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Taming Nature, Taming Workers: Constructing the Separation Between Meat Consumption and Meat Production in the U.S.
Author(s) -
Gouveia Lourdes,
Juska Arunas
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9523.00222
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , production (economics) , meat packing industry , immigration , business , processed meat , state (computer science) , agricultural economics , economics , political science , sociology , food science , social science , law , biology , algorithm , computer science , macroeconomics
In this article we examine corporate and state actions implicated in manufacturing the extension, and precipitating the collapse, of the fictional distance separating production from consumption in contemporary agro–food systems. We investigate this phenomena via the case of the U.S. beef industry. Specifically, we examine regulatory initiatives and corporate responses aimed at addressing the two most important issues confronting the industry today: bacteriological meat contamination and an over–reliance on Latino immigrant labour. The collapse of this precarious architecture can expose the most hidden, and often problematic, linkages between meat consumption and meat production practices.