Abstract
Anthropologists have long explored the relationship between culture, food and eating. Recent work in sociology has also addressed these themes. Research into food in political economy, on the other hand, remains located in discussions revolving around the production of commodities. When consumption is investigated, it is rarely from a perspective which includes cultural factors. This chapter is an excursion into the linkages between food, culture and identity through a discussion of the political economy of meat. It explores the history of thinking about meat, paying particular attention to shifts in ways of thinking about meat over time, and to contemporary conflicts over meat and meat products. Perceptions of the importance of meat are not restricted to its nutritional value but extend to non-food issues. Representations, and consumption, of meat (and blood) encode cultural messages about selfhood and group identity.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Adams, C. J. (1990) The Sexual Politics of Meat ( Cambridge: Polity).
Bansback, B. (1994) ‘Meat Demand Economics’, in Commission of the European Communities, pp. 1–14.
Bishop, R. V. (1990) The World Poultry Market- Government Intervention and Multilateral Policy Reform ( Washington: US Department of Agriculture).
Bonanno, A., L. Busch, W. Friedland, L. Gouveia, and E. Mingione (eds) (1994) From Columbus to ConAgra: The Globalization of Agriculture and Food ( Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas ).
Burton, M. and R. Young (1990) ‘Meat Consumption: Have Tastes Changed?’, The Economic Review 8 (2), pp. 7–10.
Cockburn, A. (1996) ‘A Short, Meat-Oriented History of the World: from Eden to the Mattole’, New Left Review 215 (Jan/Feb), pp. 16–42.
Commission of the European Communities (1994) Meat Consumption in the European Community ( Brussels: European Communities).
Cronon, W. (1991) Nature’s Metropolis ( New York: W. W. Norton).
Donellan, C (ed.) (1996) Body Image ( Cambridge: Independence ).
Douglas, M (1975) Implicit Meanings ( London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).
FAO (1989) Aspects of the World Feed-Livestock Economy, Economic and Social Development Paper 80, ( Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization ).
Fiddes, N. (1991) Meat: a Natural Symbol ( London: Routledge).
Friedman, H. (1993) ‘The Political Economy of Food: a Global Crisis’, New Left Review, Jan/Feb, pp. 29–56.
Goodman, D. and M. Redclift (1991) Refashioning Nature: Food, Culture and Ecology ( London: Routledge).
Goody, J. (1982) Cooking, Cuisine and Class ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Gouveia, L. (1994) `Global Strategies and Local Linkages: the Case of the US Meatpacking Industry’, in Bonanno (eds) From Columbus to ConAgra: the Globalization of Agriculture and Food ( Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas ), pp. 125–48.
Grigg, D. (1995) ‘The Nutritional Transition in Western Europe’, Journal of Historical Geography 21 (3), pp. 247–58.
Heffernan, W. and D. H. Constance (1994) `Transnational Corporations and the Globalization of the Food System’, in A. Bonanno et al. (eds) From Columbus to ConAgra: the Globalization of Agriculture and Food ( Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas ), pp. 29–51.
Henry, R. and G. Rothwell (1995) The World Poultry Industry ( Washington: International Finance Corporation).
Jensen, W. K. (1994) Nutrition and Meat Consumption — a basis for discussion in Commission of the European Communities, pp. 1–4.
Lappé, F. M. (1975) Diet For a Small Planet ( New York: Ballantine).
Levenstein, H. (1993) Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America ( New York: Oxford University Press).
McMichael, P. D. (1992) ‘Tensions between National and International Control of the World Food Order: Contours of a New Food Regime’, Sociological Perspectives 35 (2), pp. 343–65.
Mennell, S, A. Murcott and A. H. van Otterloo (1992) The Sociology of Food: Eating, Diet and Culture ( London: Sage).
North, R. (1993) Death by Regulation: the Butchery of the British Meat Industry ( London: IEA Health and Welfare Unit Health Series No. 12 ).
OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) (1988) Trade in Meat: Recent Developments and Policies (Paris: OECD Group on Meat and Dairy Products of the Working Party on Agricultural Policies and Markets of the Committee for Agriculture. Note by the Secretariat, September 29 ).
Raynolds, L. T., D. Myhre, P. McMichael, V. Carro-Figueroa and F. H. Buttel (1993) ‘The “New” Internationalization of Agriculture: a Reformulation’, World Development 21 (7), pp. 1101–21.
Sanderson, S. E. (1986) `The Emergence of the “World Steer”: International and Foreign Domination in Latin American Cattle Production’, in F. LaMond Tullis and W. Ladd Hollist (eds) Food, the State and International Political Economy ( Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press ), pp. 123–48.
Spitters, P. (1994) ‘Image and Meat Consumption’, in Commission of the European Communities, pp. 1–8.
Twigg, J. (1983) ‘Vegetarianism and the Meanings of Meat’, in A. Murcott (ed.) The Sociology of Food and Eating ( Aldershot: Gower ), pp. 31–44.
Visser, M. (1989) Much Depends on Dinner ( Harmondsworth: Penguin).
Walsh, M. (1982) The Rise of the Midwestern Meatpacking Industry ( Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press).
WTO (1995a) The International Markets for Meat 1994–1995 ( Geneva: World Trade Organization ).
WTO (1995b) Summary of the Results of the Uruguay Round in the Meat Sector ( Geneva: World Trade Organization).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Williams, M. (2000). The Political Economy of Meat: Food, Culture and Identity. In: Youngs, G. (eds) Political Economy, Power and the Body. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983904_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983904_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-71924-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-333-98390-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)