concern in several academic disciplines
because of its centrality to human life for both
physical and social sustenance. As a specific
sub-field with identifiable concepts and
scholars, however, agro-food studies has come
into fruition only recently, a reflection of both
the resurgence ofpolitical economy, which
found a new object of study in food systems,
and the ‘cultural turn’ in social science that
brought renewed interest inconsumption.
While scholars of food draw from anthropol-
ogy – foodways has long been a staple of that
discipline – and sociology, owing especially
to the sociology of agriculture tradition,geog-
raphyis in many respects at the cutting edge
of food studies. Arguably, this is because geog-
raphy is more ecumenical in its approaches,
and because the spatial and environmental
aspects of food are so critical to its theoriza-
tions. At the same time, there is a tendency
to use food to illustrate other geographical
topics, as demonstrated by the dozens of
monographs published within the past 15 years
that tell larger stories through particular food
commodities.
Still, geographers have made considerable
progress in producing and debating a set of
meta-concepts relevant to the study of food
quafood. They have contributed to different
ways of theorizing the agro-food system,
including systems of provision,commodity
chains and food regimes. Recently, ‘food
networks’ has become the favoured term in
recognition of the fact that food distribution is
more contingent than much of this earlier lan-
guage implies, and that even long-distance
trade depends on embedded social relations
where trust must be secured (Arce and
Marsden, 1994). Geographers have also looked
at thescaledimensions of food provision and
consumption (e.g. Bell and Valentine, 1997);
and they have engaged in important debates
regarding consumption, not only the politics
of consumer purchasing in influencing the
agro-food system (e.g. Cook and Crang,
1996), but also the bodily materiality of eating
practices. In addition, geographers have played
a leading role in developing some meso-level
concepts, based largely on finely tuned empir-
ical studies.
famine, hunger and food insecurity persist
as objects of study, especially as they pertain to
uneven developmentandgeopolitics. Watts
(1983) was one of the first geographers to
develop the concept of social vulnerability as
it relates to the uneven effects of famine.
Geographers have since adopted the language
of foodsecurity, which not only encapsulates
a more objective and positive characterization
than ‘hunger’, but also highlights that food
insecurity is rooted in insufficient income,
entitlement or endowment (Dreze and Sen,
1989). These ideas underlie powerful critiques
of how US foodaidand concessionary sales
of surplus commodities undercut livelihoods
and thereby contribute to food insecurity.
The activist-developed notion ofcommunity
food security(CFS) suggests that the local com-
munity is the scale at which adequate and
nutritious food should be ensured. CFS move-
ments have noted the existence of food des-
erts, which are areas of poor access to the
provision of healthy affordable food, usually
related to lack of large retailers.
The twin themes of anxiety and trust are
also pervasive in the geography of food, espe-
cially in light of the policy turn towards stand-
ards, labels and private regulation as the major
response to recent ‘food scares’. While the
broader goal of standardization is harmoniza-
tion in the interest of trade – as exemplified in
theCodex alimentarus– standards and auditing
are increasingly employed to make commodity
chains more transparent. Geographers have
offered important criticisms of this new form
of food regulation. Dunn (2003a), for
example, has shown how attempts to impose
harmony on an uneven geographical surface
can have the effect of exacerbating differenti-
ation among producers. Guthman (2004)
has argued that organic food labels have
perverse consequences for the intended goals
of organic agriculture. Whether voluntary
labels constitute a new sort of commodity
fetish has been the source of a lively debate
within geography.
The other major response to recent trouble
in the food system is the creation ofalternative
food networks(AFNs). According to Whatmore,
Stassart and Renting (2003, p. 389), ‘what
theyshareincommon is their constitution
as/of food markets that redistribute value
through the network against the logic of
bulk commodity production; that reconvene
‘‘trust’’ between food producers and con-
sumers; and that articulate new forms of polit-
ical association and market governance’.
AFNs have become a part ofsocial move-
mentstrategies, and thus have been theorized
as both alternative forms ofdevelopmentand
resistance to globalization. For example,
fair trade initiatives, which tie wealthy
consumers’ moral concerns to the livelihood
making ofthird world peasants, are what
Goodman (2004) calls developmental con-
sumption. Some scholars have been lessGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_F Final Proof page 259 31.3.2009 1:20pmFOOD