Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems
Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems
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DOI：
10.1007/s10460-005-6098-1
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发表时间：
2006-06
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Joann Jaffe;M. Gertler
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Joann Jaffe;M. Gertler
大量文献论述了制造业工人技能的丧失以及农民和其他农业食品行业工作者对生产过程失去控制的相关问题。对食品系统中消费者去技能化的平行过程的关注要少得多，而这一过程的重要性并不亚于此。消费者在各个方面的技能下降对农业食品体系的结构调整以及消费者主权、饮食和健康产生了巨大影响。包装、加工和工业转化食品的流行通常被解释为消费者对方便的偏好。仔细研究“消费者”的社会结构可以发现，农产食品工业发动了双重虚假宣传运动，一方面操纵消费者，另一方面对消费者的需求进行再教育。许多消费者已经失去了对质量的多个方面做出明智决定所必需的知识，包括精心选择的饮食对健康，地球可持续性和社区经济发展的贡献。他们还失去了利用基本商品的必要技能，从而无法吃到高质量的食物，同时也无法以较低的预算吃到食物链中较低的食物。这一过程具有重要的性别层面，因为主要负责购买和准备食品的人的自主权受到了系统性的破坏。食品行业的专业人士和监管机构往往是这一过程的附属品，将注意力错误地转移到质量的不太重要的方面。
A considerable literature addresses worker deskilling in manufacturing and the related loss of control over production processes experienced by farmers and others working in the agri-food industry. Much less attention has been directed at a parallel process of consumer deskilling in the food system, which has been no less important. Consumer deskilling in its various dimensions carries enormous consequences for the restructuring of agro-food systems and for consumer sovereignty, diets, and health. The prevalence of packaged, processed, and industrially transformed foodstuffs is often explained in terms of consumer preference for convenience. A closer look at the social construction of “consumers” reveals that the agro-food industry has waged a double disinformation campaign to manipulate and to re-educate consumers while appearing to respond to consumer demand. Many consumers have lost the knowledge necessary to make discerning decisions about the multiple dimensions of quality, including the contributions a well-chosen diet can make to health, planetary sustainability, and community economic development. They have also lost the skills needed to make use of basic commodities in a manner that allows them to eat a high quality diet while also eating lower on the food chain and on a lower budget. This process has a significant gender dimension, as it is the autonomy of those primarily responsible for purchasing and preparing foodstuffs that has been systematically undermined. Too often, food industry professionals and regulatory agencies have been accessories to this process by misdirecting attention to the less important dimensions of quality.