From Colonial Dependency to Finger-lickin’ Values: Food, Commoditization, and Identity in Trinidad

Wilson, Marisa

doi:10.5040/9781350042162.ch-007

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Wilson 2017b). These findings align with anthropological work that shows how people in (post)colonial societies attribute high status to imported, processed food and low status to farming (e.g., Beckford 1972;Pollock 1995;Miller 1998;Wilk 2006;Errington and Gewertz 2008;Wilson 2013Wilson , 2016Wilson , 2017b.…”

Section: Comparing Islands Of the Caribbean And The Pacificsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Despite calls to localise food provisioning, recent austerity measures reinforce the power of importers and their allies, which was first established during the colonial period. In more recent times, strong and often corrupt alliances have formed between some state bureaucrats and national and transnational food importers (Wilson 2016). Such structures of power not only favour imports over local food production but also perpetuate racial and urban biases (Lipton 1977) The history of Trinidadian land use is a history of valuing land not for domestic food production but purely for profit-maximization:…”

Section: Trinidad's School Nutrition Programmementioning

confidence: 99%

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A comparative ethnography of nutrition interventions: Structural violence and the industrialisation of agrifood systems in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Wilson

McLennan

2019

Social Science & Medicine

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Public health interventions that involve strategies to re-localise food fail in part because they pay insufficient attention to the global history of industrial food and agriculture. In this paper we use the method of comparative ethnography and the concept of structural violence to illustrate how historical and geographical patterns related to colonialism and industrialisation (e.g. agrarian change, power relations and trade dependencies) hinder efforts to address diet-related non-communicable diseases on two small islands. We find comparative ethnography provides a useful framework for crosscountry analysis of public health programmes that can complement quantitative analysis. At the same time, the concept of structural violence enables us to make sense of qualitative material and link the failure of such programmes to wider historical and geographical processes. We use ethnographic research carried out from April to August 2013 and from June to July 2014 in Trinidad (with follow-up online interviews in 2018) and in Nauru from February to May 2010 and August 2010 to February 2011. Our island case studies share commonalities that point to similar experiences of colonialism and industrialisation and comparable health-related challenges faced in everyday life.

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Section: Comparing Islands Of the Caribbean And The Pacificsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Trinidad's School Nutrition Programmementioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative ethnography of nutrition interventions: Structural violence and the industrialisation of agrifood systems in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Wilson

McLennan

2019

Social Science & Medicine

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“…Patterns of production and consumption that were essentially imposed upon it have also left a legacy of taste which can constrain possibilities for change (Lewis, 2004b;Wilson, 2013;Steckley, 2016). Planters focused on producing food for export rather than domestic consumption.…”

Section: Colonial Legacies and The Limitations Of Food Security: Why mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Independence did little to free domestic producers from the vagaries of the global food system, and instead increased the reliance upon imported, processed, calorie-dense but nutritionally poor foods. As Wilson (2013: 107) finds, 'modern' food choices such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) often prevail over efforts to localise food. It is widely recognised that the Caribbean continues to operate in an environment in which such 'external forces still play a major role' (Beckford and Rhiney, 2016: xii).…”

Section: Colonial Legacies and The Limitations Of Food Security: Why mentioning

confidence: 99%

Still searching for (food) sovereignty: Why are radical discourses only partially mobilised in the independent Anglo-Caribbean?

Thompson

2019

Geoforum

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The notion of 'food sovereignty' is often surprisingly absent in food and agricultural discourses in the Anglo-Caribbean, where over the past half century policy-making has aligned with conventional 'food security' approaches. This paper argues that, in addition to its contemporary entrenchment within a neoliberal environment, this is also due to the nature of 'sovereignty' itself in a region which has been shaped by a distinctive colonial, social and economic history. In order to demonstrate this, firstly, it makes the case for why, in the context of rising food imports and enduring structural legacies, food sovereignty matters in the Anglo-Caribbean. Secondly, it charts changes in the regional policy of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to show how, despite repeated calls to increase selfsufficiency, conventional neoliberal approaches to agricultural development and food security have predominated since the 1970s. Finally, it identifies and analyses limited instances where food sovereignty discourses have been mobilized, by farmers' groups and political actors, and interrogates the meaning of both 'internal' and 'external' sovereignty itself in this post-colonial context. It finds mobilisations of food sovereignty to be characterised by a repeated conflation of domestic food production with the concept's ideological principles as a political project, and a particular understanding of sovereignty that places an emphasis on 'the state' and 'the region' over 'the people'. This shows that the very nature of 'sovereignty' itself plays a critical role in both the translation of, and possibilities mobilising for 'food sovereignty' as a radical project as envisaged in the wider literature.

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“…2 As of the time of writing (mid-2014) Trinidad and Tobago has published an action plan but not a Food and Nutrition Security Policy, though plans for the latter are underway.3 Earlier efforts in this vein include the Regional Food Plan of 1975, the Regional Food and Nutrition Strategy of 1983, the Caribbean Community Programme for Agricultural Development and Regional Action Plan, both of 1989, and the Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture of 1996 (RFNSAP 2011: 21). 4 Massy (formerly Hi Lo) Supermarkets are part of a larger conglomerate that is also known as Massy (see the number and diversity of MNCs mentioned or shown in the Massy Group Corporate Video http://www.neal-andmassy.com/Home/).5 Along with prospective investments from Trinidad and Tobago, the governments of China, Malaysia and India are also converting Guyanese lands into mega-farms to grow palm oil for biofuels.6 As an elderly interviewee stated in 2012, chicken and other meat 'used to be what people ate in their Sunday best' but now 'KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] is a daily habit' among rising middle classes in Port of Spain(Wilson 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Food and nutrition security policies in the Caribbean: Challenging the corporate food regime?

Wilson

2016

Geoforum

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Trinidad and Tobago is contributing to climate change by maintaining a model for food security that is based on corporate controls over food and agriculture. With policy documents, media sources, and ethnographic data, I argue that Trinidad and Tobago's food system is connected to national and transnational markets that firmly affix the country's food system to the fossil fuel economy. Three examples are provided. The first is the adoption of the World Bank's 'value chain' model for agriculture, which favours larger, economically (rather than ecologically) efficient farmers. The second is the recent state-led campaign to 'put T&T on your table', which overlooks the political prioritisation of industrial food imports exemplified by current policies to eliminate VAT (Value Added Tax) on industrial food imports. The final example is the November 2013 Memorandum of Understanding between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, under which Guyanese lands are being converted for the industrial production of corn, soya, and other crops for final processing and consumption in Trinidad and Tobago. While such policies are justified under the label of national and regional food security, I argue that they perpetuate a Caribbean-style corporate food regime that counteracts more climate-sensitive efforts to create sustainable producer-consumer networks.

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From Colonial Dependency to Finger-lickin’ Values: Food, Commoditization, and Identity in Trinidad

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

A comparative ethnography of nutrition interventions: Structural violence and the industrialisation of agrifood systems in the Caribbean and the Pacific

A comparative ethnography of nutrition interventions: Structural violence and the industrialisation of agrifood systems in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Still searching for (food) sovereignty: Why are radical discourses only partially mobilised in the independent Anglo-Caribbean?

Food and nutrition security policies in the Caribbean: Challenging the corporate food regime?

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