Refashioning Nature Food, Ecology and Culture

We live in a society as dominated by food 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 shortages and surplus and environmental destruction.;This book should be of interest to students and lecturers in environmental science/studies, geography, development, economics, sociology, agricultural science and cultural studies.