance mani- fested in TCR movement (Mick 2006). However, previous research has concentrated on consumer choices, whereas the full consumption cycle, with the exception of recycling, has often been overlooked (Prothero et al. 2011). Secondly, it has been acknowledged that more attention should be paid to empowering consumers as citizens (Prothero et al. 2011). As Trentmann (2007, 155) states, “examin- ing washing, watching television, shopping and so forth as practice could provide a useful additional perspective for our understanding of the dynamics between consumption and citizenship.” This study uses practice theory as a theoretical lens. It shifts the focus from individual intentions, attitudes, and behavior toward col- lective and shared practices. A practice is a routinized form of behav- ior consisting of a combination of elements that are interconnected (Reckwitz 2002). As people engage in a wide range of practices in their daily lives, the practices are carried on and maintained. It has been suggested that the way to change unsustainable practices would be to break certain links between the elements of the practice and re- place them with new, more sustainable linkages (Hargreaves 2011). Food consumption takes place amidst a web of intersecting practices, which is why it becomes essential to study the elements of these practices and the context where they are performed by consumers. Due to increasing environmental concerns, consumer disposal of goods has become even more central (Black and Cherrier 2012). It has been realized that disposition is not necessarily the end stage of a commodity’s life-cycle and it may have an interesting role in consumers’ lives as objects are moved along and re-valued (Par- sons and Maclaran 2009). Practices of disposition identified include sharing, donating, exchanging, recycling or ridding (Albinsson and Perera 2009). While disposition practices in general have attained increasing attention, the realm of everyday life and particularly food consumption has not been studied very thoroughly (Cappellini 2009; Cappellini and Parsons 2009; Evans 2012; Munro 1995). Yet in terms of sustainability, household consumption patterns are in a central role. Disposition of food is also different from the disposition of more durable consumer objects, because after a certain time, the only option is to throw it away. Moreover, food waste is not related to any single behavior but it is caused in the intersection of several dif- ferent influences: the way food industry produces, stores, packages, delivers and promotes food, the way food is purchased and stored at homes, personal values and habits, social and cultural norms, knowl- edge and skills as well as facilities and resources available for con- sumers (Quested et al. 2011). Cappellini (2009) and Evans (2012) have studied households’ food disposition practices ethnographi- cally. Their findings reveal the socio-material contexts and routines wherein food waste emerges, but do not focus on how consumers actively attempt to reduce it. This study is conducted in the online context, in consumer blogs. Social media has become a central social site for consumers to discuss and share their consumption practices. Online communities have also become arenas for collective innovation (Kozinets, Hem- etsberger, and Schau 2008). It has been argued that cultural practices related to ecological consumption can be fruitfully studied in online communities where people constantly negotiate them (Rokka and Moisander 2009). For ordinary consumers, blogs give an opportunity to seek an audience for their acts of consumption (McQuarrie, Miller, and Phillips 2013) and a way to manifest opinions, share experienc- es, and represent taste and know-how (Scaraboto and Fischer 2013). Thus for researchers, blogs offer an insightful and fruitful context to observe consumer practices as they are explicitly reflected and verbalized. The collective context means that consumers are likely to also influence each others’ practices, especially in the role of es- teemed bloggers. METHOD The data for the study is generated by netnographic observation and analysis of a blog campaign initiated by consumers to avoid food waste. Netnography is a methodology developed for the study of on- line communities that pays attention to their social and cultural as- pects (Kozinets 2002, 2009). The ongoing blog campaign was started in Finland in May 2012 by a food blogger who had read about the food waste statistics and become concerned about the issue: In general, every one of us carries food to the garbage bin with both hands. Together with about thirty other food bloggers, we decided that something must be done... We want to inspire rather than lecture you all to magically transform waste into delicacy and at the same time reduce our own food waste (From Waste to Delicacy Blog Manifesto, Salt and Honey blog) The data for this study was generated by closely following the blog campaign for nine months during data generation and analysis. All blog entries (293 entries between May 2012 and Jan 2013) with the campaign tag, along with the audience comments were down- loaded and analyzed. Permission was asked from each blogger to conduct the study. The textual data from the blog entries and com- ments are approached as cultural text that gives access to cultural forms and understandings according to which people make sense of the world and perform their practices (Rokka and Moisander 2009).