“Trust us, we feed this to our kids”: women and public trust in the Canadian agri-food system

Jennifer Braun (), Mary Beckie and Ken Caine
Additional contact information
Jennifer Braun: The King’s University
Mary Beckie: University of Alberta
Ken Caine: University of Alberta

Agriculture and Human Values, 2020, vol. 37, issue 2, No 16, 495-507

Abstract: Abstract Public (dis)trust of conventionally produced food is now a pivotal issue for the Canadian food supply chain as consumers are increasingly demanding traceability, transparency and sustainability of the agri-food system. To ensure that Canadians understand what farmers do, how they do it, and why—there has been significant human and financial investment by both the agri-food industry and government over the last decade. Farmers, civil servants, and non-farming agricultural professionals alike are being encouraged to join the national conversation promoting the legitimacy of conventional agriculture. As part of this large-scale effort, women in agriculture (both on and off farm) are advocating, in gendered ways, for the safety and legitimacy of the agri-food system and its conventional farming practices. This is being done by utilizing their motherhood capital. This motherhood capital legitimizes the authority granted to mothers as expert decisionmakers regarding their children’s food consumption. Through the usage of their motherhood capital, women are being positioned—and are positioning themselves—as an important voice in re-narrating the story of conventional agriculture through the circulation of their maternal foodwork experiences. Using their authority as mothers (and feeders or caretakers of families) they are advocating for the safety, necessity, and trustworthiness of conventional agriculture to counter narratives of mistrust and risk.

Keywords: Women in agriculture; Canadian prairies; Gender and agriculture; Motherhood capital; Public trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-019-10002-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:37:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10460-019-10002-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10460

DOI: 10.1007/s10460-019-10002-x

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture and Human Values is currently edited by Harvey S. James Jr.

More articles in Agriculture and Human Values from Springer, The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().