Table of Contents

Contents List of figures List of tables List of boxes List of activities Insights Preface Acknowledgements Dedication Part 1: The Place of Food Chapter 1: Introducing Geographies of Food 1.1 Introduction 1.2 What are food geographies? 1.2.1 Multiple food meanings 1.2.2 Food, place, space and scale 1.2.3 Mobilities and transformation: power and control 1.3 Geographical imaginations and food’s geographies 1.4 Structure of the book Chapter 2: Food and Place Identity 2.1 Introduction 2.2Making food and making places: landscapes, nations and labour 2.3 Moving food and making places: placing and displacing 2.3.1 Placing food: the case of ‘terroir’ 2.3.2 Displacing and placing food: migrant cuisines 2.3.3 Placing diets 2.4 Summary 2.5 Further reading Part 2: Geographies of Food Production, Transformation and Consumption Chapter 3: Geographies and Politics of Agricultural Production 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Geographies of food production: a global perspective 3.2.1 A global typology of primary food production systems 3.2.2 Overcoming the land-bias: the role of fisheries and marine management 3.2.3 Back to the land: global levels of food production 3.2.4 Geographical distribution of agricultural land 3.3 Agro-food commodity chains: product sector geographies 3.3.1 Cereals production 3.3.2 Fruit and vegetables 3.3.3 Meat and the changing chicken 3.3.4 Spatial concentration, newly agriculturalising economies and relational assemblages 3.4 Producing food in the city: urban agriculture 3.5 Agricultural policy: political geographies of food production 3.5.1 The US Farm Bill 3.5.2 The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 3.5.3 Comparing the US Farm Bill and the CAP 3.6 Summary 3.7 Further reading Chapter 4: What Happens to Food: Geographies of Mobility and Transformation 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Mobility and transformations: geographies and relationships 4.3 Transforming agriculture and food under capitalism: the agrarian question 4.4 Liberalising food mobility: global trade policy and global food regimes 4.5 Government intervention, global food governance and free trade 4.5.1 From protectionism to free trade 4.5.2 Trading blocs and subsidy debates 4.5.3 Anti-politics and trade disputes 4.6 Global food trading: mobilising High Value Foods (HVFs) 4.7 ‘Big Food’: transforming and industrialising food 4.8 Working in farming and food processing: the human cost 4.9 Wasting food in industrialised food systems 4.10 Summary 4.11 Further reading Chapter 5: Eating Geographies: The Spaces and Cultures of Food Consumption 5.1 Introducing the geographies of eating 5.2 The shifting geographies of food consumption 5.3 Food’s cultural geographies: eating space(s), places and connections 5.3.1 The spaces of food: the foodscapes of acquisition and access 5.3.2 The cultural spaces of food: the city, home and eating on the run 5.3.3 Eating the cosmopolitan city 5.3.4 Home cooking and eating 5.3.5 Eating bodies: making spatial and cultural connections through identities 5.4 Eating geographical politics and ethics 5.4.1 Vegetarianism, veganism and low carbon diets 5.4.2 Food provenance: knowing your food 5.5 Summary: eating space, place and scale 5.6 Further reading Part 3: Geographies of Food Crisis and Response Chapter 6: Food Systems in Crisis? The New Food Insecurity 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The contours of the world food crisis 6.2.1Food prices and the 2007-08 price spike 6.3 The new food security debate 6.4 Explaining the 2007-2008 food price crisis: the new fundamentals 6.4.1Climate change and food insecurity 6.5 Financial speculation and the food crisis 6.5.1 Financial markets and agricultural derivatives 6.5.2 Food speculation, food prices and food security 6.6 Other critical interpretations of the food crisis and food insecurity 6.7 Summary 6.8 Further reading Chapter 7: The Fight against Hunger and Malnutrition in the Majority World 7.1Introduction 7.2 The scale and geography of hunger and malnutrition in the Majority World 7.2.1 Defining hunger and malnutrition 7.2.2. Where do hunger and malnutrition occur? 7.3 Causes of hunger and malnutrition in the Majority World 7.3.1 Poverty, Inequality and Conflict 7.3.2 International structural inequalities 7.4 The international response to hunger and malnutrition: from Green Revolution to the Sustainable Development Goals 7.4.1 The Green Revolution 7.4.2 The World Food Conference and the World Food Summits 7.4.3 The Millennium Development Goals 7.4.4 The Sustainable Development Goals 7.5From corporate power to people power: the rise of food sovereignty 7.5Summary 7.6Further reading Chapter 8: Food Insecurity Amidst Wealth 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Food insecurity in the 21st Century: scale, causes and consequences 8.2.1 What is food insecurity in rich countries? 8.2.2 The scale of food insecurity 8.2.3 The experience of food insecurity 8.2.4 Causes of food insecurity: Poverty, deprivation and food deserts 2.4.1 Poverty and deprivation 2.4.2 Food deserts 8.3 Solutions to food insecurity 8.3.1 Charitable food aid and the role of corporations 8.3.2 The right to food 8.3.3 Food sovereignty movements in wealthy countries 8.3.4 The movement for food justice 8.4. Summary 8.5 Further reading Chapter 9 Reconnecting Consumers, Producers and Food 9.1 Introduction 9.2 AFNs: definition and geography 9.2.1 Defining AFNs 9.2.2Alternative food geography: reclaiming space and place 9.3 ‘First Generation’ AFNs: locality foods, local food networks and fair trade 9.3.1 Commodity circuits and geographical knowledges: the case of locality foods 9.3.2 Local food networks: relations-of-proximity 9.3.3 Farmers’ markets: purpose and benefits 9.3.4 Social embeddedness, geographies of regard and an ethic of care in AFNs 9.3.5 The ‘local trap’ and further critiques of AFNs 9.4 Fair Trade networks: The moral economy of getting to know your coffee farmer 9.4.1Fair Trade: connecting places and development through alternative markets 9.4.2Into the mainstream and into the (fairer) future 9.5 ‘Second generation’ AFNs and sustainability transitions 9.5.1 The Local Food programme in England 9.5.2 Food hubs and solidarity purchasing groups 9.5.3 Food security, transition theory and grassroots social innovations 9.5.4 Civic food networks 9.6 Summary 9.7 Further reading Part 4: Geographies of Possible Food Futures Chapter 10: Future Scenarios for Sustainable Food and Farming 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Towards sustainable food 10.3 Beyond productivist agriculture and ‘big food’: competing emergent paradigms and ‘food wars’ 10.4 Technocentric approaches: sustainability through science? 10.5 Ecocentric approaches: sustainability through agroecology? 10.6 Sustainable diets and a decentralised food politics 10.6.1 Towards reflexive food governance? 10.6.2 Digital foodscapes and food citizenship 10.7 Summary 10.8 Further reading Chapter 11: Conclusions 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Aftertaste – key themes revisited 11.2.1 Multiple food geographies 11.2.2 The co-production of food, place, space and scale 11.2.3 Mobilities, transformation, power and control 11.3 Changing the food system: putting ourselves in the mix 11.4 Last bites for food citizens References Index

Promotional Information

A comprehensive new textbook providing student-friendly coverage of contemporary food geographies, including global food systems, agriculture, production, consumption, food security, politics and agribusiness.

About the Author

Moya Kneafsey is Professor of Human Geography, Food, and Local Development at the Centre for Agroecology, Water, and Resilience at Coventry University, UK. Damian Maye is Professor of Agri-Food Studies at the Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, UK. Lewis Holloway is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Hull, UK. Michael K. Goodman is Professor of Geography at the University of Reading, UK.

Reviews

To study the food system is to pry open the modern world and lay bare its complex, messy and unjust relations of power and history. To do that, you need a textbook to be admirably clear, multi-disciplinary, global and unafraid to confront students with the most fraught and difficult controversies. This is such a guide, and it’s sure to become the definitive set text for any undergraduate food studies class, across the social sciences.
*Raj Patel, Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, USA*

The authors deliver a much-needed survey answering fundamental “what,” “where,” “who,” “how,” and “why” questions about food. Those new to the field will never experience the world as eaters the same again, while fellow food scholars will be reminded why geography is such an inspiration to their critical work.
*Michael S. Carolan, Professor of Sociology, Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development, Colorado State University, USA*

Geographies of Food: An Introduction provides students and researchers with an excellent critical entry point to examine the extraordinary breadth and depth of research on connections between food and its geographies. The book address geographies of food at a range of scales, from global to individual and household and invites readers to think about how these scales connect. As a researcher from the Majority World, I particularly appreciated the book’s integration of materials and debates from both the Majority World and Minority World, and the efforts to place these within global geopolitics. The book is exceptionally readable and suitable as an introductory text for undergraduate student, but also for researchers wishing to broaden their knowledge of contemporary debates in food studies. The clear learning outcomes at the start of each chapter, the interesting and challenging activities embedded within the chapters and the further reading section at the end of each chapter make Geographies of Food: An Introduction an excellent text book that should stimulate student interest and critical engagement.
*Jane Battersby, Senior Lecturer Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, South Africa*

With growing scholarly and societal interest in the challenges confronting current and future food systems, there is an urgent need for a wide-ranging introduction to the issues at hand. This authoritative and accessible book offers students and practitioners alike the tools to develop a ‘geographical imagination’ about food. Essential reading.
*David M. Evans, Professor of Organization and Sustainability, University of Bristol, UK*

Written in a lively, accessible style and packed with goodness, Geographies of Food collects important issues and talks them through in a clear and engaging way. The book reflects the best scholarship in the field right now. An essential teaching and learning resource.
*David Bell, Professor of Cultural Geography, University of Leeds, UK*

[A] useful, informed text.
*Times Higher Education*

This book engages us with a seemingly simple question: where does food come from? Answering this question, the authors take the reader on a wild ride, engaging with a complex global food system but never losing sight of the main plot points, or the everyday struggles to get dinner on the table. The injustices and corporate concentration are revealed, but so is the human agency seeking to preserve food as a democratic right, a source of identity, and a form of joy. This is an impressive book that will engage seasoned food scholars, and a work brilliantly to introduce the topic of food geography to new readers.
*Josée Johnston, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto, Canada*