Food as Software: Place, Protein, and Feeding the World Silicon Valley–Style

Sexton, Alexandra

doi:10.1080/00130095.2020.1834382

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The relationships between place and food have become a key battleground within these debates, in which claimed links between livestock, landscapes and producers justify deeply held values about what constitutes ‘real’, ‘simple’ and ‘good’ food ( Sexton et al, 2019 ). Notions of terroir and embeddedness abound in these narratives, reflecting the centrality of place in shaping popular perceptions of the quality and physical makeup of foodstuffs ( Mansfield, 2003 ; Winter, 2003 ; Morris and Kirwan, 2006 ; Sexton, 2020 ). While we note that the care-full embeddedness of conventional livestock production evoked in these narratives does not always reflect realities on the ground, their centrality to a recent backlash against veganism amongst certain farming communities invites further critical exploration.…”

Section: Engaging Food Geographies: Following Alterity and The Cultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It reveals how challenging these seemingly stable categories enables broader reimaginings of the spatial and political order of the food system, catalysing collaborations between previously distinct industries (e.g. Big Tech and Big Food) ( Guthman and Biltekoff, 2020 ; Sexton, 2020 ) and historically opposed ideological positions (e.g. vegan activism and the global livestock industry) ( Sexton et al, 2019 ; Broad, 2019 ).…”

Section: Engaging Food Geographies: Following Alterity and The Cultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It also speaks to related studies on the economic geographies of vegan food tech start-ups in Silicon Valley, which are remaking veganism according to the logics and spaces of the high-tech industry (e.g. Mouat et al., 2019 ; Guthman and Biltekoff, 2020 ; Jönsson, 2020 ; Sexton, 2020 ).…”

Section: Engaging Food Geographies: Following Alterity and The Cultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vegan food geographies and the rise of Big Veganism

Sexton

Garnett

Lorimer

2022

Progress in Human Geography

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Veganism is the subject of an increasingly diverse body of social scientific research, yet it remains relatively understudied in geography. Meanwhile, contemporary cultural commentaries note how veganism has gone mainstream, with critics warning of veganism’s corporate nature – expressed in the rise of what we term ‘Big Veganism’. We argue that food geographers are well placed to examine these trends. We first review vegan studies work beyond geography that examines and critiques the mainstreaming of veganism. We focus on literature that explores multiple contested modes of veganism, veganism as praxis in place and the rise of corporate veganism as useful foundations for geographers to build on, particularly in light of currently unfolding developments in vegan cultures and practice. Taking this work forward, we identify four conceptual traditions from research in food geographies – following foodways, alternative food networks and the cultural and material politics of eating – to develop a ‘vegan food geographies’ programme that aims to advance critical geographic work on veganism and the emerging implications of its contemporary mainstreaming.

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Section: Engaging Food Geographies: Following Alterity and The Cultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Engaging Food Geographies: Following Alterity and The Cultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Engaging Food Geographies: Following Alterity and The Cultur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vegan food geographies and the rise of Big Veganism

Sexton

Garnett

Lorimer

2022

Progress in Human Geography

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“…Cellular agriculture can be defined as "attempts to sustainably supplant animal products with biomass cultured from cells" in-turn creating openings for new food production and novel economic geographies (Jönsson 2020, p. 922). This new form of food has attracted significant investment from venture-capitalists, particularly concentrated in the Silicon Valley region of San Francisco (Sexton 2020) but is also being developed in many richer parts of the world including Israel, Australia and Europe. The US-based company Perfect Day has recently partnered with the company Brave Robot to create the world's first animal-free dairy ice creams (Starostinetskaya 2021).…”

Section: Synthetic Milkmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of megatrends in the global dairy sector: what are the socioecological implications?

Bojovic

McGregor

2022

Agric Hum Values

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The global dairy industry is undergoing a period of expansion and consolidation, alongside heightened critique and competition from non-dairy alternatives. This review identifies four key megatrends within the global dairy sector, focusing in on the socioecological challenges associated with each. The megatrends were identified through a literature review of recent publications within the dairy science and social science fields, as well as a review of grey literature from intergovernmental and institutional reports. Key findings include geographical range shifts in production and consumption of dairy milk from the Global North to the Global South; intensification of production agendas that strive for mechanisation, standardisation, and corporatisation of the sector; increasing awareness of the ecological impacts of intensive dairying; and finally, disruptions to the sector driven by plant-based milks and, potentially, synthetic milks. We identify under-researched socioecological challenges associated with each of these trends. Although dairy milk may be homogenous in its final form, the sector remains heterogenous in its impacts across spaces, places, and scales, as increasingly intensive dairying systems fundamentally reshape human–cattle relations. The combined impacts of these trends bring into question the mythologies of milk and the assumed desirability of ever-expanding dairy industries. Our review finds that the future of dairy is not clear nor uncontroversial and that more attention needs to be directed to maximising and broadening the social benefits of the dairy and dairy alternatives, minimising the human and non-human costs, and limiting contributions to global climate change.

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“…We will make this case drawing on our research on the Silicon Valley-based agrifood tech sector, a major hub of protein innovation (Sexton 2020). Here we follow conventions that use Silicon Valley as synecdoche for the San Francisco Bay Areageographically based, tech-oriented ecosystem.…”

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confidence: 99%

Agri-food tech’s building block: narrating protein, agnostic of source, in the face of crisis

Guthman

Biltekoff

2022

BioSocieties

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Inventive producers in Silicon Valley and other innovations sectors are going beyond the simulated animal products of plant-based proteins and cellular technologies to produce a third generation of protein products, making protein the leading edge of high tech food innovation. Since innovators draw on sources not generally recognized as food these products are speculative as both foods and investments. Building on scholarship that examines edibility formation of so-called alternative proteins, we show the deployment of three interlocking narratives that make novel protein products both edible and investible: protein is ubiquitous and protean, which provides myriad opportunities for technological transformation; its longtime associations with vigor, strength and energy, along with current day obsessions with the negatives of fats and carbohydrates, renders it the one remaining macronutrient that it is unequivocally good; and widely circulated discourses of both future shortages and the problems with contemporary livestock production makes producing more an almost indisputable solution. While innovators and investors act as if protein needs this sector to solve an impending crisis and bring its possibilities to fruition, we suggest the inverse—that without protein the sector would be nearly barren of novelty and food, much less the disruption and impact routinely claimed.

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Food as Software: Place, Protein, and Feeding the World Silicon Valley–Style

Cited by 16 publications

References 45 publications

Vegan food geographies and the rise of Big Veganism

Vegan food geographies and the rise of Big Veganism

A review of megatrends in the global dairy sector: what are the socioecological implications?

Agri-food tech’s building block: narrating protein, agnostic of source, in the face of crisis

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