Caring dachas: Food self-provisioning in Eastern Europe through the lens of care

While notions of care and stewardship are at the root of all practices concerning food production, contrary to cooking, cultivating land is not perceived as classical care work. Instead, care is mostly framed as an interhuman activity concerned with human sustenance and reproduction. This chapter is based on the case study on food self-provisioning (FSP) in post-socialist Estonia and applies Joan Tronto’s (1993) categorisation of four distinct expressions of care. The analysis demonstrates that, despite being seemingly ‘irrational’ in economic terms, FSP is essentially a very rational act of care based on a deep understanding of interdependence and mutual vulnerability between humans and nonhuman nature. Care manifests as reciprocal ‘caring about’, ‘care-giving’ and ‘care-receiving’ and expresses itself ‘quietly’ in the private sphere (Smith and Jehlička, 2013). In contrast, industrial agriculture falls into Tronto’s fourth category (‘taking care of’) as rather ‘masculine’, public and ‘loud’ manifestations of care. Thus, contrary to prevalent perceptions of FSP as a stigmatised ‘coping strategy’ in post-socialist Europe, this case study demonstrates that the practice of FSP primarily stems from and expresses itself in desires and commitments to care for and to steward the environment, the community and oneself.