Cooking up the “gastro-citizen” through school meal programs in France and Japan

School meal programs in France and Japan have become sites of bio- and gastro-politics in what amounts to a project of creating gastro-citizens. In the past fifteen years public health and education administrators have revamped school meal programs to promote nutritional health, food safety, quality, and national culinary traditions. Even though in both countries school meals are financially accessible to students of all income levels, lack of choice in terms of food options means that those who do not conform to national culinary homogeneity are denied gastro-citizenship. Such a denial, as communicated through the “gastro-politics” of school meal programs, is one more way that certain individuals are socially excluded in these societies.