‘Back to Nature’: Changing ‘Worlds of Production’ in the Food Sector

TLDR

The contemporary food system has shifted from natural to industrial processes, yet literature underestimates the resurgence of natural products in alternative circuits, with the concept of nature varying across different productive worlds. This paper combines conventional and alternative food sector analyses to illustrate how distinct worlds of production converge in food production. Case studies from Italy reveal that the food sector is fragmenting rather than globalizing, with multiple production trends coexisting, driven by a growing emphasis on natural components.

Abstract

Analysis of the contemporary food system has shown a progressive displacement of ‘natural’ processes in favour of those characterized as ‘industrial.’ Thus, an instrumentalized form of nature has come to prevail within the food sector. And yet, the contemporary literature on the processes of globalization and standardization in the food system has underestimated the reassertion of more ‘natural’ products in alternative food circuits. In this paper we seek to combine understandings of the conventional food sector with analysis of alternative circuits so that we can show how different ‘worlds of production’ come together in the sphere of food production. Utilizing two case studies from Italy, we indicate that the main trajectory of development in the food sector is not towards globalized and standardized production but is towards a fragmentation of production processes in which different trends can be seen to co‐exist. The status of ‘nature’ differs according to the particular productive world that dominates. However, we indicate that a growing concern for the natural component of food is driving some of the most significant changes currently running through the food sector.