Food & Society Chapter 6: Industrialization

For nutritionists, food is a bundle of nutrients and energy. For food scientists, it is an arrangement of chemical properties. For economists, it is a commodity whose price is determined by supply and demand. For sociologists like Howard Becker (1998), however, food, like any other thing, is “people acting together.” Becker’s insight is especially useful when we consider the industrialization of the food system, the focus of this chapter.