Food commodities, geographical knowledges and the reconnection of production and consumption: The case of naturally embedded food products

Morris, Carol and Kirwan, James ORCID: 0000-0002-4626-9940 (2010) Food commodities, geographical knowledges and the reconnection of production and consumption: The case of naturally embedded food products. Geoforum, 41 (1). pp. 131-143. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2009.09.004

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Abstract

This paper focuses on a particular group of food commodities, associated with the wider turn to 'alternative food networks', that are described as 'naturally embedded food products' (NEFPs). These are commodities (specifically meats and cheeses) that Utilise grassland biodiversity as an input into production to positively influence, in various ways, the final qualities of the commodity. Building on the geographical literature on commodity circuits and analysing data derived from NEFP promotional materials and focus groups with urban and rural residents in the UK, the paper interrogates the geographical knowledges that are deployed by producers in the promotion of NEFPs and how these knowledges are accommodated and contested by consumers as they bring their own geographical knowledges to the interpretation of these commodities. The paper undertakes this task in order to problematise the extent to which alternative food networks in general and NEFPs in particular are bringing about a reconnection of producers and consumers and, concomitantly, a defetishisation of food, as is claimed for them by many of their policy and academic proponents. In the process the paper reveals how the food commodities associated with alternative food networks entail the creation of new and rival fetishes paradoxically as a result of efforts to 'thicken connections' between the production and consumption of food

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	REF2014 Submission. Author Keywords:Food commodities; Naturally embedded food products; Geographical knowledge; Reconnection; Fetish; UK KeyWords Plus:SUPPLY CHAINS; SYSTEMS; POLITICS; RELOCALIZATION; DISPLACEMENT; CULTURE
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > Countryside and Community Research Institute
Research Priority Areas:	Place, Environment and Community
Depositing User:	Anne Pengelly
Date Deposited:	07 Apr 2014 15:22
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2021 21:27
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/445

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