Production and consumption in agri-food transformations: rethinking integrative perspectives

Jonathan D Beacham*, David M Evans

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
14 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The adverse consequences of contemporary agri-food relations, particularly in terms of public health and environmental sustainability, have led to growing calls—across interdisciplinary research and policy perspectives—for fundamental systemic change. Focusing on the interconnections and ‘workings’ of agri-food systems, these accounts have coalesced around the vernacular of transformation to think through the possible ways in which these relations might be configured differently. Against this backdrop, the relationship between food ‘production’ and food ‘consumption’ emerges as a key problematic. This paper revisits debates developed within Sociologia Ruralis approximately two decades ago concerning the terms on which consumption and consumers are brought in to agri-food scholarship, arguing that these are given renewed impetus in the context of contemporary calls for agri-food transformation. We build on and advance these previous integrative efforts both by taking stock of recent advances in consumption studies and by responding to the shifting contours of food politics. The analysis focuses on the case of Alternative Proteins (APs) and outlines three substantive bodies of scholarship—the geographies of edibility; the economy of qualities; visceral politics—that we suggest offer considerable potential for renewing and updating the development of integrative perspectives on production and consumption. To conclude, we reflect on the theoretical and practical risks of seeking to reconcile ‘production’ and ‘consumption’ and argue that these new integrative concepts may themselves provide more suitable conceptual ‘building blocks’ for exploring the transformation of agri-food relations.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)309-327
Number of pages19
JournalSociologia Ruralis
Volume63
Issue number2
Early online date17 Jan 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Grant Reference: BB/V004719/1), which supported this research. We also would like to thank participants who provided constructive and generous comments on an early version of this article at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, August 2021. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the extremely useful feedback of two anonymous peer reviewers whose valuable suggestions improved this article considerably.

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Grant Reference: BB/V004719/1), which supported this research. We also would like to thank participants who provided constructive and generous comments on an early version of this article at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, August 2021. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the extremely useful feedback of two anonymous peer reviewers whose valuable suggestions improved this article considerably.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Sociologia Ruralis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Rural Sociology.

Keywords

  • agri-food relations
  • integrative perspectives
  • transformation
  • edibility
  • economy of qualities
  • visceral politics
  • Alternative Proteins

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