{"title":"Between “better than” and “as good as”: mobilizing social representations of alternative proteins to transform meat and dairy consumption practices","authors":"Claudia Laviolette, Laurence Godin","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10592-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10592-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This article is concerned with the dynamic of social change in the domain of food consumption and seeks to understand the role played by social representations in the transformation of daily food practices. It rests on a model of change that hinges on the processes of cultivation and naturalization of new components of practices. Social representation theory is used to enhance the understanding of the ways that representations contribute to these processes of cultivation and naturalization. Using a visual and multimodal framework for analyzing online environments, the research looked at 984 Instagram posts published by 34 actors who have an interest in promoting alternative proteins in the Canadian context. Results show an emergent subfield of food consumption defined by representations of alternative proteins actively and fluidly intertwined with those of their meat and dairy counterparts. This interplay emerges as being confrontational in the cultivation phase of the model for changing practices –where alternative proteins are presented as being better than meat and dairy – but becomes much more conciliatory during its naturalization phase, in which alternative proteins are presented as being as good as meat and dairy.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1895 - 1906"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141352570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revealing agricultural land ownership concentration with cadastral and company network data","authors":"Clemens Jänicke, Daniel Müller","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10590-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10590-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In many high-income countries, agricultural land is highly concentrated in a few hands, but detailed knowledge of ownership structures is limited. We examined land ownership structures and agricultural land concentration for the entire state of Brandenburg, Germany (1.3 million ha), using cadastral and company network data. Our aim was to characterise all landowners, analyse the degree of ownership concentration, and examine the role of the largest landowners in more detail. We found a high fragmentation of ownership among 185,000 different owners. Most of the land was owned by individuals not active in agriculture and only a third of the land was owned by farmers and other agricultural actors. Absentee ownership covered a quarter of the land. Ownership concentration was low to moderate in most regions and reached high levels in only a few areas. The largest owners were public institutions, private investors and nature protection institutions. Areas where public institutions owned a lot of land showed high concentrations, but also some areas where private landowners owned a lot of land. In summary, our analysis provides rare information on the concentration of agricultural land ownership in a large region. Such analysis facilitates better justification and design of policies that regulate agricultural land markets.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"42 1","pages":"159 - 175"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10590-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141356607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scott Slater, Mark Lawrence, Benjamin Wood, Paulo Serodio, Amber Van Den Akker, Phillip Baker
{"title":"The rise of multi-stakeholderism, the power of ultra-processed food corporations, and the implications for global food governance: a network analysis","authors":"Scott Slater, Mark Lawrence, Benjamin Wood, Paulo Serodio, Amber Van Den Akker, Phillip Baker","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10593-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10593-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The rise of multi-stakeholder institutions (MIs) involving the ultra-processed food (UPF) industry has raised concerns among food and public health scholars, especially with regards to enhancing the legitimacy and influence of transnational food corporations in global food governance (GFG) spaces. However, few studies have investigated the governance composition and characteristics of MIs involving the UPF industry, nor considered the implications for organizing global responses to UPFs and other major food systems challenges. We address this gap by conducting a network analysis to map global MIs involving the UPF industry, drawing data from web sources, company reports, business and market research databases, and academic and grey literature. We identified 45 such global food system MIs. Of these, executives from the UPF industry or affiliated interest groups held almost half (<i>n</i> = 263, or 43.8%) of the total 601 board seat positions. Executives from a small number of corporations, especially Unilever (<i>n</i> = 20), Nestlé (<i>n</i> = 17), PepsiCo Inc (<i>n</i> = 14), and The Coca-Cola Company (<i>n</i> = 13) held the most board seat positions, indicating centrality to the network. Board seats of these MIs are dominated by executives from transnational corporations (<i>n</i> = 431, or 71.7%), high-income countries (<i>n</i> = 495, or 82.4%), and four countries (United States, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) (<i>n</i> = 350, or 58.2%) in particular. This study shows that MIs involving the UPF industry privilege the interests of corporations located near exclusively in the Global North, draw legitimacy through affiliations with multi-lateral agencies, civil society groups and research institutions, and represent diverse corporate interests involved in UPF supply chains. Corporate-anchored multi-stakeholderism, as a form of GFG governance, raises challenges for achieving food systems transformation, including the control and reduction of UPFs in human diets.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"42 1","pages":"177 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10593-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141360260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Lights out” poultry production and pandemic influenza","authors":"Robert Sparrow, Chris Degeling, Christopher Mayes","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10589-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10589-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Poultry production makes a substantial contribution to global food security, providing energy, protein, and essential micro-nutrients to humans. Modern intensive poultry farming systems are challenged by the evolution of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza strains. The presence of avian influenza in poultry flocks poses a significant risk of an avian origin influenza that is easily transmittable between human beings evolving. By reducing contact between humans and fowl, the use of automation in poultry production has the potential to improve biosecurity and thus reduce the risk of pandemic influenza. Many poultry facilities are already highly automated. The rapid rate of progress in robotics and AI suggests that “lights out”—fully automated—poultry production systems may soon be possible. In this paper we consider the ethical and policy issues that would be raised by lights-out poultry production. There is a strong animal and human welfare case for reducing the risk of pandemic influenza via increased use of automation. However, lights-out farming looks to be the ultimate endpoint of dynamics already present in industrial agriculture, which led to the dangers of zoonotic infection from animal agriculture in the first place. Whether nations should respond to that risk by doubling down on industrial models of animal production and embracing fully automated farms or by reconsidering the current model of animal agriculture altogether is, we suggest, both the most important, and the most difficult, question posed by the prospect of lights out farms.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1385 - 1391"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10589-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141364535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hailey Wilmer, J. Bret Taylor, Daniel Macon, Matthew C. Reeves, Carrie S. Wilson, Jacalyn Mara Beck, Nicole K. Strong
{"title":"Loss of seasonal ranges reshapes transhumant adaptive capacity: Thirty-five years at the US Sheep Experiment Station","authors":"Hailey Wilmer, J. Bret Taylor, Daniel Macon, Matthew C. Reeves, Carrie S. Wilson, Jacalyn Mara Beck, Nicole K. Strong","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10591-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10591-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Transhumance is a form of extensive livestock production that involves seasonal movements among ecological zones or landscape types. Rangeland-based transhumance constitutes an important social and economic relationship to nature in many regions of the world, including across the Western US. However, social and ecological drivers of change are reshaping transhumant practices, and managers must adapt to increased demands for public rangeland use. Specifically, concerns for wildlife conservation have led to reduced access to seasonal public lands grazing for western US livestock producers. To understand how managers adapt to loss of grazing areas (called “seasonal ranges”) we create agroecological calendars from manager records spanning 35 years (1986–2021) at the US Sheep Experiment Station in Idaho and Montana, US. The calendars illustrate how a loss of winter and summer ranges after 2013 coincided with shifts in the operation’s adaptive strategies, leading to more grazing of fall crop residue and purchased winter feed, and reducing flexibility to move livestock to cope with variable forage conditions. These changes shifted the job duties and experiences of farm workers and managers, and raised several new questions related to sheep production and vegetation management outcomes that merit future research. Transhumant system transformation has implications for human relationships with nature, rural communities, sheep genetics, production, and vegetation communities. For livestock operations that rely on government-managed lands to sustain transhumant traditions, innovative forms of collaboration and social adaptation that help secure access to seasonal ranges will be as important as technological innovations to address biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, and food system sustainability issues that are reshaping access to grazing lands.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"42 1","pages":"545 - 563"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141374155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unsettling wildness: seafood consumption in new materialism","authors":"Xiaohui Liu, Shuru Zhong","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10575-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10575-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Seafood consumption is crucial for global nutrition, but the decline of wild marine fisheries necessitates aquaculture to meet the rising demand. Nevertheless, the pervasive preference for wild seafood among Chinese consumers, especially in Qingdao, has not been comprehensively explored. This study investigates the preference for wild seafood in Qingdao, China, challenging the notion of wildness as a mere characteristic and revealing its active role in influencing consumer behavior. Employing the relational perspective of new materialism, the study unravels the dynamic interactions between humans and non-human actors, providing a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of food. The research uncovers how wild seafood is entangled within the social fabric, labor relations, and consumer choices. It demonstrates that wildness is not a static social fact but rather is constantly emerging and transforming through interactions among seafood, people, places, nature, and technology. By examining the affective and subjective dimensions of seafood consumption, the findings indicate that the subjectivity of wild seafood impacts consumers’ physical and emotional states. The study also highlights the importance of social relations in food systems and calls for increased transparency and consumer education to promote sustainable consumption practices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1741 - 1753"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141381874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
María E. Fernández-Giménez, Tugsbuyan Bayarbat, Chantsallkham Jamsranjav, Tungalag Ulambayar
{"title":"Motherhood, mothering and care among Mongolian herder women","authors":"María E. Fernández-Giménez, Tugsbuyan Bayarbat, Chantsallkham Jamsranjav, Tungalag Ulambayar","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10587-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10587-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As interest in women’s roles in agriculture increases, research on women livestock-keepers remains limited. Advances in feminist scholarship highlight farming women’s dual roles in agricultural production and biological and socio-cultural reproduction, including women’s uncompensated labor in child-bearing, child-rearing and home-making. To expand knowledge about women pastoralists’ lived experiences, we conducted life-history interviews with 25 herder women in two regions of Mongolia, following-up with participatory workshops in each region. As mothering and carework emerged as key themes, we drew on feminist care ethics and the anthropology of mothering and motherhood to analyze interview data and co-interpret results with workshop participants. Our findings reveal three caring conflicts experienced by Mongolian herder women: between caring for <i>nutag</i> (homeland) and caring for herds, between caring for herds and caring for children, and between caring for family, herd and <i>nutag</i> and caring for self. These conflicts highlight contradictions between normative Mongolian motherhood as depicted in cultural images and narratives, and the lived reality of herder mothers, and between public valorization of and incentives for motherhood and the lack of sufficient public support for mothers and carework in rural Mongolia. Unmet needs for care, resulting risks to maternal and child health, and the extraordinary workload associated with mothers’ multiple caring tasks likely contribute to rural–urban migration and increasing masculinization of the Mongolian countryside. Although Mongolian culture frames mothers as leaders who unify their communities through their wisdom, many herder-mothers today live isolated lives where their multiple caring responsibilities preclude active participation in community development and governance.</p>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"42 1","pages":"139 - 157"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141267220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How agricultural extension responds to amplified agrarian transitions in mainland Southeast Asia: experts’ reflections","authors":"Thong Anh Tran, Van Touch","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10577-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10577-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Recent decades have witnessed widespread agrarian transitions in mainland Southeast Asia. This paper examines how agrarian transitions are shaped by multiple drivers of change, and how these interwoven processes have triggered shifts in agricultural extension practices in three countries in the Lower Mekong Basin: Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Drawing on interviews with experts working on the fields of agrarian studies and rural development, this paper argues that agrarian transitions not only put a strain on agricultural extension systems in responding to evolving needs, but they also stimulate the co-production of innovative agricultural extension models to address gaps left by the limited presence of extensionists. The study gains insight into challenges faced by extensionists, including a lack of resources, skills, and capacities to meet growing needs, which simultaneously urged them to excel in their work performance. The paper highlights the proactive role of ‘champions’ in orchestrating collective efforts towards the co-production of innovative agricultural extension models (e.g. Metkasekor), and the formulation of pluralistic extension platforms in enabling such ‘co-learning-to-act’ practices. By translating these insights into the broader contexts of agricultural and rural development in the Mekong region and beyond, this paper aims to make a two-fold contribution. First, it will assert how the ‘business-as-usual’ extension model has failed to adequately address emerging needs as a result of agrarian transitions. Second, it will provide pathways for the recognition and legitimisation of the pluralistic extension approach that fosters stakeholders’ co-learning and productive engagement in extension practices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1773 - 1789"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10577-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141266214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
B. Clark, A. Proctor, A. Boaitey, N. Mahon, N. Hanley, L. Holloway
{"title":"Animal health and welfare as a public good: what do the public think?","authors":"B. Clark, A. Proctor, A. Boaitey, N. Mahon, N. Hanley, L. Holloway","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10585-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10585-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper presents a novel perspective on an evolving policy area. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has led to the creation of a new Agriculture Act and proposals for significant changes to the way farming subsidies are structured in England. Underpinned by a ‘public money for public goods’ approach, where public goods are those outputs from the farm system which are not rewarded by markets, yet which provide benefits to many members of society. New schemes include the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, where certain aspects of farm animal health and welfare (FAHW) will be subsidised through government support, raising a much-debated issue in the literature regarding the representation of FAHW as a public good. For policy to be responsive to societal demands and accountable to citizens, understanding public attitudes and preferences towards FAHW as a public good, and how the public might prioritise this in relation to a wider suite of environmental public goods from farming, is important. An online survey of 521 members of the UK public was conducted and analysed with descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regression. Findings reveal low awareness of the changing agricultural policy context, but strong support for public money being used to provide public goods, particularly for FAHW. Findings also indicate a need for more effective public communication of farming and FAHW issues from farming stakeholders to ensure public policy in this domain is responsive and accountable to its citizens. Further work is needed to inform future debates and engagement surrounding FAHW, including through which combination of funding mechanisms (public or private) it is provided.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1841 - 1856"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10585-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142811003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of government policies and regulations on the subjective well-being of farmers in two rural mountain areas of Italy","authors":"Sarah H. Whitaker","doi":"10.1007/s10460-024-10586-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10460-024-10586-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The sustainable development of rural areas involves guaranteeing the quality of life and well-being of people who live in those areas. Existing studies on farmer health and well-being have revealed high levels of stress and low well-being, with government regulations emerging as a key stressor. This ethnographic study takes smallholder farmers in two rural mountain areas of Italy, one in the central Alps and one in the northwest Apennines, as its focus. It asks how and why the current policy and regulatory context of agriculture affects farmer well-being. Interviews and participant observation were conducted with 104 farmers. Three common scenarios emerged that negatively affect farmer well-being. First, policies and regulations designed for lowland areas do not always make sense when applied in the mountains. Second, when subsidies are put into effect at the local level, the reality of their implementation can veer away from the original goals of the funding program and have unintended effects on farmer well-being, agricultural practices, and the environment. Finally, when regulations are implemented on farms in rural mountain areas, the primacy of a techno-scientific knowledge system over other, local and place-based knowledge systems is exposed. These three scenarios affect well-being by eliciting feelings of stress, frustration, and disillusionment; by reducing farmer control over their work; and by fostering the perception that farming is not valued by society. They also create conditions of inequality and insecurity. The ways in which government policies and regulations play out on mountain farms can erode trust in government institutions, lead to an <i>us</i> versus <i>them</i> mentality, and contribute to the further abandonment of agriculture and rural areas.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7683,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture and Human Values","volume":"41 4","pages":"1791 - 1809"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-024-10586-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141114686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}