Banal gastronationalism and anti-EU populism

Abstract

The common market of the EU imposes standards on food products and minimum requirements for their quality. Products that do not meet these requirements have to be renamed. This article analyses the media coverage of a prominent political controversy surrounding four food products, produced in the Czech Republic: Inland Rum, Fruit Marmalade, Spread Butter and Almond Brandy. The renaming of these products has triggered a wave of nationalist sentiments and anti-EU backlash. To explain these developments, the article follows the strong programme in cultural sociology, and it introduces the concept ‘banal gastronationalism’. It argues that the anti-EU backlash is culturally rooted in two deeply rooted binary distinctions: the split between the centre (of the EU) and the periphery and the tension between the inner and the external. Together, these distinctions co-create an imagined community of consumers and readers, which gets mobilised through a perceived threat to its food products.