Political ecology of milk: Contested futures of a lively food

Abstract

This article advances thinking on the political ecology of food and agriculture by reviewing research on milk and dairy. As increasingly contested foods, milk and dairy provide a window onto inter-linked social and environmental crises and attempts to solve them through adjustments to food production and consumption. We critically assess three trajectories of change (more milk, better milk, and less milk) that are representative of broader efforts to fix social-environmental crises through food. Arguing that these efforts eschew systemic change, we discuss how ideas from food studies, agrarian political economy, and development studies can be united in a potentially transformative research agenda on the political ecology of milk (as well as other foods). We reflect on how concepts of justice, power, and care might inform a political ecology of food and agriculture that can help envision and enact more democratic food futures.