Political and ecological aspects of the food miles concept

Abstract

The corpus of political science problems related to the development, security, and sovereignty of the state, which stimulates the increased interest of both government structures and representatives of the scientific community, also includes a new concept of ‘food miles.’ The deconstruction method and comparative analysis applied by the author showed that the semantic foundation of the terminological unit under consideration is based on the neorealist paradigm of international relations. The author seeks not only to highlight the epistemological gaps of the concept, but also to convert them into competitive advantages, thus contributing to the discourse related to the construction of ‘improved food miles.’ In the empirical part of the research, the author chose the agricultural policy of the Moscow region as an example, in particular, fixing the low food self-sufficiency of the region, compensated both by the intra-national commodity movement and the import of basic foodstuffs. For the first time, the dependence on the intensive import of foreign food products into the subject of the Russian Federation was compared with the degree of environmental damage identified using mathematical methods. The author concludes that the concept of ‘food miles,’ having replenished the categorical and conceptual apparatus of political science and the theory of international relations, can be used as a mechanism of ‘green protectionism,’ activating the protection of national interests and stimulating the diversification of domestic agroecological production. As a recommendation to state bodies, the author offers a plan of amendments to legislative acts, as well as a graphic project of ecological labeling of food products.