Instead of Introduction to the Theme of the Issue. Forecasting Social Projection

Food not only meets primary, innate, genetically determined instinctive requirements of people, but forms socio‑cultural conditions of their existence. The food itself influenced by the factor of Time’s Arrow that was substantiated by I. Prigozhin, Nobel Prize Winner, is developing faster and in a more complex way. Today it becomes more and more evident that food dynamics is placed in the context of natural and social dynamics. The author proposes a postulate of food Time’s Arrow: We eat things consistent with the society in which we live with all its achievements, risks and vulnerabilities, and also consistent with nature, or, to be more exact, socio‑natural environment. With all the achievements of human civilization, food production bears some unintended consequences fraught with new vulnerabilities both for a human being and for society and nature. Socio‑cultural dynamics of food, by virtue of a number of bifurcation has brought about «liquid» food and generated the so called non‑food, i.e. a social form produced in a centralized way and controlled globally, being however devoid of specific social and cultural context. From now on «liquid» food and non‑food dominate in the human diet causing new risks and vulnerabilities for people. The author shows and analyzes factors favorable for non‑food production. They are as follows: globalization, growbalization, industrialization and «green» revolution, «alien food» production, gamization that generated performative non‑food, detraditionalization. The main forces contributing to preservation and dissemination of food as it is, are in the author’s point of view the process of glocalization, de‑McDonaldization and bserving dietary traditions. The author thinks that the time has come to rediscover food as one of the most important biological, social and cultural values for a human being. Today it is necessary not only to produce food, but to fight for reserving its authenticity. It is necessary to support new social movements, free from global networking domination and advocating «food democracy» and quality control of the food market on the part of townsfolk.

«Time’s Arrow», globalization, glocalization, nothing, something, food, «liquid» food, non‑food