Food labour | Inclusive Food

What is food labour?

Do you know about what labour makes up food supply chains?

Understanding labour helps us understand food supply chains, and what is considered valuable within, and to them. We explore representations of food labour at all stages of food production, from farming to manufacturing and finally, consumption.

Our team also seeks to expose the ways in which media representations can reinforce dominant understandings of food supply chains, which in turn makes aspects of food labour invisible.

Food labour definition

This is all the processes and practices necessary to produce food. This includes that labour done for compensation (money/payment) and that done for free. In the food supply chain, labour is done both in the workplace and in the home. It includes labour from human as well non-humans like animals, land and plants.

Food labour on TV

We examined TV representations of food labour across farming, manufacturing and consumption to gain an understanding of how these narratives are portrayed. The key findings from this project are summarized in this infographic.

To get a clearer idea of how food labour narratives are shown in the media, we examined key steps in the food production process through popular TV programmes.

Farming

Farming is often depicted as the beginning of a food supply chain, as it is where food is grown and therefore produced. We examined a programme called A Year on the Farm, to explore how narratives of farming labour are produced and come to be understood.

The show was set on a dairy farm that produces, bottles and supplies raw milk to its own customers. This is an unusual situation in the dairy industry, where farmers would mostly just be involved in producing the milk, and other players would bottle and supply it.

How was the story of farming told?

Viewers were shown a day that begins at 4.30am with milk deliveries, and then continues with milking, feeding, cleaning and caring for the cows on a pretty much 24-hour basis. The farm was set in beautiful countryside, but this idyllic setting was in contrast to the farm’s financial situation, which was precarious. Key sources of labour were the farmer and his father, a farm manager, and an apprentice. There was also a vet to maintain animal health.

In this television programme, the farm was shown to be under financial strain. The costs associated with dairy farming were not compensated for by the price of milk, and as such, the farm was in a financially precarious situation. Labour on the farm was constructed by the programme narrative as being about love, lifestyle and heritage. This ideology masks the costs of farm labour, and devalues the food labour at this stage of production.

What was the narrative of food labour?

The programme emphasised the emotional connection between the farmers and the animals, telling the viewer that this is an adequate way to compensate the farmer for his work. At this stage of production, labour is all-encompassing, completely absorbing the farmers life, and this is seen as an acceptable (and perhaps even desired) way to work in a pretty countryside setting.

The dominant narrative for this stage of the supply chain is therefore work is love, compensation for that work is immaterial.

Manufacturing

Food processors and manufacturers

Food processors and manufacturers have multiple roles in a supply chain. They might turn raw produce into products for consumers; or be involved in packaging products; or they might process a product ready for distribution to consumers.

We examined a programme called Inside the Factory to understand how this story of food labour is constructed.

How was the story of manufacturing told?

The programme focused on technological aspects of milk production including: the roboticisation of milking, logistics, machines, computerisation, and artificial intelligence. This organisation of labour is highly structured, followed procedures, and was fragmented into small, repetitive tasks. The scale of production was emphasised, with large numbers highlighted by the narrators – 1.5 million litres processed per day; 75 robots in one section (who had replaced around 300 workers).

Workers, as in people, were given much less time on camera than the shiny robots and machines. Human labour had largely been replaced by machines – ones that don’t need sick days, or tea breaks, or holidays. Human labour had become marginalised in this system, and sometimes was controlled by programmes set up in machines.

What was the narrative of food labour?

Here, labour was scientific, and it is this that is championed through the programme, rather than the costs to human labour (through job losses perhaps, or the way skills are made redundant and devalued). Economies of scale are valued above workers. Efficient and fast food labour is what matters.

Consuming

Food labour also exists within the home, through shopping, preparing and cooking food. Often, this is unpaid labour performed by various members of the household. We explored how home food labour was contructed through the popular programme Eat Well for Less.

How was the story of food consumption?

This programme focuses on how families can spend less on food. The show focused on the supermarket as the primary source of food. Other places where people might shop for food – farmer’s markets, small local stores, greengrocers, were left out of the narrative.

Cooking-as-labour was largely absent from the household, the family relying on convenience foods, takeaways and restaurant eating. The purpose of the programme was to introduce the family to ways they might save money on their food budget – through cooking ‘from scratch’ (but only as long as it was time efficient and easy), using unbranded products and other easy fixes for food. Viewers of the programme were taught that consumers are time and cash poor, and so the reliance on pre-prepared, convenience foods is understandable

What was the narrative of food labour?

Within this programme, food was constructed as processed and branded products, rather than raw produce (fruits and vegetables say) and so the presenters spent time persuading the family to switch to unbranded products, rather than exploring cooking with raw ingredients. This saves the family time (in preparing food) and money (on branding). It also removes cooking as a skill that can be learnt, shared and (potentially) enjoyed. Instead, the capitalist, corporate food-centric narrative is championed, and ordinary people are deskilled.

This begs the question, ‘who or what replaces food labour in the home?’ Who makes the ready meals, or the takeaways – is not discussed in the programme. Other actors (other labour) in the food chain therefore remain hidden. What might the costs of this supply chain be to those hidden by it? Convenient food labour dominates this part of the supply chain.

So what for our food systems?

The way we have organised our current food systems is deeply damaging ecologically and to those whose labour is involved at different stages of the food chain. Both human and non-human labour is often left voiceless. For many workers, climate change is a harsh reality already, not a future predicament where there is time to imagine and implement solutions.

How could we go about disrupting present thinking?

We could move away from an apathetic vision of the future of our food systems and stimulate the public imagination.

We could bring previously marginalised voices to the centre, and give them opportunity to contribute to wider debates. Much of the radical rethinking around food is already happening at a local, grassroots level. Spaces like community gardens, community eating hubs, pay-what-you-can cafes, worker led co-operatives, and redistributed food markets all operate in paradigms different to the corporate, global food system. Perhaps we can learn something from their practices? 

Our Partners

Contact | Bristol

University of Bristol
– Business School
Howard House
Queens Avenue
Bristol, BS8 1SD

Contact | Nottingham

Nottingham University
– Business School
University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus
Nottingham, NG8 1BB

What is food labour?

Food labour definition

Food labour on TV

Farming

Manufacturing

Consuming

So what for our food systems?

Our Partners

Contact | Bristol

Contact | Nottingham

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