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Capitalist food production and the rise of legal adulteration: Regulating food standards in 19th‐century Britain
Author(s) -
Rioux Sébastien
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/joac.12265
Subject(s) - food processing , production (economics) , state (computer science) , political science , business , economics , law , algorithm , computer science , macroeconomics
This paper argues that food adulteration is constitutive of capitalist food production. Through an analysis of the plasticity of legal reasoning on food regulations during the second half of the 19th century in Britain, the paper demonstrates the key role of the state in enforcing the distinction between legal and illegal forms of food adulteration, which is essential to understand contemporary dynamics in food production.