Refashioning Nature

Food, from cultivation to consumption, provides the chief link between humankind and the "natural" environment. This book analyzes the apparently opposed imperatives of political economy and sustainability.
We live in a society as dominated by food preference as by sexual preference, as obsessed with eating too much as with eating too little. Food as the ultimate commodity in an economic system lies at the base of global development and interdependence; food, from cultivation to consumption, provides the chief link between humankind and the "natural" environment. Yet, technological advances - in genetics, agri-business and food processing - have combined with changing patterns of diet and (women's) employment to challenge our perception of the natural and of our position within a natural system. At this point of dislocation, global crisis and conscience have sharpened the ideological force of "Nature". "Refashioning Nature" analyzes the apparently opposed imperatives of political economy and sustainability. The authors argue that the present means of food production do not satisfy the demands of North and South, resulting rather in food shortage and surpluses and environmental destruction. One of the major developments within this ecological system has been the change in diet caused by the movement of women into the labour market. This book should be of interest to lecturers and stude