Production and consumption in agri‐food transformations: Rethinking integrative perspectives

Abstract

AbstractThe 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 problem. This article revisits debates developed within Sociologia Ruralis approximately two decades ago concerning the terms on which consumption and consumers are brought into 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 and outlines three substantive bodies of scholarship—the geographies of edibility, the economy of qualities and 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.