Geographies of Meat : Politics, Economy and Culture

193 Pages·2017·14.849 MB·English

by  Harvey Neo, Jody Emel

Geographies of Meat
With the ever-rising demand for meat around the world, the production of
meat has changed dramatically in the past few decades. What has brought
about the increasing popularity and attendant normalisation of factory farms
across many parts of the world? What are some of the ways to resist such
broad convergences in meat production and how successful are they?
Thisbooklocatestheanswerstothesequestionsattheintersectionbetween
theculture,scienceandpoliticaleconomyofmeatproductionandconsumption.
Itdetailshowandwhytechniquesofproductionhavespreadacrosstheworld,
albeit in a spatially uneven way. It argues that the modern meat production
andconsumptionsphereistheoutcomeofacomplexmatrixofculturalpolitics,
economics and technological faith. Drawing from examples across the world
(includingAmerica,EuropeandAsia),thetensionsandrepercussionsofmeat
production and consumption are also analysed.
From a geographical perspective, food animals have been given considerably
less attention compared with wild animals or pets. This book, framed con-
ceptually by critical animal studies, governmentality and commodification, is
a theoretically driven and empirically rich study that advances the study of
food animals in geography as well as in the wider social sciences.
Harvey Neo is an associate professor at the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore. His research interests include the political
economy of meat, green urban development and geographies of food. He is
an at-large board member of the Animal Geography Specialty Group at the
Association of American Geographers, and editor of Geoforum and associate
editor of Regional Studies, Regional Science.
Jody Emel is a professor at the Graduate School of Geography, Clark Uni-
versity, USA. Her research interests include animal geographies, political
economy of mining and water resources. Her current research focuses on the
political ecology of factory farming. She teaches courses in natural resource
development, feminist theory and nature, hydrology, and the relationship
between economy and environment.
Critical Food Studies
Series editor: Michael K. Goodman, University of Reading, UK
The study of food has seldom been more pressing or prescient. From the
intensifying globalization of food, a world-wide food crisis and the continuing
inequalities of its production and consumption, to food’s exploding mediapre-
sence, and its growing re-connections to places and people through ‘alternative
food movements’, this series promotes critical explorations of contemporary
food cultures and politics. Building on previous but disparate scholarship, its
overall aims are to develop innovative and theoretical lenses and empirical
materialin order tocontributeto– but alsobegin tomore fullydelineate– the
confines and confluences of an agenda of critical food research andwriting.
Ofparticularconcernareoriginaltheoreticalandempiricaltreatmentsofthe
materialisations of food politics, meanings and representations, the shifting
politicaleconomiesandecologiesoffoodproductionandconsumptionandthe
growing transgressions between alternative and corporatist food networks.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/
Critical-Food-Studies/book-series/CFS
Confronting Hunger in the USA Geographies of Meat
Searching for Community Politics, Economy and Culture
Empowerment and Food Security Harvey Neo and Jody Emel
in Food Access Programs
Adam M. Pine
Forthcoming
Children, Nature and Food Hunger and Postcolonial Writing
Organising Eating in School Muzna Rahman
Mara Miele and Monica Truninger
Taste, Waste and the New
Practising Empowerment Materiality of Food
Wine, Ethics and Power in Bethaney Turner
Post-Apartheid South Africa
Agatha Herman
Geographies of Meat
Politics, Economy and Culture
Harvey Neo and Jody Emel
K ~~o~;J~n~~~up
ORKYOR LLONODONNLODNDOONN
Y
LONDONANDNEWYORK
Firstpublished2017
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2017HarveyNeoandJodyEmel
TherightofHarveyNeoandJodyEmeltobeidentifiedasauthorsofthis
workhasbeenassertedbytheminaccordancewithsections77and78of
theCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation
withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Neo,Harvey,author.|Emel,Jody,author.
Title:Geographiesofmeat:politics,economyandculture/HarveyNeo
andJodyEmel.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2017.|Series:
Criticalfoodstudies|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016046617|ISBN9781409440338(hardback)|
ISBN9781315584386(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Meatindustryandtrade--Politicalaspects.|Animal
industry--Politicalaspects.|Animals--Economicaspects.|Biopolitics.
Classification:LCCHD9410.5.N462017|DDC338.1/76--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016046617
ISBN:978-1-4094-4033-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-58438-6(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To Samuel Keith Lenhardt (1986–2015) and the Neo family
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations x
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations and Acronyms xiii
1 Introduction 1
Preamble 1
Commodification 4
Political Economy 5
Biopolitics and Governmentality 7
Critical Animal Geographies and Justice 8
Conclusion 11
2 The Political Economy of Meat: Global Trends and Local
Tensions 13
Introduction 13
Food Regimes 14
Political Economy of Food and the Complicit Politics of
Public–Private Sectors 16
Political Economy, Institutions and Historical Contingency 18
Contract Farming and Corporate Social Responsibility 20
Normalising Industrial Contract Farming: Case Study of
Poland 24
Tensions and Perceptions in Polish Pig Production 27
When Culture Meets Political Economy: The Contrary Case
Study of Malaysia 32
Conclusion 40
3 Science, Technology and the Commodification of Food Animals 41
Introduction 41
Biopower, Biopolitics and Chained Commodities 44
The Political Economy of Animal Science 46
viii Contents
A Brief History of Animal Science 49
Fast and Unnatural Commodity Production 52
‘Euthanasia’ Experiments and Rendered Commodities 55
Conclusion 61
4 The Global Meat Factory and the Environment 64
Introduction 64
The Intensification of the Global Livestock Industry 65
The Ecological Impacts of Livestock Production and
Consumption 67
Labour Issues and Workers’ Health 71
The Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment:
Hoofprint Analysis 76
Who Is Paying Attention to These Data? 78
The Biopolitics of Creating the Model Animal: Ramifications and
Mitigation 80
Conclusion 82
5 The Thanatopolitics of Industrialised Animal Life and Death 83
Introduction 83
What Are CAFOs? 84
The Biopolitics of the Animal-Industrial Complex 86
The Theory and Science of Animal ‘Welfare’ 87
‘Thereisnowordfor“pig”intheLakotalanguage’:CaseStudyof
South Dakota 91
Animal Welfare in Slaughterhouses 95
Transnational Politics of Food Animal Transportation 98
Conclusion 106
6 On Not Eating Meat: Vegetarianism, Science and Advocacy 107
Introduction 107
The Limits of Organic Livestock Production 108
Vegetarianism and Social Action 116
Framing Vegetarianism in East Asia 120
Cultured Meat and Meat Analogues: Resistance or
Commodification Redux? 128
Conclusion 133
7 Conclusions 134
Introduction 134
Contents ix
Softly-Softly and the Resilient Governmentality of the Meat
Complex 135
Geographies of Meat: The Missing Pieces and Future
Prospects 137
Conclusion 142
References 144
Index 169