Food Infrastructures and Technologies of Trust in Contemporary China
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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Food Infrastructures and Technologies of Trust in Contemporary China. / Bunkenborg, Mikkel.
The Palgrave Handbook of the Anthropology of Technology. ed. / Maja Hojer Bruun; Ayo Wahlberg; Rachel Douglas-Jones; Cathrine Hasse; Klaus Hoeyer; Dorthe Brogård Kristensen; Britt Ross Winthereik. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. p. 703-720.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Food Infrastructures and Technologies of Trust in Contemporary China
AU - Bunkenborg, Mikkel
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Studies of contemporary food production document both the environmental and ethical problems of mass production and the ongoing search for sustainable alternatives. Industrial food infrastructures characterised by long supply chains and a sense of ethical disconnection between producers and consumers often appear to undermine consumer trust and require remedial measures in the form of technologies of trust. Post-Mao China is a case in point: food safety is a constant headache for both regulators and consumers and the 2008 milk scandal was but a low point in a seemingly endless series of incidents involving sub-standard and dangerous food. While regulators are pushing traceability and certification, the promise of perfectly transparent production and distribution of food inspires limited confidence, and people pursue a variety of alternative strategies, including building personal relations with producers and vendors, do-it-yourself farming, and accessing the special produce grown for government units. Based on fieldwork among farmers and officials in rural Hebei, this chapter explores how contemporary food infrastructures in China call for the deployment of technologies of trust that range from low-tech cultivation of social relations with producers to high-tech systems of transparency based on surveillance and laboratory testing of foodstuffs.
AB - Studies of contemporary food production document both the environmental and ethical problems of mass production and the ongoing search for sustainable alternatives. Industrial food infrastructures characterised by long supply chains and a sense of ethical disconnection between producers and consumers often appear to undermine consumer trust and require remedial measures in the form of technologies of trust. Post-Mao China is a case in point: food safety is a constant headache for both regulators and consumers and the 2008 milk scandal was but a low point in a seemingly endless series of incidents involving sub-standard and dangerous food. While regulators are pushing traceability and certification, the promise of perfectly transparent production and distribution of food inspires limited confidence, and people pursue a variety of alternative strategies, including building personal relations with producers and vendors, do-it-yourself farming, and accessing the special produce grown for government units. Based on fieldwork among farmers and officials in rural Hebei, this chapter explores how contemporary food infrastructures in China call for the deployment of technologies of trust that range from low-tech cultivation of social relations with producers to high-tech systems of transparency based on surveillance and laboratory testing of foodstuffs.
U2 - 10.1007/978-981-16-7084-8_36
DO - 10.1007/978-981-16-7084-8_36
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 9789811670862
SN - 9789811670831
SP - 703
EP - 720
BT - The Palgrave Handbook of the Anthropology of Technology
A2 - Bruun, Maja Hojer
A2 - Wahlberg, Ayo
A2 - Douglas-Jones, Rachel
A2 - Hasse, Cathrine
A2 - Hoeyer, Klaus
A2 - Brogård Kristensen, Dorthe
A2 - Ross Winthereik, Britt
PB - Palgrave Macmillan
ER -
ID: 229896214