The Fight Over Food: Producers, Consumers, and Activists Challenge the Global Food System

Author:   Wynne Wright (Michigan State University) ,  Gerad Middendorf (Kansas State University)
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
ISBN:  

9780271032740


Pages:   312
Publication Date:   17 December 2007
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Our Price $169.00 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

The Fight Over Food: Producers, Consumers, and Activists Challenge the Global Food System


Add your own review!

Overview

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 purposely 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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Wynne Wright (Michigan State University) ,  Gerad Middendorf (Kansas State University)
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.540kg
ISBN:  

9780271032740


ISBN 10:   027103274
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   17 December 2007
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Fighting Over Food: Change in the Agrifood System Wynne Wright and Gerad Middendorf Part I. Conceptual Framework 1. Agency and Resistance in the Sociology of Agriculture and Food Alessandro Bonanno and Douglas H. Constance 2. Agency and the Agrifood System William H. Friedland 3. Resistance, Agency, and Counterwork: A Theoretical Positioning Norman Long Part II. Case Studies: Making Room for Agency 4. Counterhegemony or Bourgeois Piggery? Food Politics and the Case of FoodShare Josée Johnston 5. Resistance, Redistribution, and Power in the Fair Trade Banana Initiative Aimee Shreck 6. Sustaining Outrage: Cultural Capital, Strategic Location, and Motivating Sensibilities in the U.S. Anti-Genetic Engineering Movement William A. Munro and Rachel A. Schurman 7. Social Life and Transformation in Salmon Fisheries and Aquaculture Michael Skladany Part III. Case Studies: Constraints to Agency 8. Infertile Ground: The Struggle for a New Puerto Rican Food System Amy Guptill 9. Possibilities for Revitalizing Local Agriculture: Evidence from Four Counties in Washington State Raymond A. Jussaume Jr. and Kazumi Kondoh 10. Consumers and Citizens in the Global Agrifood System: The Cases of New Zealand and South Africa in the Global Red Meat Chain Keiko Tanaka and Elizabeth Ransom Conclusion: From Mindful Eating to Structural Change Wynne Wright and Gerad Middendorf Index

Reviews

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.


How will we feed ourselves in the future? Who will decide? Can people acting together make a difference in the food system to come? This book takes up the key sociological questions of structure and agency in addressing these questions. It moves beyond abstract debates, applying the structure/agency lens to a most important human system the one that produces and distributes our food. . . . The Fight Over Food illuminates possibilities for change in the food system and simultaneously reminds us of the constraints of global capitalism. This book will be of interest not only to sociologists who study food and agriculture, but to all students of social change within a variety of disciplines. The Fight Over Food points us in directions for our engagement both as scholars and as citizens of the world who care about food. Patricia Allen, American Journal of Sociology


How will we feed ourselves in the future? Who will decide? Can people acting together make a difference in the food system to come? This book takes up the key sociological questions of structure and agency in addressing these questions. It moves beyond abstract debates, applying the structure/agency lens to a most important human system the one that produces and distributes our food. . . . The Fight Over Food illuminates possibilities for change in the food system and simultaneously reminds us of the constraints of global capitalism. This book will be of interest not only to sociologists who study food and agriculture, but to all students of social change within a variety of disciplines. The Fight Over Food points us in directions for our engagement both as scholars and as citizens of the world who care about food. Patricia Allen, American Journal of Sociology


Author Information

Wynne Wright is Assistant Professor of Community, Food, and Agriculture at Michigan State University. Gerad Middendorf is Associate Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

Aorrng

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List