Politics and Culture of Meat Schedule - Fall 2012
Topics
Readings
10/22
Required
INTRODUCTION  Ozeki, My Year of Meats
10/29
“Sustainable”
production
P
A
R
T
I:
P 11/5
R “Industrial”
O production
D
U
C
T
I
O
N
Required
 Savory, A. Holistic Resource Management
Chps. 1,3-8
 Grandin, T. Humane Livestock Handling
Chps 3-5.
 Johnson, R. et al. Slaughter and Processing
Options and Issues for Locally Sourced Meat
 USDA. “Meat and poultry labeling terms”
Optional
 Savory, A. Holistic Resource Management
Chps. 19-20, 24
Required
 Corteau, S. “Chicken 81” Harper’s
 Nierenberg, Happier Meals: Rethinking the
Global Meat Industry
 Bruckner, “Considerations on the Morality
of Meat Consumption: Hunted Game vs
Farm Raised Animals”
 Hansen, S. “Beef: Grass-fed vs. corn-fed”
The World Herald
11/12
Required
Labor, markets,  Hendrickson, M. & Heffernan, W.
corporate issues
"Concentration of Agricultural Markets."
 Sykuta, M. Concentration, Contracting, and
Competition: Problems in Using the Packers &
Stockyards Act to Supplement Antitrust
 Boyd, W. and Watts, M. “Agro-Industrial
Just-in-time” Globalizing Food
 Bonanno, A. and Constance, D.
“Corporations and the State in the Global
Era: The Case of Seaboard Farms and
Texas.” Rural Sociology
Optional
 Sinclair, U. The Jungle Chps 3,5,14
Assignments/Work
In class:
 What is Meat?
 How has meat consumption
changed historically?
Book Review: MYOM due 11/2
Begin 14-day diet project
In class:
Field trip to Elysian Fields lamb
farm
Bring in articles about local or
sustainable meat vs CAFOs
In class:
 What are current public
discussions about
industrial/sustainable meat
production?
 Where are they on-point and
where are they missing things?
Moral defense of meat due
11/16
In class:
 What has the corporate
structure of meat production
and packing over time meant?
 When do we look to policy
mechanisms and when do we
look to consumer choice for
answers?
11/19
Cultural
boundaries
P
A
R
T
11/26
I Meat as
I: necessary (or
not)
C
O
N
S
U
M
P
T
I
O 12/3
N Culinary and
dietary issues
Required
Bring in meat advertisement for
analysis in group
 Weil, “They Eat Horses, Don’t They:
Hippophagy and Frenchness” Gastronomica
In class:
 Sobal, J. “Men, Meat, and Marriage:

Presentations on diet projects
Models of Masculinity,” Food and Foodways.
(round 1)
 Douglas, M. “The Abominations of

Why – and how – does meat
Leviticus”
consumption or abstinence
 Lam, A. “Why We Eat Dog” Mother Jones,
signify group membership
1990
(based on gender, nationality,
 Blue, G. “If It Ain’t Alberta, It Ain’t Beef”
religion)?
Food, Culture, and Society
 How are these group
memberships tapped into for
Optional
political projects?
 Beahrs, “What America’s First Steaks Tell
Us About Beef” The Atlantic
Required
Bring in stats about meat eating
in different countries
 Fiddes, N. “Food= Meat” Meat: A Natural
Symbol
In class:
 Horowitz, R. Putting Meat on the American
 Presentations on diet projects
Table
(round 2)
 Leckie, S. “How Meat-Centered Eating
Habits Affect Food Security and the
 What evolutionary, historical,
social, environmental, or
Environment.” For Hunger-Proof Cities
moral implications is meat
consumption or abstinence
Optional
argued to have?
 Lappé, F. Diet for a Small Planet, Part I & II
 Ancel Keys/Mediterranean Diet
Required
Culinary tourism and meat due
12/10
 Cornbread Nation 2: BBQ
 Bourdain from “Medium Raw”
 Plummer, T. “Flaked stones and old bones: Bring in cookbooks for in-class
look at meat representation
Biological and cultural evolution at the
dawn of technology”
In class:
 Bentley, “The Other Atkins Revolution”
 Presentations on diet projects
Gastronomica
(round 3)

Wrap up: where have we
Optional
gotten with a focus on meat?
 SFA video on BBQ
 Where do we go from here?
 Marshall, F. & Hildebrand, E. “Cattle
before crops; The beginnings of food
production in Africa”
2