Media-ting Austerity Feeding: second-hand Infant Food Exchange Online in Canada

ABSTRACT This paper makes visible austerity-based infant food exchange as a contemporary food acquisition practice outside of commercial and regulated foodscapes. It presents results from a netnography conducted within two popular online platforms in Canada between April 2017 and February 2018: the Kijiji classified advertising site, and Facebook. Qualitative analysis of over 2000 user generated secondhand exchange ads show practices from selling, trading, sharing, and seeking whereby infant foods works as a form of currency to acquire either economic capital when sold, an alternative food capital when traded, or are gifts in the moral economy of exchange. While infant food exchange is often collaborative in nature, it is austerity-driven involving different forms of capital parents have or seek to accomplish the responsibility of feeding. As excluded consumers, posters are motivated by a complex mixture of desperation, innovation, ecological concerns, and morality to care for others when mainstream food access is out of reach within the current political and economic system.


Introduction
When interviewing a mother several years ago about her struggles to afford infant formula, I was introduced to the practice of going on-line to find reduced-price and free infant foods.My first quick internet search found a plethora of digital secondhand platforms where infant food was both being offered and sought.One Facebook group page named "mothers helping mothers" read "today made me realize once again how little help the government is to moms.I created this group so people can post their free baby items, and for people to post what they NEED."This "do-it-our-selves" approach to material needs makes visible the tension at the heart of austerity parenting (Jensen and Tyler 2012) between increased parental responsibility for child welfare and the need to do more with less in response to a retreating state (Hall 2022).
This paper reports on a netnography of infant food exchange within online secondhand spaces in Canada between April 2017 and February 2018.The aim of the netnography was to explore the activities and norms of exchange that occur on these platforms as they unfolded naturally.Based on the analysis of over 2000 user generated secondhand infant food advertizements posted over eleven-months from two popular online platforms: the Kijiji classified advertising site, and Facebook, I theorize that digital secondhand platforms are an emerging realm of the infant foodscape and that infant food exchange is a marginal feeding practice outside of commercial and regulated spaces because of struggles to survive in times of austerity, along with other notable social and ecological uncertainties.

Background
First-food systems are described by Baker (2020) as those that provision foods to children 0-36 months of age, placing an emphasis on foods including breastmilk, commercial formulas, other non-human milks, and home prepared or commercial complementary foods.I offer the concept of infant foodscape as an adjacent concept to emphasizes the socio-cultural relations that shape the different ways, and items infants are fed (breastfeeding/breastmilk -one's own or another's, using commercial infant formulas, or combinations of foods) and different way of accessing infant foods (producing, buying, trading, acquiring for free) across places and spaces that are commercial and noncommercial, and physical and digital.Infant foodscapes, like foodscapes in general (MacKendrick 2014) are proximal (as in breastfeeding and feeding in the home), and more distant places where commercial food is obtained both through retail and informally.Foodscapes also include the social and cultural spaces that mediate food and feeding practices (MacKendrick 2014; Vonthron et al. 2020).Breastfeeding (noncommercial food production and access) is shaped by micro social and cultural relations (between the mother-infant dyad, family, exchanges with peers, strangers), institutional arrangements (professional practice, public health directives, work arrangements), and macro inequality relations related to gender, race, and class (Blum 1999;Carter et al. 2022;Morrell 2017).While primarily noncommercial, breastmilk exchange occurs through human milk banks and is regulated in part by the institutional arrangements of nonprofit organizations, healthcare institutions, and Health Canada (Paynter and Hayward 2018).Health Canada (2019) also loosely regulates peer-to-peer exchange, through steering against sharing of unprocessed human milk.Access to breastmilk via milk banks in Canada is mostly limited to use by "fragile infants as medicine" (Human Milk Banking Association of North America 2022).While not technically illegal, the private sale of breastmilk is discouraged by Health Canada citing food safety standards (Paynter and Hayward 2018).
We know that most Canadian mothers start breastfeeding (91%), but only about onethird exclusively breastfeed to six months (Statistics Canada 2019).More detailed information on infant feeding practices beyond breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity are not typically reported in Canada, but we can surmise based on exclusivity rates that two-thirds of Canadian infants are feed something other than breastmilk within the first six months of life and beyond.Access to infant formula is shaped by several aspects of the commercial infant foodscape including the stability of supply, and public policy that seeks to regulate the industry, and economic policy that does or does not ensure the capacity of families to economically afford and have retail access to infant food commodities.
The places and spaces of the foodscape mediate feeding practices, including those related to food acquisition and disposal.Practice theory, positioned as part of the "cultural turn" in sociology since the 1970s (Nash 2001), explains practice as routinized actions of daily living that are socially constituted performances of everyday life (Reckwitz 2002).Bourdieu (1984) draws our attention to the interrelationship between our practices and structured social spaces, or "fields" of practice -which are organized around forms of capital.Economic capital is the monetary or exchange value a person possesses that is tangible and can be transferred in a financial transaction.Cultural capital refers to intangible assets that act as currency in a social setting, but also objective items of cultural value, while social capital means the value of a person social contacts and networks of relationships (Bourdieu 1984).
In line with these concepts, infant feeding practices are mediated by the various fields in which they take place such as family, health policy, retail, and central to this paper, the online field of digital secondhand exchange sitting on the margins of the infant foodscape.I argue that this is largely a space of austerity-feeding involving different forms of capital parents have or seek to accomplish the responsibility of childrearing.Secondhand, digitally mediated, infant food exchange is a cultural activity rooted in austerity struggles and social and environmental uncertainly -converging with technologies used to expand social capital to meet such challenges through collaborative efforts.

Austerity feeding
Economic recession and austerity are drivers of both different and compromised food consumption for those that cannot afford traditional food markets.Austerity involves policies to reduce government spending to manage budget deficit.In Canada, and other countries such as the United Kingdom and the USA austerity intersects with neoliberalism (Pimlott-Wilson 2017) typified by withdrawal of the state from many areas of social provisioning.The impacts of austerity are evident in increasing responsibility on individuals for social provisioning (LeBaron 2010) and their own economic welfare (Harrison 2013).Scholarship on everyday experiences of austerity makes clear how women and marginalized groups bear the brunt of austerity policies (Hall 2019(Hall , 2022) ) particularly through their impact on social reproduction labors (Volger 1994).Care work, including feeding infants, is constructed as a family responsibility removed from state obligation (Braedley 2006) (except for state child welfare surveillance) coinciding with growing income inequality and food insecurity (Jenkins et al. 2021).The most obvious outcome of the neoliberal-austerity agenda on food security in Canada is the pervasiveness of nongovernmental interventions of food charity which have expanded in number and institutionalization (Wakefield et al. 2013) Qualitative literature on family feeding practice emphasizes the link between family economics and how and what children are fed (Bowen, Brenton, and Elliott 2019;Fielding-Singh 2017).For example, economic constraint makes meeting societal expectations of child feeding difficult, leading to stress, feelings of deprivation, and social exclusion (Collins 2009;Hamelin, Beaudry, and Habicht 2002;Hanson 2011;Williams, McIntyre, and Glanville 2010;Williams et al. 2012).Infant feeding is also shaped by economic constraints (Frank 2020;Blum 1999;Lee 2007;Morrow and Barraclough 1993;Murphy 2000).There has been a growing body of quantitative and qualitative research on infant food insecurity focused on how poverty and household food insecurity impact infant feeding.Frank (2020) has defined infant food insecurity at the household level as meaning infants' vulnerability with respect to food access, sub-optimal food quality, and inadequate quantity due to household financial constraints.Infants are at risk of food insecurity in neoliberal, high-income countries when their specialized food substances, either through breastfeeding or formula feeding labors, lacks economic and social protection (Frank 2015(Frank , 2020)).Canadian research shows that inadequate income security supports create austere socio-economic conditions whereby families would be unable to purchase a basic nutritious diet throughout early infancy periods regardless of whether their infant is breastfed, or formula-fed (Frank et al. 2020).
Qualitative research about practices used when people cannot afford food offers insight into austerity food acquisition.This literature highlights relying on informal social support networks, charity-based food programs, adjustment to quality and quantity of foods consumed, and criminal activity (Ahluwalia, Dodds, and Baligh 1998;Anater, McWilliams, and Latkin 2011;Kempson et al. 2003;Swanson et al. 2008;Tam, Findlay, and Kohen 2014).When economic capital is insufficient, social capital is used to aid food acquisition by borrowing money, getting food from family and friends, and sending children to visit family members (Ahluwalia, Dodds, and Baligh 1998;Anater, McWilliams, and Latkin 2011;Kempson et al. 2003;Swanson et al. 2008).Such informal supports are often reciprocal in nature, as they stem from social responsibility among kin, friends, and community ties (Tam, Findlay, and Kohen 2014).These ways of getting food tend to be preferred over organizational help (Tarasuk, Fafard St-Germain, and Loopstra 2020) such as food charity, which is described as "pernicious" (Hamelin, Habicht, and Beaudry 1999) and documented to be stigmatizing (Hamelin, Beaudry, and Habicht 2002;Purdam, Garratt, and Esmai 2016).Kempson et al. (2003), in their New Jersey-based qualitative research with geographically diverse low-resourced people, were the few to identify informal consumption-focused support systems (exchanging resources through selling surplus food) and shopping strategies (purchasing food from both individuals and low-cost vendors) as ways to maintain food sufficiency.
How people cope with infant food needs is less known.Infant formula is a welfare entitlement in the United States via the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Women (WIC) program (United States Department of Agriculture -Food and Nutrition Service 2021).In contrast, Canada has no specific programs to facilitate formula access (apart from special diet welfare allowances for infants with approved medical need) even though economic access to formula had long been a problem.Similar to WIC, the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) supports vulnerable women in the perinatal period, but the program is not an entitlement, and while some food supplementation does occur for mothers, program provided infant formula is discouraged by the funder, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), in the belief that doing so would negatively affect breastfeeding initiation and duration rates (Public Health Agency of Canada 2014).Frank (2018Frank ( , 2020) ) found that caregivers resort to seeking infant formula via food charity in Canada, however infant formula is not consistently available or adequate there to meet families' needs, causing caregivers to resort to foraging for formula from multiple but often futile sources.The emergence of secondhand infant food exchange online corresponds with affordability problems and the difficulty, and perhaps unpalatability, of seeking it through food charity.It also is emerging alongside increasing rates of retail crime whereby infant formula is one of the top shoplifted items in Canada, and why formula is now commonly kept locked up and under security surveillance in retail spaces (McGuckin 2019).

Marginal consumption and secondhand exchange on-line
Literature on marginal (Crewe and Gregson 1998) and excluded (Williams and Windebank 2002) spaces of contemporary secondhand consumption practices and thrift (Evans 2011;Holmes 2019;Lindsay, Lane, and Humphery 2020) highlights multiple motivations ranging from austerity-based necessity, ethical sensibilities, to fun.In line with austerity-based necessity, Williams and Windebank (2002) describe excluded consumers as those that live in precarious conditions marked by poor public services (including a lack of public transportation in rural areas) and inadequate income supports that make purchasing goods in commercial foodscapes difficult.Mirroring literature on informal food acquisition, Williams and Windebank (2002) argue that excluded consumers participate in informal acquisition practices by necessity, largely through spending of social rather than economic capital.Holmes (2019) work on thrift highlights its central purpose of "getting by," but she also found that motivations to be thrifty move beyond necessity and are shaped by multiple perceptions of value, not just in the materiality of objects of consumption, but also through actions of reuse, exchange, and gifting (Holmes 2019).
Secondhand exchange through boot, yard, and garage sales, thrift shops, auctions, flea markets, and scrap yards (Gregson and Crewe 2003;Tranberg Hansen and Le Zotte 2019) predates and co-exists with the internet, however the internet and digital intermediaries have given rise to a refashioning of secondhand exchange under the banner of collaborative consumption.This catch-all term for peer-to-peer exchange refers to internet facilitated platforms that connect people for the purposes of distributing and sharing under-utilized goods (Belk 2014;Botsman and Rogers 2010), and intensifying activity among and between a greater number of people beyond close contacts (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012).Thrift, sharing, and collaboration offer hope of alternative (more ecologically and community grounded) sustainable consumption.However, critics point out an underlining logic of hyper-neoliberalism behind much of what constitutes collaborative consumption (Morozov 2013;Pedroni 2019).Despite providing alternative and widened support structures, collaborative consumption is too made necessary because of an erosion of state provided safety nets (Williams 2000).
We know that the typical motivations of secondhand exchange are economic, altruism, and ecological (Gregson and Crewe 2003;Williams and Windebank 2005).The Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index (Durif et al. 2017) aimed at demonstrating the value of the secondhand economy in Canada, concedes that the most active sellers, what the authors call Thrifty Youngs, "have significant challenges to make ends meet" and that "one way they found to make extra money is by selling second-hand goods" (page 22).The 5 th Annual Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index (Durif, Arcand, and Connolly 2019) documents that between 2014 and 2017 the leading motivation for using the secondhand economy in and outside of online platforms was financial, for both disposal and acquisition of goods however there appears to be an upward trend of altruistic and ecological motivations.Infant items are the third most common exchange items overall, no doubt related to their abbreviated usefulness and high price of acquisition.
In summary, while much has been written about infant feeding practice in general, and infant food insecurity specifically, less is known about secondhand infant food exchange at all, or online, as a marginal infant feeding practice linked to infant food insecurity.The literature on marginal and excluded consumption, thrift, and informal food acquisition strategies, and the rise of digitally mediated secondhand exchange, provides some important insights on how austerity and collaboration may intersect, however none of these literatures have focused on infant food exchange.This paper reports on research which aimed to fill that gap.

Methodology and methods details
The current research employed a netnography to explore the digital foodscape of secondhand exchange through the activities and stated motivations of people engaged with unknown peers.Like ethnography, netnography is interested in describing cultural phenomena contextually, as it unfolds naturally (Kozinets 2010), recognizing that the digitization of society "makes possible a new way of knowing and intervening in society" (Marres 2017, 11).This paper reports on a netnography conducted within Kijiji and Facebook, two online spaces for digitally mediated secondhand exchange in Canada, and the resulting analysis of 2000 plus secondhand infant food exchange advertisements.

The nature of the settings
Kijiji (a redistribution platform that serves as a third-party facilitator for peer-to-peer exchange) list rules for posting stating that, "Perishable items are permitted; however, the sale of food items is highly regulated by the federal and provincial government.When you list any food products, you're certifying that the item may be sold and complies with all health, safety, and labeling requirements" (Kijiji 2022).Whether food-related policies apply to all forms of exchange (i.e., selling, donating) is unclear, yet prohibited food items listed including expired food and baby formula, food items that have been opened or tampered with, unpasteurized dairy products, government-assisted foods, and cash-value food vouchers.Although breastmilk is not mentioned specifically, it is unpasteurized when exchanged informally and a bodily fluid (also prohibited).
Facebook, a social media platform that facilitates secondhand exchange within groups, and with the platform Facebook Marketplace, lists prohibited food under their commerce policy.These include "products from animals intended for consumption, such as raw fish, meat, or eggs" and "infant and adult nutrition formulas" under the heading "products including food and drinks that make health or medical claims."Like Kijiji, Facebook does not mention breastmilk as a prohibited food product.Also, like Kijiji, physical gift cards or vouchers cannot be sold on Facebook.In summary, depending on the platform of secondhand exchange, infant food is prohibited if it is expired, opened, unpasteurized, provided by the government, makes health claims, or is in the form of a product voucher; but there is ambiguity whether this applies to all exchange practices (donations, trades) and if or how breastmilk might apply.
Kijiji and Facebook platforms also differ in relation to user privacy.Kijiji posters are anonymous by default (unless they chose to provide personal data in the text), and all social interaction occurs in private, preventing the gaze of the researchers.Facebook posts are linked to user profiles and invite and regularly display social interaction concerning secondhand exchange.Furthermore, Facebook groups have different intentions concerning secondhand exchange.For example, Buy and Sell Groups, like Kijiji, are used to post secondhand goods for sale, for donation, and trade, and when in search of items. 1 Some Facebook groups distinguish themselves by their exchange ethos.For example, the chosen provincial-wide helping group emphasized gifting, and warned against judgment and dishonest behavior writing, "This Facebook-based group was created to assist in needs of essential items.Please know respect, kindness and empathy is the name of our game here.No asking for or offering of money . . .this will result in immediate removal from the group . . .no bullying/judgmental comments, or scamming."A provincial-wide breastmilk sharing group emphasized altruistic gifting as well, stating that it aimed to "provide a space where families in need can connect with women who have milk to share."The trading groups stressed an ethos of anti-consumerism, waste avoidance, community building and prohibited money exchange.For example, one trading group's description reads, "Our focus is to create a sustainable future by regaining control over how we consume, contribute and grow as citizens through alternative economies, community building and radical recycling . . .a universe of groups connected by a shared ethos of environmental consciousness and community-driven support."

Data collection
The nethnography occurred between April 2017 and February 2018.The nature of the research observations varied by platform due to differing interfaces.Kijiji ads are automatically removed after three months, or early by posters, therefore it was necessary to enter the environment regularly (twice per month) in search of new posts, approximating "real time" observation.Two research assistants used a one-way mirror approach to the observation (Urbanik and Roks 2020), which is a digital variant of the non-participatory "complete observer" fieldwork role (Gold 1958) allowing the researcher to passively see into digital ways of life without engaging.While passive netnography might not always yield rich data (Costello, McDermott, and Wallace 2017), much of the data were surprisingly rich with insights on infant feeding, family life, and motivations for engaging in the online space.
Key search words were used (infant formula, baby formula, infant milk, baby milk, milk, baby food, breastmilk) to locate ads on both platforms.On Kijiji, searches were conducted in each Canadian province and territory using the platform's geographic search tools.Photographic evidence of all relevant advertisements were collected using screen shots.Data were collected from Kijiji over an 11-month time frame to capture potential seasonal variation, identifying 1,972 ads.The highest percentage of ads were from Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta (31.7%, 24.6%, and 23%, respectively).
Due to the vast array of Facebook groups that exist for the exchange of secondhand goods in Canada, only a sample was explored for comparative purposes by selecting the province of Nova Scotia because members of the research team could join provincially specific groups or were already members.A limited number of groups were selected based on available research resources (N = 8) that mirrored the acquisition and disposal practices on Kijiji but were more likely to be contained in focused Facebook groups.For example, four buy and sell groups were selected: two named as urban located (one general and one specific to buying and selling children items) and two similarly focused but named as rurally located. 2 Two trading groups were selected (one urban and one rural), one provincially focused helping group, and one provincially focused breastmilk sharing group. 3For groups where there was little activity, data was collected over a longer time frame than in very active groups where it was possible to conclude the nature of activity in a shorter time frame for comparative purposes.Table 1 summarizes the data set by social media platform, time frame, and method of data collection.

Data analysis
Data were imported into QRS NVivo 12 (Mac), a qualitative analysis software for the purposes of coding.One Research Assistant and the author worked together to determine a manifest coding structure based on the surface content that was most apparent (Esterberg 2020).Manifest coding of Kijiji ads and Facebook posts was conducted by the research assistant to capture what food items were being exchanged, and their attributes.Manifest coding also included classifying and quantifying exchange practices (selling, trading, seeking, or gifting).Over time, repeated discursive tactics (Reisigl and Wodak 2009) were discovered within the text and/or photos of the posts where phasing and words were used to deliberately manage impressions about the poster and the food items and persuade engagement.These informed a latent coding structure that was used during a final step of analysis by the author which captured underlying motivations and meaning of the surface content of the ads/posts (Esterberg 2020).

Ethical considerations
This research was deemed exempt from ethics review based on the premise that individuals posting advertisements are doing so in a public forum where those that post have no reasonable expectation of privacy.Like Roks (2017, 219), the author also relied upon her "own ethical rules and considerations to establish guidelines for navigating the issue of informed consent on social media and disseminating associated data."Because of the ambiguous public-private nature of some Facebook groups, permission to collect data from private Facebook groups was requested by disclosing intent using an "opt-out note" which identified the research assistants and explaining how the data would be used.Profile names were not saved in the data set, and any personal content in the posts has not been reported including phone numbers, community names, and locations for meet-ups.

Disposal and acquisition of infant food
Within the Kijiji platform, disposal (via selling, trading, and gifting) of infant food and related coupons was more prevalent than acquisition.Figure 1 shows that the majority (76%) of the ads on Kijiji were for selling purposes (of these 7.6% stated trading as an alternative option).This contrasts with disposal trends in the Canadian secondhand economy overall where donations are the most prevalent (Durif, Arcand, and Connolly 2019).Kijiji ads placed for trading (ads that simultaneously imply seeking) represented 12% of ads.Gifting ads, when there was no expectation of money or goods in return, represented 6% of the Kijiji ads.Finally, there were ads placed only for infant food 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% searching, related product coupons, and occasional family food.The data show that while trading was more prevalent than direct pleas of food seeking, 6% of ads were placed by individuals in search of low-cost or free infant food on Kijiji for either themselves, family members, or friends they were trying to help.The extent of these same exchange practice varied by Facebook group.Buy and sell sites on Facebook mirror more closely the practices found on Kijiji.However, trading was more common within buy and sell sites on Facebook and seeking ads were fewer.Unsurprisingly, trading dominated within the Facebook trading groups, however there were a small amount of selling posts despite being prohibited by group rules.There was also some evidence of strictly seeking and slightly more gifting than in Buy and Sell sites.The Facebook helping group included no selling posts, 18% seeking posts specific to infant food (as well as food for other family members), 36% gifting posts, and 45% trading posts.The breastmilk sharing Facebook group contained only gifting of breast milk (63%) and breast milk acquisition (37%) posts.

The food items: what is disposed and sought?
Breastmilk disposal featured in only 0.1% of all posts (N = 3) on Kijiji (one was being gifted and the other two were offering breastmilk for sale) therefore almost all exchange centered on commercial infant formulas.Powdered infant formulas were the most common item, representing 53% of all infant food-related Kijiji ads.There were a lesser number of ads for liquid concentrated formulas (10%) and ready-to-feed formulas (18%), as well as product coupons and human milk fortifiers.The foods most offered on Kijiji were made by Reckitt Benckiser Health (Mead Johnson Nutrition) corporation followed by Abbot Laboratories Limited (28.7% and 28.1% respectively).Among these corporate brands, non-specialty formulas dominated.However, out of the variety of specialty formulas found, Alimentum (Abbott Laboratories Limited) and Nutramigen (Mead Johnson Nutrition) products (both hypoallergenic formulas advertised for babies with cow's milk protein allergy and related colic) figured prominently.Nestlé products represented 21.3% of posts, and 1.8% for Donone.A variety of products classified as "organics" (6.3%) were being disposed.Some of these were Canadian (i.e., Presidents' Choice Organic) but most (84%) were imported European organic products not for sale in Canada.A lesser number of infant formulas were non-specialty store brands (5.3%).
Seeking ads on Kijiji often did not specify a type of formula, stating a willing to take whatever product was available.For example, a Kijiji ad from Winnipeg, Manitoba read, "looking for unwanted baby food will take any unwanted unopened baby food or formula.Will pick up!" Another read, "Looking for any baby formula coupons or checks.I have some personal household products to trade." While the formula products being disposed of in Facebook groups were similar in nature to the Kijiji ads, they were often described in ways (perhaps) to avoid detection and possible removal for violating the commerce policy.For example, photos of formula were commonly obscured and generically described as "baby food" or "milk" instead of formula.The trading groups used formula, but also other household and food items (e.g., canned goods, baked goods, homemade soup), as well as homemade cannabis edibles and alcohol products as trade items (both prohibited thus described in coded language).There were occasionally offers of services (i.e., house cleaning, collection of bottles) for infant formula.Both infant and adult foods were being disposed of as gifts in the helping group and breastmilk was gifted in the breastmilk sharing facebook group.
Similar to Kijiji, the products being sought on Facebook were either some combinations of a specific brand and/or types: development stage of regular formula, specialty formula (lactose free, hypoallergenic), organic formula, formula coupons, solid infant foods, or breastmilk.Also similar to Kijiji many seeking ads did not specify any particular brand or developmental age needs.Both platforms contained posts that used infant formula as a trade item to secure other infant needs such as diapers, wipes, equipment, clothes, and toys.
In the Facebook trading groups, the helping Facebook group, and a few Kijiji ads, some were additionally seeking to acquire children's school lunch supplies, fruit and vegetables, and food for adults.Grocery store gift cards were commonly requested as trade items, perhaps because of the flexibility and autonomy this cash substitute affords in buying needed food items.For example, a poster from a trading Facebook group wrote, "ISO [In search of]: lunch items for the kids, grocery gift cards, anything to help out a single mom who is trying to pull through as best I can.Name your trade and I will see if I have it."

Price, quantity, development stage
Most ads on Kijiji (70%) featured one or two items for sale with a price range of $10-$30, however the prices varied widely: in about 8% of ads, items were priced at less than $10; just under 10% of Kijiji ads had asking prices of over $50; and the highest, in the $200 -$400 range offering multiple cases of formula or a bundle of many different formula products.The Facebook selling posts mostly offered one or two items thus prices were low.Amounts of breastmilk offered ranged from a few ounces to 300 ounces and neither of the two selling ads on Kijiji stated a price, rather it was "available upon request."Ads typically stated the developmental stage of infancy the product was designed for (with words and/or picture).However, in about 20% of the Kijiji ads, it was difficult to ascertain if the item was specific to a developmental stage.Of those that did specify developmental stage, more than half (58%) were stated or pictured to be "Stage 1" formulas, 10% were "Stage 2" formulas, 4% were "Stage 3" (toddler) formulas, and 1% were for premature infants.Nine percent represented a variety of products of different developmental stages.

Signalling safety and quality assurances
Roughly half of the Kijiji ads and Facebook posts stated expiration dates in the text or included a picture of the same.Similarly, there were statements about the condition of the products such as "still sealed" or "brand new unopened box," or "has not been tampered with."There were also signals to food quality using health claims such as "good for babies with allergies," for babies with "milk sensitivities," "hypoallergenic formula for colicky babies," "for babies with lactose intolerance," or for babies with "cow's milk protein sensitivities" in the text of the ad.There were also statements that the formula was made from "non-genetically modified organisms," was "organic," and at times lengthy product details were provided in the text seemingly copied verbatim from the manufacturer.While such health claims may violate Facebook's (but not Kijiji's) commerce policy, they are routinely used to describe the products.
Close to 7% of the formula ads on Kijiji explicitly stated that the products being disposed were in fact opened or partly used.These items were typically sold for only a few dollars or gifted.For example, a $5 formula ad from Saskatoon stated, "Bought Enfamil formula for my daughter but she ended up switching to a different brand of formula.It is already opened but over half the can is still full.Expires August 28th and would like for someone to take it before it expires!"Often the ads for open products contained additional safety/quality statements to accrue trust in the item, as well as the person posting the ad, including the condition of the home environment, and how the item was stored and handled.For example, an ad from Pincher Creek, Alberta said "I sealed it, and I have a smoke free, bug free, pet free home."One from Brampton, Ontario said, "Hi, I have two bottles of Enfamil formula 6 to 18 months but both opened.I used like a quarter, always washed hands before taking out, $10 each, expires July." Ads to sell and gift breastmilk assured quality with descriptions of the health practices and condition of the lactating mother and her handling and storage of the milk.For example, a Kijiji ad from Quebec stated, "Mother is in very good health.Good diet.Never consumed alcohol and does not smoke."Breastmilk gifting posts on Facebook were similar, one poster writing, "I am a nonsmoker, rare drinker and on no medication."Others claimed they had "no infections," "eat a healthy whole foods diet," and "have a dairy free diet, great for any baby with a daily allergy."There were also the occasional medication disclaimers such as "I'm on high blood pressure meds but fed 2 boys for a year almost a year ago and currently a preemie."

Motivations
Approximately 40% of the Kijiji ads freely included explanations for why the food item was being disposed, no longer needed, or sought including infants' preferences, developmental and health needs, and ecological, altruistic, and economic concerns.These explanations were embedded within the text of the ads as justifications for engaging in the practices.

Infant-focused motivations
Changes to infants' food needs were the most common reason given for disposing items.Many ads stated the need to change formula type due to infant's preference (baby did not like it).For example, a Kijiji poster from Newfoundland wrote, "Probiotic formula.Bought for my son when he started at daycare.Tried it three times and he wouldn't take it.$15." Others wrote how their infant had outgrown the developmental stage of the formula, or the infant now needed a specialty formula due to a nutritional need or health concern.For example, a Kijiji post from Prince Edward Island stated, "Three brand new cans of Nestle Goodstart, Stage One baby formula.Earliest expiration date is November and the latest is March.Switched over to another brand and no longer need.asking $30." Formula (and related coupons) were also being disposed of because the person posting had bought or was given the wrong type of formula for their infant's needs.In some cases they had received the formula as a gift from a person, or received it directly from a formula company but it was not needed because they were breastfeeding.A Kijiji post from Alberta stated, "This is formula that came as samples, my baby never needed formula, all still sealed, expires in July and September.Free to someone that is in need."Others were disposing formula received from a formula company that "was the wrong type."It was common to see pictures of "gift packs" of formula products or free samples provided by formula companies on offer for sale, trade, or free.Some were disposing formula they received from a foodbank because it was the wrong type, a Kijiji poster from Manitoba wrote that their "daughter is on a different type then these so looking forward to being able to buy her formula."Others were forced to buy the wrong type of formula because it was the only type available in the store.A Kijiji poster from rural Saskatchewan wrote, "One can of concentrate and one can of powder formula just bought this week because ran out of formula and that's all the store had.Only used like 12 scoops out of it.Baby doesn't like it.Stored inside at room temperature."In four instances, formula was being disposed of because the infant was no longer living in the home.
Justifications for seeking infant food items were most often infant-focused as well, centering on health concerns, infant's preference, and changing age of infant.Justifications for seeking breastmilk were health-related including wanting breastmilk for sick infants, infants with digestive issues or intolerances to formula, or because of breastfeeding difficulties (tongue-tied baby), poor milk supply, and poor physical health of the mothers.For example, a poster from the Breastmilk Sharing Group wrote "Wondering if anyone has breastmilk available for my 2-month old [exclusively breastfeed] daughter.I'm having supply issues right now and she is crying at my breast trying to feed which I will be able to deal with once she is able to get into to see a specialist but in the meantime I really need to supplement milk and I don't really want her to have formula if possible."Another wrote that her "son needs breastmilk for his digestion" and that she is "not physically able to produce enough for him . . .I'm an under supplier and my daughter has not been doing well on formula.We have tried different kinds, but she still has trouble.I'm willing to travel and provide bags, and anything else that might be needed."

Ecological and altruistic-economical motivations
Ecological motivations often converged with altruistic motivations to care for others' economic needs.People frequently explained they did not want formula "to go to waste" especially considering its cost and the material food needs of others.For example, a Kijiji poster from Ontario wrote, "18 cans of Enfamil lactose free concentrate.Baby had to switch to a new formula and I don't want it to go to waste and it wasn't cheap.It cost $52 for 12 cans and just want some of my money back.$45 for all 18."The ethos of the Facebook trading groups assumes the values of waste avoidance and community support which were sometimes explicitly stated but more often implied.Gifting of infant food often contained altruistic caring statements for others who may be in need.For example, a Kijiji poster from Ontario wrote "We didn't use it and we thought someone else could rather than throwing it out.See pictures for details." Another from the Helping Society Facebook Group wrote, "I have an opened container of Enfamil A + 2(suitable for 6 months+) with just a few scoops out of it.It's been opened for about a week, so it's still fine for use.Didn't agree with my baby.Free if you're in need but would appreciate a trade for Similac Alimentum or Similac rebates."Ads for gifting breastmilk represented generous and proud altruism, almost always including statements of wanting to help other families in need and not wanting their valuable (symbolically rather than monetarily) breastmilk to "go to waste."

Economic motivations for selling and seeking
Some ads on Kijiji displayed entrepreneurial motivations.For example, small businesses that were "involved in the acquisition and distribution of various inventories" were present.Additionally, there were identical ads across the country from a distributor called orga-nic4baby -selling "quality products" of European organic formulas.For example, a post in Alberta stated,"We have HIPP, HOLLE & Lenbenswert organic baby formula imported directly from EUROPE (Germany, England, and Holland).Excellent quality products made from traceable organic milk!Please visit us at [website]."Individuals too placed ads for imported organic formula, either selling extra they no longer needed or distributing items they had personally imported to Canada.Others offered alternative affordable buying options for non-organics formulas, boasting "formula at discounted prices."An example from Alberta stated, "I have the following brands of baby formula for sale @cheaper prices than any store.Every container is sealed, expiry dates vary.A friend and I pool money together regularly and buy items at wholesale prices which allows me to sell cheaper than retail, feed my kids for an affordable price and help other parents who want to save a few bucks!Prices are NOT firm!Let me know which brand and type & we will figure out a price that is affordable for you.I also offer 1 free tub of your choice for each new customer you send me, so tell your friends!I am able to deliver within reason at certain times of the day, almost anytime during the evening and anything on the weekends free of charge." Posters, describing economic need due to difficult life circumstances, frequently drew on discursive tactics that signal the temporality of their problem (i.e., unexpected events).For example, the reader is reassured that every effort would be made for their acquisition of food (pick items up, willing to take recycling for exchange), acknowledging their past efforts (breastfeeding, foodbanks), and that they did or will do whatever it takes to feed their children.However, despite this, many in both rural and urban locations also stated they were unable to travel to complete the transaction and they needed to also ask for food to be delivered to them.Hoping to deflect potential judgment, the posts both recognized and appealed to the kindness of strangers.A Helping Society Facebook Group post read "I'm desperately in need of food for my family.It's myself, my boyfriend and our 11-month-old daughter.We can't get groceries until Friday and are out of food.Anything would be greatly appreciated, and bread, meat, milk, and snacks would be best, but I can make do with anything, I don't drive or owe a vehicle so drop off would be best."A single mother from Alberta acknowledged in her Kijiji post titled "single mom in need of baby formula" that is was "unfortunate" she needed to "turn to Kijiji for help for formula," writing that she was doing so because of "a financial burden."She stated that she was "looking for some Good Start formula" and wrote, "If you have any you could donate, please e-mail me.Thank you in advance!"Another Kijiji poster from Alberta provided a lengthy explanation of her situation in order to deflect judgment, saying "I'm on fixed income, 80% of my money goes to my rent.I've got a one and two year old boy.Their needs are always met with pampers, formula, baby food, snacks.It's all very costly.Never have anything left for food for myself because of all the money goes to their needs then a bit to my utility bills.If you could be of help, and yes, I used up help from food bank and church, please message me.No rude comments as I've said in my post that's where all my money goes is rent bills in all my baby's needs.I can pick up gift cards or empties."A Kijiji poster from British Columbia wrote that she was a "single mom in desperate need" because of a family emergency on top of a three-month delay in receiving government entitlements.She wrote, "I have no food I am behind him on rent, and I have no money to get formula, diapers, or even a Christmas present for my son.I have many items for sale for anyone who is of interest." Family and friends also posted on other's behalf, stating unanticipated events that cause need.For example, one Kijiji ad from Nova Scotia stated, "Looking for free Enfamil formula for a family friend in need who just left a bad relationship.She is low on cash, and this would help her out so much.Thanks."Another from Ontario stated, "We are trying to get together a bunch of stuff for a friend who had to take her in her newborn niece due to unfortunate events.She has nothing and needs everything, so we're hoping that we can help her out with the community support."

The digital infant foodscape and practices of second-hand exchange
The internet and social media have facilitated social connections between family and friends across geographic divides and between unknown peers (Basden and Martin 2016;Niela-Vilén et al. 2014).This is said to fill the gap left by the loss of geographically rooted networks brought on by transformations of work and increases in residential mobility (Drentea and Moren-Cross 2005;Litt 2000).However, little research has documented using social media and collaborative consumptions platforms to meet food needs for infants, or otherwise.Through exploring secondhand infant food exchange as a timely cultural practice, this research contributes to documenting austerity parenting in the realm of infant feeding.It makes visible the ways in which mothers of infants, and occasionally friends and other family members, use the internet to generate or increases social capital through widening support networks for material food needs.It compliments research about everyday infant feeding realities in food insecure households (Frank 2020), offering new insight on informal pathways used to source food for infants.
Selling reduced-price infant formula was the most prominent practice evident within the Kijiji platform and the Buy and Sell Facebook groups and there was a surprising number of written explanations of why infant food could not be used, why it was being disposed, and what if anything was wanted in return.Formulas, coupons, and breastmilk all possessed tangible exchange value of multiple forms.In many instances infant foods worked as a form of currency to acquire either economic capital when sold, or an alternative food capital when traded.But all also held value as gifts in the moral economy of exchange (Cheal 1988), whereby seeking money or food currencies coexists with a community ethos of altruistic care to meet both the explicit and implied desperation of infant food seekers, as well as ethics of environmental consciousness, and at times, anti-consumerism.
By placing the experiences of marginalized feeders at the center the data show that secondhand infant food exchange online is austerity-motivated but often collaborative, supporting Holmes's 2019 claim that thrift motivations are multiple and overlapping and are "never one thing or another" (p.132).In line with the collaborative consumption trends of peer-to-peer exchange of under-utilized goods (Belk 2014;Botsman and Rogers 2010) secondhand infant food items were both new (unused, leftover) and used (open cans of formula) and as Gregson et al. (2013) describe ownership was being transferred through a variety of practices and currencies (cash, trade items) or gifted.The sheer volume of online secondhand infant food exchange activity is evidence of collaborative consumption trends in infant feeding whereby people come together to create mechanisms to fill the gaps of their own and other's food needs.However, this do-it-your-selves food provisioning, while collaborative in these ways, sits at the nexus between families' (mostly mothers) responsibility of infant feeding and an inadequate social safety net in the early years which ultimately makes food unaffordable for families and infants food insecure.Many infant food seekers expressed that turning to Kijiji was their last resort, but secondhand markets do not ensure anyone can find what they need (Ertz, Durif, and Arcand 2017).Much of the data showed that those seeking infant food were in search of the one food item their infant ate, or for those most desperate, any infant food as a means of survival.Needing to forage for infant food online, and the uncertainly it will be obtained is a manifestation of infant food insecurity in Canada -preceded by austerity agendas and structural inequalities the create unequal access to food.
This same nexus also shapes how secondhand exchange of infant food is performed online.This realm of the infant foodscape has its own sets of organizational arrangements that gives rise to unique dynamics of exchange.Agentic work of sourcing food is displayed with innovations that bypass the rules of the platforms (e.g., selling products that make health claims) and government advice (e.g., sharing breastmilk).The official and arguably vague commerce policies specific to infant food led to collective bending (or ignoring) of the organizational arrangements of the platforms as a matter of course, such as obscuring photos and using generic words to disguise food items and practices that are prohibited.Entrepreneurial agency is displayed through selling bulk purchases of infant food, unusable (for a variety of reasons) purchased food, or free samples received through direct-to-parent marketing to maximize income. 4We know that the internet and social media has made it easier for corporations to obtain and use personal information to target their marketing of breastmilk substitutes (Abrahams 2012).On the flip side, this marketing strategy is exploited when these samples are transformed into a currency of exchange to acquire money, gift cards, or different foods.
The online nature of these activities also shapes how posters describe infant feeding matters and their work around sourcing food.The internet may enable trust between strangers, widen social networks of support, and expand the likelihood of finding food, but doing so can also expose families and infants to risk they might not have encountered otherwise, such as the risk of surveillance, poor-bashing, and unsafe food.Impression management -"accentuating certain facts" and omitting others to create impressions about oneself, objects, or events (Goffman 1959, 65) occurred often to mitigate these risks.Those disposing infant food at times present themselves as clean and trustworthy and the food as safe and of good quality.Those seeking infant food worked especially hard at impression management to protect their families and their moral identities as good mothers (Collette 2005).Asking for help, either through trades or pleas, (more often occurred within the Kijiji platform possibly because of the anonymity the site) was regularly accompanied by descriptions of financial burdens, often framed as emergencies.Posters carefully manage their presentations of worthiness for help from strangers, even when looking for food for others.This may be particularly necessary online when one must balance privacy concerns with needs for help (Chalklen and Anderson 2017) and to deflect the stigmatizing nature, and risk of child welfare intervention that can accompany food insecurity (Pineau et al. 2021;Purdam, Garratt, and Esmai 2016).

Conclusion
The aim of this netnography was to explore the activities and norms of infant food exchange that occur within online secondhand platform as they unfolded naturally.By collecting over 2000 post over almost a year, this marginal realm of the infant foodscape emerged.It proved to be a rich setting for revealing the new cultural practice of online foraging for infant food.These spaces also facilitate infant foods being disposed of through secondhand selling, trades, and gifts.Secondhand, digitally mediated, infant food exchange revealed itself to be a cultural activity rooted in austerity struggles and social and environmental uncertainly -converging with technologies used to expand social capital to meet such challenges through collaborative efforts.Ultimately, this research brings to the forefront how some families navigate infant food insecurity as excluded consumers in an unforgiving marketplace motivated by a complex mixture of desperation, innovation, ecological concerns, and morality to care for others when mainstream food access is out of reach within the current political and economic system.

Notes
1. Since these data were collected, Facebook's facilitation of secondhand exchanges has been enhanced by the creation of Facebook Marketplace.2. Both urban and rural sites were included to capture potential issues of infant food access related to rurality.However transportation problems were similarity noted by both rural and urban posters.3.For the most part, Facebook posts were collected manually as well, despite having the digital capabilities of NCapture, the Nvivo internet extension which allows researchers to gather and download social media content as data sets or photos.Retroactive data collection using NCapture was only possible in select instances.4.There was some evidence that selling extended beyond personal unusable items to entrepreneurial selling of large quantities and multiple types of formula.In some cases, this was expressed as a service to help others, but it is possible that some of these entrepreneurial-like ads are an example of the rumored black market of infant formula retail theft (Carter 2017).

Table 1 .
Summary of infant food related posts by platform.