Notes on metabolism and locating the political in food studies

Keywords: metabolism, feminist political ecology, geographies of food, ethnography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 21

Abstract

The material-semiotic relationality of food has been widely discussed from various perspectives. Work around different notions of metabolism has been relevant in these debates while trying to link biophysical processes of humans and non-humans in connection with semiotic enactments of agrofood production, food practices, and the circulation of food, and associated materialities (e.g. waste), in diverse spaces and infrastructures. In this presentation, I suggest thinking through metabolism to problematize the ontological and ethical political division of food production and consumption. I briefly review some ways in which metabolism has been used to locate the politics of food and eating at different scales and spaces. I dialogue with the literature on metabolism in reflection with methodological notes and political concerns generated in ethnographic research on food practices with university students, and my recent work on corporate food supply chains. I identify some possible ways to work on metabolism together with contributions from feminist political ecology and STS, and speculative anthropologies as a narrative form that connects the intimacies of eating-digesting with the geographies of food supply chains. The presentation, in turn, hopes to question how we locate "the political'' in food studies, and to contribute to broader conversations about the imaginaries that social research (re)produces about ethical political problems and engagements.