Cultivating Consent: The Social Worlds of Industrial Poultry Farming

• In Event: 254 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Protein Production

Abstract

How do agricultural corporations cultivate the consent of contract farmers in industrial poultry farming? Using 9 months of ethnographic data collected on an industrial chicken farm that produces in excess of 1.5 million chickens for consumption every year, the author will examine how power is deployed in the management of the industrial farm itself around, particularly around identities. This paper will focus on points of conflict between agricultural firms and contract poultry farmers. How do poultry farmers leverage their power within this multinational supply chain, and in what ways could these points of power and conflict be used to leverage for a more sustainable food system?

Author

• Elizabeth C. Miller, University of Oregon