ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to sketch out some of the many facets which conspire to produce the generalized trend of the industrialization of food systems on a world scale as they are played out within a local milieu. It focuses on the direct route to changes in the food system and consumption because it reflects and shapes how the processes of industrialization and convergence are occurring within the broader parameters of the social formation as a whole. The chapter turns to the underlying social changes which permit consumption shifts. Local food consumption patterns were, until quite recently, circumscribed by the nature and dynamics of the local social formation and the local food system. The meal is the locus of much social activity; the food, the bearer of much social meaning. Yet, underlying this complexity, is the increasing monetization of social relations. The chapter concludes with a description of changes in local food consumption patterns.