The changing chicken: chooks, cooks, and culinary culture

Abstract

Chicken meat is one of Australia's most popular and affordable foods, but it was not ever thus. The Changing Chicken provides a unique view of food systems and culture through an examination of our changing attitudes to chicken meat. Colourful descriptions are provided of the activities conducted in hatcheries, on chicken farms, in processing plants, in supermarket delicatessens and in household kitchens. Power, in its many forms, provides the unifying thread, and the concepts of authority and the cultural economy are used to explain how food systems are evolving. The humble table chicken challenges dominant assumptions about how foods become esteemed, or are judged good to eat. By building on insights from the sociology of consumption, retail geography and political economy, the author builds a new framework for studying the shifting balance of power in food systems. The analysis is intentionally multi-disciplinary and, by comparing the Australian situation with international trends in chicken meat production and consumption, the book sheds light on the complex issue of global food systems and national culinary cultures.