Going feral: Wild meat consumption and the uncanny in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Feral animals are commonly constructed as the scourge of the Australian landscape. The transgressive act of introduced, domestic animals going wild elicits strong emotive responses within the community, often conceived in a kind of Freudian spectre of das unheimliche (the uncanny/ unhomely), as the once familiar becomes uncontrolled, strange and frightening. Meanwhile, exponential global growth in human populations, and the resulting strain on the environment and food security, is necessitating the rethinking of meat consumption. In Australia, while the stigma surrounding feral animals has historically inhibited their consumption, feral meat is regarded by a growing body of advocates as an environmentally favourable alternative to farmed meat, allowing not only the avoidance of animal suffering within the industrial agriculture model, but also benefitting ecosystems through the removal of damage-wreaking interlopers. This paper explores the feral turn and its contemporary manifestations as a growing food movement in Melbourne.

Do media play a role in promoting vocational education and training? The case of MasterChef

“…The supermarket chain also kept track of sales of red cabbage, which increased 86 percent, and pistachios, which increased by 125 percent after they were used on MasterChef (Miletic 2010). There is also recent evidence that this show has spurred the consumption of wild meat (Gressier 2016) and dairy spreads (Anderson 2015).…”

Wild Animals and Leisure

“…There are two consequences of these trends relevant for our analysis. First, criticisms increasingly have been directed at conventional meat production methods, especially in relation to ethics, health, and the environment (Gressier 2016), including their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change (e.g., Bauer and English 2011;Garnaut 2008). Second, antineoliberal movements such as locavorism and the slow food movement, which represent rejections of the assumptions underlying modern food production and distribution such as low cost and convenience (Guthman 2008;Leroy and Degreef 2015).…”

“…(Cerulli 2010b, 3). A trend away from intensively-farmed meat has been noted in Australia where wild-caught game is seen by some members of the public as a more ethical alternative (Gressier 2016), a view echoed in philosophical literature (Bruckner 2007). "Within this ideology, hunting meat is seen as more noble than purchasing it, while wild meat is seen as preferable to farmed" (Gressier 2016, 58).…”

“…In the decades preceding Federation in 1901, attitudes towards native animals underwent a marked shift. In an attempt to create a national identity, native species were valorised as part of an 'Australianisation' discourse (Franklin 1996(Franklin , 2008Gressier 2016). In the early part of the 20 th century, particularly during the Depression, introduced species such as rabbit became the "poor-man's meat" (Gressier 2016, 50) and the public rallied around campaigns to prevent hunting of possums and koalas for skins, creating an anti-hunting sentiment that has lasted in Australia until the present day (Burgin 2015).…”

“…An additional issue is the distinction made between 'useful' introduced species and 'ferals,' inasmuch as cows, sheep, and other farm-related animals provoke different reactions. This discrepancy may be due, at least in part, to the way that domestic working animals factor into the creation myth of Australian identity and form a central part of the economy (Gressier 2016).…”