Edible Wealth, Edible Health: Managing Risky Food Ecologies in Guatemala Public
Fenton, Ioulia (Fall 2019)
Published
Abstract
This dissertation draws on mixed-methods research carried out during 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Quetzaltenango. I interviewed and participated in the activities of diverse groups promoting environmentally sustainable, healthy, and just food in the region. To contrast their “alternative” projects with mainstream food systems, I interviewed “conventional” farmers and consumers, mapped the availability, price, and advertising of food in the city, and participant observed in restaurants.
I argue that contemporary food economies propagate environmental injustices that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. Smallholder adoption of agrichemicals and corporate spread of industrialized foods and drinks have occurred without parallel developments in protective regulations or public health infrastructures. The result is what I call the supertoxification of Guatemala’s food ecologies, defined as the compounding of biological and chemical risks to food safety. The poor, indigenous majority suffers its worst health effects, especially women and girls.
Yet, as people increasingly become attuned to food’s role in local disease burdens, some engage in self-protective strategies. They do this by managing multiple material and social risks and rewards of a competitive food sector in which powerful global players, national oligarchic food companies, and local food purveyors all promote their causes. Several of Guatemala’s local food initiatives, like organic markets, appeal to the wealthier classes. However, I show how participants in the CORO program in Quetzaltenango challenge traditional, intersectional race-class-gender hierarchies by engaging in food-related acts of solidarity across difference.
The main contribution of this research is to position the political ecology of food as a critical, but often missing or underdeveloped, link in theories of socially-stratified changes in health, environment, and development during late capitalism. The work interrogates theoretical explanations of the nutritional and epidemiological transitions through the lens of power dynamics in human-environment relations.
The research thus brings into conversation debates about the ecological and human consequences of economic systems that greatly rely on agriculture and food. It foregrounds human-nature linkages rather than relying on their ontological separation. It does so by positioning human chronic diseases as symptoms of broader planetary metabolic dysfunction.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.. 1
WE VALUE TODO DE AFUERA. 3
FIVE THEMES OF “EDIBLE WEALTH, EDIBLE HEALTH”. 10
FOLLOWING THIS DISSERTATION.. 14
SECTION I: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY AGRI-FOOD LANDSCAPE IN GUATEMALA 23
CHAPTER 1: THEORETIZING FOOD-SYSTEM CHANGES. 24
ALTERNATIVE FOOD NETWORKS AND THEIR CONVENTIONAL COUNTERPARTS. 25
FOOD REGIMES THEORY.. 27
FOOD REGIMES THEORY PROPONENTS AND CRITICS. 31
FOOD REGIMES AND THEIR CRISES. 35
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF OBESITY.. 37
DIVERSITY IN FOOD SYSTEMS. 39
BODIES AS SITES OF ACCUMULATION AND RESISTANCE. 43
WHY GUATEMALA.. 46
CHAPTER 2: FIELD SITE AND METHODS. 51
CHOOSING XELA.. 51
STUDYING XELA’S ALTERNATIVE FOOD NETWORKS. 53
CHAPTER 3: ARÉ’S JOURNEY: A LIFE LIVED AT THE INTERSECTIONS OF GUATEMALA’S FOOD SYSTEMS. 62
ARÉ’S JOURNEY.. 64
READING ARÉ. 92
CHAPTER 4: A WALK AROUND XELA.. 94
XELA’S FOOD CORNUCOPIA AND GEOGRAPHIES OF FOOD PROVISION.. 95
GUATEMALA’S FOOD SWAMPS AND DESERTS. 99
HYBRID FOODWAYS. 100
GEORGAPHIES OF CONSUMPTION IN XELA.. 101
THE CORE ROLE OF PERIPHERAL BRANDS. 104
VAST ACCUMULATION OF EDIBLE WEALTH IN GUATEMALA.. 109
CHAPTER 5: FEEDING YOUR LOVE FOR GUATEMALA: DISCIPLINING TASTES, BUILDING A NATION 113
GENERATIONAL RIFTS, LIFELONG CONSUMERS AND NOSTALGIA MARKETING.. 115
LANDSCAPE OF THE KNOWN AND MAKING THE STRANGE FAMILIAR.. 118
“TAN GUATEMALTECO COMO TÚ”. 121
HISTORICAL RACE-CLASS RELATIONS IN GUATEMALA.. 124
CHAPÍNES LOOKING FOR CHANGE IN GUATEMALA.. 129
CORPORATE THEORIES OF CHANGEMAKING IN GUATEMALA.. 131
THE FOUR GUATEMALANS OF FOOD ADVERTISING.. 133
1) The Modernist Guatemalan. 133
2) The Content Chapín. 134
3) The Striving Guatemalteco. 136
4) The Indio Permitido. 140
DO THESE MESSAGES RESONATE?. 143
CONCLUSIONS. 146
SECTION II: THE SUPERTOXIFICATION OF GUATEMALA’S FOOD ECOLOGY.. 148
CHAPTER 6: MORE IS BETTER: VEGETABLE FARMING AND CHEMICALLY RISKY FOOD ECOLOGIES. 149
ALMOLONGA.. 149
A WALK THROUGH THE FIELDS. 157
MARIO IS LIKELY SLOWLY BEING POISONED – IS IT HIS OWN FAULT?. 159
TRACKING AGRICHEMICALS OFF THE FARM.. 177
A DANGEROUS SALAD?. 178
CONCLUSIONS. 183
CHAPTER 7: THE CHICKEN AND THE EGGS: THE CHEMICALIZATION OF ANIMAL-DERIVED FOODS. 185
QUÍMICOS IN GUATEMALA’S FOOD SYSTEMS. 186
IT IS EXPENSIVE TO EAT (MEAT) IN GUATEMALA.. 187
A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT. 193
CHICKEN AND EGGS IN GUATEMALA.. 196
GUATEMALA’S TRUSTED CHICKEN.. 203
COMPOUNDING FOOD ECOLOGY RISKS. 205
CONCLUSIONS. 211
CHAPTER 8: COMPOUNDING DIET-RELATED DISEASE RISKS. 213
THEORIZING GLOBAL CHANGES IN NUTRITION AND HEALTH.. 214
GUATEMALA’S DIETARY DIVERSIFICATION.. 217
AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL TRANSITION OR A COMPOUNDING PROBLEM?. 222
CONCLUSIONS. 231
SECTION III: MANAGING GUATEMALA’S RISKY FOOD ECOLOGY.. 232
CHAPTER 9: HEALTHY EATING TO SUPERAR A SUPERTOXIFIED FOOD ECOLOGY.. 233
CONSUMING TO SUPERAR.. 235
1) Ricardo buys a stove. 237
2) Juana’s treat 237
3) Almolonga’s narcotraficante. 239
4) Collector’s items. 239
READING THE VIGNETTES. 243
HEALTHY EATING TO SUPERAR A HAZARDOUS FOOD ECOLOGY.. 247
WE DON’T EAT FOR HEALTH.. 249
HEALTHY EATING: PLACE, FAMILY, AND COMPLETENESS. 251
AVOIDANCE AND SEEKING STRATEGIES IN A SUPERTOXIFIED FOOD ECOLOGY.. 257
SHOPPING FOR SAFE INGREDIENTS. 259
EATING OUT, EATING RICA FOR TODAY.. 266
CONCLUSIONS. 271
CHAPTER 10: THE ORGANIC DISTINCTION: CLASS-BASED ALTERNATIVES AND CORO’S SOLIDARITY ECONOMIES. 273
ALTERNATIVE FOOD NETWORKS AROUND GUATEMALA.. 276
COMING TO XELA.. 282
THE CORO MARKET DIFFERENCE. 288
SARA’S RESISTANCE. 294
THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY OF THE LAS HOJITAS CSA.. 298
WHY LAS HOJITAS NEEDS THE AID SECTOR.. 302
CONCLUSIONS. 305
CHAPTER 11: THE FLAVOR PREMIUM: MOBILIZING THE SENSES TO DO FOOD OTHERWISE 307
ERNESTO.. 308
BODIES TRACKING CHANGES IN GUATEMALA’S AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS. 313
RECUPERATING FLAVOR.. 318
THE TOMATO TASTE TEST. 327
THE CRIOLLO TASTE DISTINCTION.. 330
SENSORY LABOR IN SERVICE OF SOLIDARITY ECONOMIES. 333
CONCLUSIONS. 338
CHAPTER 12: ACTS OF TRANSLATION: NAVIGATING XELA’S AGROECOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS. 341
COOKING THE BOOKS. 341
TRANSLATING PROJECT METRICS. 345
POWER STRUCTURES WITHIN THE AGROECOLOGICAL NETWORKS. 350
TRANSLATING THE LANGUAGE OF THE MARKET FOR ALTERNATIVES. 362
CONCLUSIONS. 372
CONCLUSION.. 374
LAST WORDS ON EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION.. 384
THE TASTES OF TWO MILKS. 385
BIBLIOGRAPHY.. 391
YOUTUBE VIDEO REFERENCE LIST 439
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