The fight over food : producers, consumers, and activists challenge the global food system / edited by Wynne Wright and Gerad Middendorf.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Middendorf, Gerad, editor.

Wright, Wynne, editor.

Series:

Rural studies series (University Park, Pa.)

Rural studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food supply--Social aspects.

Food supply.

Agriculture--Social aspects.

Agriculture.

Physical Description:

viii, 301 p. : ill., map.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pennsylvania : Pennsylvania State University Press, [2008]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

“One problem with the food system is that price is the bottom line rather than having the bottom line be land stewardship, an appreciation for the environmental and social value of small-scale family farms, or for organically grown produce.” —Interview with farmer in Skagit County, Washington For much of the later twentieth century, food has been abundant and convenient for most residents of advanced industrial societies. The luxury of taking the safety and dependability of food for granted pushed it to the back burner in the consciousness of many. Increasingly, however, this once taken-for-granted food system is coming under question on issues such as the humane treatment of animals, genetically engineered foods, and social and environmental justice. Many consumers are no longer content with buying into the mainstream, commodity-driven food market on which they once depended. Resistance has emerged in diverse forms, from protests at the opening of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide to ever-greater interest in alternatives, such as CSAs (community-supported agriculture), fair trade, and organic foods. The food system is increasingly becoming an arena of struggle that reflects larger changes in societal values and norms, as expectations are moving beyond the desire for affordable, convenient foods to a need for healthy and environmentally sound alternatives. In this book, leading scholars and scholar-activists provide case studies that illuminate the complexities and contradictions that surround the emergence of a “new day” in agriculture. The essays found in The Fight Over Food analyze and evaluate both the theoretical and historical contexts of the agrifood system and the ways in which trends of individual action and collective activity have led to an “accumulation of resistance” that greatly affects the mainstream market of food production. The overarching theme that integrates the case studies is the idea of human agency and the ways in which people purposefully and creatively generate new forms of action or resistance to facilitate social changes within the structure of predominant cultural norms. Together these studies examine whether these combined efforts will have the strength to create significant and enduring transformations in the food system.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction Fighting Over Food: Change in the Agrifood System

Contributors

part I. conceptual framework

1. Agency and Resistance in the Sociology of Agriculture and Food

2. Agency and the Agrifood System

3. resistance, agency, and counterwork: a theoretical positioning

PART II MAKING ROOM FOR AGENCY

4 counterhegemony or bourgeois piggery? food politics and the case of foodshare

5 resistance, redistribution, and power in the fair trade banana initiative

6 sustaining outrage: cultural capital, strategic location, and motivating sensibilities in the U.S. anti-genetic engineering movement

7 social life and transformation in salmon fisheries and aquaculture

PART III CONSTRAINTS TO AGENCY

8 infertile ground: the struggle for a new Puerto Rican food system

9 possibilities for revitalizing local agriculture: evidence from four counties in Washington state

10 consumers and citizens in the global agrifood system: the cases of new Zealand and south Africa in the global red meat chain

conclusion: from mindful eating to structural change

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780271034980

027103498X

OCLC:

250622584