Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems

A considerable literature addresses worker deskilling in manufacturing and the related loss of control over production processes experienced by farmers and others working in the agri-food industry. Much less attention has been directed at a parallel process of consumer deskilling in the food system, which has been no less important. Consumer deskilling in its various dimensions carries enormous consequences for the restructuring of agro-food systems and for consumer sovereignty, diets, and health. The prevalence of packaged, processed, and industrially transformed foodstuffs is often explained in terms of consumer preference for convenience. A closer look at the social construction of “consumers” reveals that the agro-food industry has waged a double disinformation campaign to manipulate and to re-educate consumers while appearing to respond to consumer demand. Many consumers have lost the knowledge necessary to make discerning decisions about the multiple dimensions of quality, including the contributions a well-chosen diet can make to health, planetary sustainability, and community economic development. They have also lost the skills needed to make use of basic commodities in a manner that allows them to eat a high quality diet while also eating lower on the food chain and on a lower budget. This process has a significant gender dimension, as it is the autonomy of those primarily responsible for purchasing and preparing foodstuffs that has been systematically undermined. Too often, food industry professionals and regulatory agencies have been accessories to this process by misdirecting attention to the less important dimensions of quality. JoAnn Jaffe teaches rural, environmental, and development sociology, the sociology of gender, and theory in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies of the University of Regina. Michael Gertler teaches rural sociology, the sociology of communities, and the sociology of agriculture in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a cross appointment in the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.     

Evidence for food limitation in the declining hen harrier population on the Orkney Islands, Scotland

The hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) population on the Scottish Orkney Islands has declined dramatically since the end of the 1970s. We postulate that the cause of this decline was due to a reduction in the amount of available prey and predict that if this was the case the population would currently be limited by food. The evidence for this hypothesis is explored by examining the rates at which males deliver prey to their females in relation to breeding performance both among individuals within the declining population and also between this declining population and another, non-declining population in southern Scotland. Breeding performance within the Orkney population was related to male provisioning rates: males that provided more food to their females were more likely to initiate a breeding attempt and there was a tendency for males with the highest provisioning rates to breed with more females. Comparisons between the two populations revealed that harriers on Orkney had a lower breeding performance and also a lower rate of food provision. Changes in agriculture, in particular decreases in rough grazing and increases in sheep densities are thought to be the most likely cause for a reduction in food supply. Conservation measures should be aimed toward increasing the areas of rough grass habitat.