SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food (see also POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Agriculture & Food Policy)

This book tells the story of changing patterns of food provision in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. From the pandemic to the war in Ukraine, climate change and inflation, the authors discuss the food system’s winners and losers in a time of rapid social change.

Investigating climate-controlled agriculture and alternatives to animal proteins, John Wilkinson shows that trade and investment in agrifood is reorienting to the Global South. He skilfully illustrates the connections between social movements and technological innovation – and the need for consumer acceptance of new food habits.

This collection presents critical and action-oriented approaches to addressing food systems challenges across places, spaces, and scales. With global case studies, it explores the interconnections between the social and ecological dynamics of food systems, exploring efforts to co-construct more equitable and sustainable food systems for all.

Catherine Oliver shows why the veganism movement has become a powerful social, political and environmental force. She discusses the health and environmental benefits of veganism, explores the practical and social impacts of the shift to eating plants, and explains why veganism is not just a diet, but a way of life.

Based on an autoethnographic study about a free food store in Aotearoa New Zealand, this book examines how alternative economies and relations emerge from community solutions, and how these could be used to think, act and organize differently against capitalist dynamics.

This fascinating book examines continuity and change in food consumption and eating patterns since the 1950s. The culinary landscape of Britain is explored through discussion of commodification, globalisation and diversification enabling an understanding of both developing trends and enduring habits.

Combining an analysis of political economy and ecocultural heritage, this book examines post-Soviet Latvia and post-apartheid South Africa in an unusual comparative study of post-authoritarian efforts to decolonize production and trade.

Considering food consumption in a wider social context, this book offers an alternative understanding of class relations, which extends academic, political and public debates about privilege.

Using the example of Turkey, where neoliberal economics combined with authoritarian politics formed conditions that have profound social consequences, this book investigates Alternative Consumer Cooperatives (ACCs) as spaces for prefigurative food politics.

Agri-food systems in the Global North are experiencing a wave of technological innovation in food production and ways of eating. This book is the first to analyse technological and socio-economic change in leading food sectors and it concludes that despite innovation, the food industry is adapting too slowly to the challenges of climate change.

Offering a much-needed analysis of the overlooked crisis of food poverty in Ireland, this book brings together the complex picture emerging from interviews with users of food aid, explores the international landscape of food poverty and what action should be taken.

Exploring why food aid exists and the deeper causes of food poverty, this book addresses neglected dimensions of traditional debates. It challenges neoliberal governmentality and shows how food charity maintains inequalities of class, race, religion and gender.