ABSTRACT
An exciting future awaits the sociology of food and agriculture (and what is known as “agrifood studies” more generally). The popularity of the sociological study of food, from seed to stomach, has never been greater. I will conclude this book first with some general comments; the hope being they will be taken
with you as you utilize your sociological imaginations to think critically about food and agriculture in the future. In this vein, I begin by opening up the concept of “free markets” for a brief but necessary critical reflection. Other subjects discussed include the gendered politics of food and social justice, both of which deserve more thorough treatment by scholars of food and agriculture. I will also say a little more about peasant agriculture. As the eradication of the peasantry is no longer a formal goal of the international development community, future food and agriculture scholars, politicians, and activists will need to better understand peasants and their once disparaged mode of food production. To conclude, both the chapter as well as the book, I make an honest attempt at mapping the terrain I spent the previous chapters discussing – an exercise started by Buttel (2001a,b) over a decade ago. While imperfect (the first principle of map making is that maps are, by definition, imperfect representations of what they are said to represent), I find such an exercise pedagogically useful as it helps make visible links that might have otherwise been missed. I also take the liberty to offer some tentative suggestions forward, based upon current blind spots in the literature.
