Agribusiness, Environmental Conflict, and Food in Travel Journalism: Image Work for the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick

Abstract

Food often plays a central role in travel journalism. Experiencing fresh ingredients close to their source can signify authentic engagement with locals and their culture. But even local food production can have far-reaching negative ecological impacts. With some noteworthy exceptions, travel journalism tends to ignore environmental conflict, enabling corporations and governments to maintain a discursive advantage. Given the increasing critical coverage in food media of sustainable foodways, this chapter asks whether such a critical stance is reflected in travel media about destinations where contested agribusinesses have been naturalized as visitor attractions. To date, researchers have attributed the absence of environmental conflict in travel journalism to shifting genre protocols, journalists’ ideologies, insecure media work, employer expectations, and interactions with destination marketers. However, McGaurr finds the practices of environmental organizations themselves can also be a factor. By presenting a case study of travel journalism about a Canadian region promoted to holidaymakers through its local seafood tastes and traditions but to trading partners through its intensive aquaculture, the chapter demonstrates that the local loyalties of environmentalists can inhibit even those who are media-savvy from attempting to make strategic use of tourism operators to publicize concerns about agribusiness.