U.S. Food Policy: Anthropology and Advocacy in the Public Interest

by Markowitz; Lisa

• ISBN13: 9780415698504
• ISBN10: 0415698502
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Inequity of control over food systems is a particularly insidious form of injustice. Collectively, the contributors posit that this inequity is rooted in power asymmetries in the U.S. food system and codified through U.S. food policies. This pattern puts the public at risk in the U.S. and, via trade and foreign aid policies, in the Global South. It biases the allocation of food and food producing resources in favor of the wealthy, exploits the natural environment for short-term gain of private interests over long-term public interests, deflects moral challenges posed by human rights to food, and defines the terms of discourse on food and food deprivation in ways that increase risk of malnutrition and poor health. Although access to food is emerging as a basic human right in international discourse, in U.S. policy food is more commonly framed as primarily a commodity. The market-first orientation ultimately weakens local control of food production and consumption in ways that degrade bio-cultural and ecological equilibriums that protect nutritional status, livelihoods, and the environment. The contributors drawing from long term anthropological field research offer analyses and thoughtful alternatives on such topics as dietary change, malnutrition, and food security in the light of U.S. policies on agricultural trade, food assistance programs, government food regulations, and agricultural subsidies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Food and Foodways.