Consuming Inequities: Vegetarianism, climate crisis, and political upheaval in South Africa

Abstract

Record numbers of South Africans have eliminated or reduced meat in their diet, in an effort to address climate change. This article offers an ethnographic examination of the ways political and environmental issues play out on the plates of South Africans. Foregrounding the experiences of Black vegetarians, it traces the ways people of different races, classes and genders grapple with the social stakes of eating in a society where ecological crisis overlays a foundation of ongoing political struggles. How are food’s social meanings bound up with the political upheavals and ecological concerns South African society faces? What does it mean to advocate for addressing climate change through consumption practices in a place divided by such vast racial and economic inequities? Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research on food and eating practices in urban South Africa, this article considers how social inequalities shape efforts to address climate change through consumption, through analysis of the social significance of consuming – and abstaining from – meat amidst South Africa’s vast racial and economic inequalities.