IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v30y2013i4p511-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

If they come, we will build it: in vitro meat and the discursive struggle over future agrofood expectations

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Chiles

Abstract

According to recent literature in the sociology of expectations, expectations about the future are “performative” in that they provide guidance for activities, attract attention, mobilize political and economic resources, coordinate between groups, link technical and social concerns, create visions, and enroll supporters. While this framework has blossomed over the past decade in science and technology studies, it has yet to be applied towards a more refined understanding of how the future of the modern agrofood system is being actively contested and understood. I seek to redress this gap by using the sociology of expectations to explain the discursive topography surrounding in vitro meat, a nascent agrofood technology whereby processed meat products are developed from stem cells as opposed to live animals. In discussing the obstacles and challenges which confront the proponents of this technology, I utilize three key concepts from the sociology of expectations: (1) hype, (2) retrospective prospects, and (3) the role of myth, metaphor, and ideology. I find that despite sluggish results and financial setbacks, the controversial legacy of previous agrofood technologies, and persistent cultural skepticism, the core ideological justifications for in vitro meat have proven to be resilient in buoying the technology through rough discursive waters. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Chiles, 2013. "If they come, we will build it: in vitro meat and the discursive struggle over future agrofood expectations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(4), pages 511-523, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:30:y:2013:i:4:p:511-523
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-013-9427-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-013-9427-9
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-013-9427-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stewart Lockie, 1998. "Environmental and social risks, and the construction of “best-practice” in Australian agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 15(3), pages 243-252, September.
    2. Carsten Hjortsø & Stig Christensen & Peter Tarp, 2005. "Rapid stakeholder and conflict assessment for natural resource management using cognitive mapping: The case of Damdoi Forest Enterprise, Vietnam," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(2), pages 149-167, June.
    3. Frederick Buttel, 2000. "The recombinant BGH controversy in the United States: Toward a new consumption politics of food?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(1), pages 5-20, March.
    4. Andreas Neef & Dieter Neubert, 2011. "Stakeholder participation in agricultural research projects: a conceptual framework for reflection and decision-making," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(2), pages 179-194, June.
    5. Laura DeLind & Philip Howard, 2008. "Safe at any scale? Food scares, food regulation, and scaled alternatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(3), pages 301-317, September.
    6. E. DuPuis, 2000. "Not in my body: BGH and the rise of organic milk," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 285-295, September.
    7. Lawrence Busch, 2008. "Nanotechnologies, food, and agriculture: next big thing or flash in the pan?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(2), pages 215-218, June.
    8. Frederick Buttel, 2005. "Ever Since Hightower: The Politics of Agricultural Research Activism in the Molecular Age," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(3), pages 275-283, September.
    9. Lawrence Busch, 2005. "Commentary on “Ever Since Hightower: The Politics of Agricultural Research Activism in the Molecular Age”," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(3), pages 285-288, September.
    10. Nadine Lehrer, 2010. "(Bio)fueling farm policy: the biofuels boom and the 2008 farm bill," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 427-444, December.
    11. Doris Fuchs & Agni Kalfagianni & Tetty Havinga, 2011. "Actors in private food governance: the legitimacy of retail standards and multistakeholder initiatives with civil society participation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(3), pages 353-367, September.
    12. Stewart Lockie, 2006. "Capturing the Sustainability Agenda: Organic Foods and Media Discourses on Food Scares, Environment, Genetic Engineering, and Health," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 313-323, October.
    13. Zahra Meghani, 2008. "Values, technologies, and epistemology," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(1), pages 25-34, January.
    14. Kathryn Brasier, 2002. "Ideology and discourse: Characterizations of the 1996 Farm Bill by agricultural interest groups," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(3), pages 239-253, September.
    15. Jack Kloppenburg & John Hendrickson & G. Stevenson, 1996. "Coming in to the foodshed," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 13(3), pages 33-42, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lajoie-O'Malley, Alana & Bronson, Kelly & van der Burg, Simone & Klerkx, Laurens, 2020. "The future(s) of digital agriculture and sustainable food systems: An analysis of high-level policy documents," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Douglas H. Constance, 2023. "The doctors of agrifood studies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 31-43, March.
    2. Diana Stuart & Michelle Worosz, 2012. "Risk, anti-reflexivity, and ethical neutralization in industrial food processing," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(3), pages 287-301, September.
    3. Geovana Mercado & Carsten Nico Hjortsø & Benson Honig, 2018. "Decoupling from international food safety standards: how small-scale indigenous farmers cope with conflicting institutions to ensure market participation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(3), pages 651-669, September.
    4. Jérémie Forney, 2016. "Blind spots in agri-environmental governance: some reflections and suggestions from Switzerland," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Lyndal-Joy Thompson & Stewart Lockie, 2013. "Private standards, grower networks, and power in a food supply system," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 379-388, September.
    6. Pepijn Schreinemachers & Iven Schad & Prasnee Tipraqsa & Pakakrong Williams & Andreas Neef & Suthathip Riwthong & Walaya Sangchan & Christian Grovermann, 2012. "Can public GAP standards reduce agricultural pesticide use? The case of fruit and vegetable farming in northern Thailand," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(4), pages 519-529, December.
    7. repec:ags:jrapmc:122316 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Kristal Jones & Rebecca J. Williams & Thomas B. Gill, 2017. "“If you study, the last thing you want to be is working under the sun:” an analysis of perceptions of agricultural education and occupations in four countries," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 15-25, March.
    9. Shortall, O.K., 2013. "“Marginal land” for energy crops: Exploring definitions and embedded assumptions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 19-27.
    10. Gilbert Gillespie, 2010. "2009 AFHVS presidential address: the steering question: challenges to achieving food system sustainability," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(1), pages 3-12, March.
    11. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.
    12. Castellari, Elena & Soregaroli, Claudio & Venus, Thomas J. & Wesseler, Justus, 2018. "Food processor and retailer non-GMO standards in the US and EU and the driving role of regulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 26-37.
    13. Joshua Sbicca & India Luxton & James Hale & Kassandra Roeser, 2019. "Collaborative Concession in Food Movement Networks: The Uneven Relations of Resource Mobilization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, May.
    14. Shawn A. Trivette, 2017. "Invoices on scraps of paper: trust and reciprocity in local food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 529-542, September.
    15. Kiesel, Kristin, 2012. "“A Definition at Last, But What Does it All Mean?” Newspaper Coverage of Organic Food Production and its Effects on Milk Purchases," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 37(1), pages 1-24, April.
    16. Kathryn Teigen De Master & Jess Daniels, 2019. "Desert wonderings: reimagining food access mapping," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(2), pages 241-256, June.
    17. Alejandro Rojas & Will Valley & Brent Mansfield & Elena Orrego & Gwen E. Chapman & Yael Harlap, 2011. "Toward Food System Sustainability through School Food System Change: Think&EatGreen@School and the Making of a Community-University Research Alliance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(5), pages 1-26, May.
    18. Ion Lucian Ceapraz & Fatma Fourati & Loïc Sauvée, 2023. "Prospects For The Transfer Of Innovation In The Rural World €“ The Case Of The Innovation Platform €Œchamps D’Innovation†In Normandy Region, France," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 17(1), pages 83-108, June.
    19. Fabio Blanco-Mesa & Anna M. Gil-Lafuente & José M. Merigó, 2018. "Subjective stakeholder dynamics relationships treatment: a methodological approach using fuzzy decision-making," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 441-472, December.
    20. Anna Clare Bull & Jagjit Plahe & Lachlan Gregory, 2021. "International Investment Agreements and the Escalation of Private Power in the Global Agri-Food System," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 519-533, May.
    21. Jennifer Jo Thompson & A. June Brawner & Usha Kaila, 2017. "“You can’t manage with your heart”: risk and responsibility in farm to school food safety," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 683-699, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:30:y:2013:i:4:p:511-523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.