Eating ourselves safe: intersections of food, militarisms and national security in Sweden

A recent advertising campaign launched by Lantbrukarnars Riksförbund, Sweden’s agricultural association, compels shoppers to buy Swedish produce ‘for Sweden’–declaring it Sweden’s best/tastiest defence–thereby depicting Sweden’s agricultural sector as the first line of defence in a larger quest for national security. Curious about the supermarket as a site of everyday militarism, we ask how increasing militarism might (re)configure Swedish society and who gets to be part of its protection. Drawing from an established tradition seeking knowledge of militarisms far from the battlefield, we use this campaign as a jumping off point to interrogate the ways in which militarism functions in Swedish society. In particular, we investigate the role gender, race and class in Sweden’s everyday militarism through the example of the food shop and ‘buying security’.