Meatification and everyday geographies of consumption in Vietnam and China

Abstract

The rapidly escalating production and consumption of meat across the world has drawn much attention in recent years. While mainstream accounts tend to see the phenomenon as driven by 'natural' processes of consumption pattern change through economic development, critical geographies have turned to exploring the uneven capitalist processes underpinning what Tony Weis calls 'meatification'. In Weis' view, meatification unfolds through what he calls 'the industrial grain-oilseedlivestock complex', which is presently becoming a dominant form of agricultural production worldwide. Simultaneously, but less thoroughly investigated in the emerging scholarship, meatification unfolds in and through everyday geographies of consumption that we conceptualize as variegated 'meatscapes'. By bringing together critical geographers' interest in the political economy of meat with practice theory and consumption research, this contribution furthers the geographical dialogue around the spatial transformations brought about by meatification. Looking at Vietnam and China as examples of rapidly meatifying countries, we explore the intersection of macro-scale spatial transformations through trade and commodity flows and, at the microscale, transformations in food practices. We thus argue for an approach to meatification that is multi-scalar and conducive to further regionally specific research of meatification in Asia and beyond.

“Protein” Industry Convergence and Its Implications for Resilient and Equitable Food Systems

“…Food firms have responded by shifting demand toward their products at the expense of other foods, or by encouraging the purchase of more highly processed and/or branded foods, which may command higher prices. These efforts have contributed to "meatification, " or increased consumption of animal source foods (including dairy) in areas where these products have traditionally been less central to diets, and particularly in households with rising incomes (Weis, 2013;Hoelle, 2017;Schneider, 2017;Clay and Yurco, 2020;Hansen and Jakobsen, 2020).…”

Planetary food regimes: Understanding the entanglement between human and planetary health in the Anthropocene

“…At their most fundamental, these political economies serve to remove calories that might be directly consumed by humans, inefficiently cycling them through the material bodies of animals in their production. For perspectives such as Hansen and Jacobsen (2020), cheap soy has therefore contributed to the “meatification” of diets, which, as with much of this discussion, plays out in geographically uneven ways. The growing demand for meat in many East Asian countries is symptomatic of these shifts, with “Chinese average annual per capita meat consumption increas[ing] more than eighteen‐fold from 1961 to 2013, reaching 61.05 kgs” (2020, p. 10).…”

“…For perspectives such as Hansen and Jacobsen (2020), cheap soy has therefore contributed to the “meatification” of diets, which, as with much of this discussion, plays out in geographically uneven ways. The growing demand for meat in many East Asian countries is symptomatic of these shifts, with “Chinese average annual per capita meat consumption increas[ing] more than eighteen‐fold from 1961 to 2013, reaching 61.05 kgs” (2020, p. 10). Though per capita these levels remain low by comparison with more “developed” countries, these trajectories arguably represent “the core of the unsustainability of global food and agriculture” (2020, p. 14).…”

Negotiating Unsustainable Food Transformations: Development, Middle Classes and Everyday Food Practices in Vietnam

“…While such dietary changes and nutritional shifts have often been described as demand driven, food practices have changed through changes in ‘supra-practice configurations’ (Welch and Warde 2015 ) as part of development processes. In particular, they have changed as part of changes in the political economy of food, which have involved often dramatic changes in food environments (see Hansen and Jakobsen 2020a , b ; Wertheim-Heck 2015 ). As theory would predict, Vietnam has over the recent decades seen an increase in overweight and obesity, including among children, as the country is facing a crisis of malnutrition (Loan Minh Do et al 2016 ).…”

“…KFC has been there since 1997, Burger King came in 2012, McDonalds in 2014, while Jollibee from the Philippines and Lotteria from South Korea opened their first Vietnamese branches in 1996 and 1998 respectively. Fast food has seen a boom in Vietnam in the recent decade and is growing in popularity (Hansen and Jakobsen 2020a , b ). That said, sales have not lived up to expectations for many of these foreign giants.…”