Politicized Ontologies of Food, Life, and Law in Settler Colonial Spaces

Agricultural Power: Politicized Ontologies of Food, Life, and Law in Settler Colonial Spaces by Kelly Struthers Montford A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of Alberta © Kelly Struthers Montford, 2017 Agricultural Power: Politicized Ontologies of Food, Life, and Law in Settler Colonial Spaces Abstract In this dissertation, I develop a theoretical account of agricultural power in the settler colonial contexts of Canada and the United States. By analyzing archival, historical, and legal documents, I argue that the imposition of animal agriculture not only functioned as a method of settler territorialization, but also relied on and reproduced western humanist ontologies of food, humans, animals, and land in these spaces. These ontologies are not objective accounts of reality but are contingent expressions of power that continue to shape alimentary norms and food law. Agricultural power is not constrained to the location of the farm, but is strategically deployed in various registers to re-secure animal-based ontologies of food. Based on an analysis of proposed food legislation and legal cases seeking to enjoin the use of the terms milk, meat, and eggs on plant-based food labels, I show that agricultural power works via law to reproduce “real” food as only animal-based. I then argue that agricultural power and its concurrent ontologies of food and animals continues to shape new meat technologies despite the absenting of the animal from its production methods. In-vitro meat represents a modified form of agricultural power where its target shifts from the location of the animal body to the animal cell. Agricultural power is then a mobile and shifting constellation of relations variously deployed through legal and cultural institutions to reproduce animal-based ontologies of food. Regardless of its point of application, the property status of nonhuman animals is foundational to its exercise. Despite my critiques of the food ontologies produced and sustained by agricultural power, I argue that it remains a useful political project to ontologize food as a means of cultivating ethical relations between humans, animals, and the more than human world. To this end, I introduce a contextual ontological veganism premised on a distinction between edibility ii and food, and where human and animal interests are weighed equally. In this sense, someone or something that is edible should only be ontologized as food based on an evaluation of the relations that produced this item and that are constituted through its consumption. Given how law and agricultural power co-articulate to ontologize animals as property, I propose that this food politics be structured by a non-anthropocentric legal subjectivity of beingness for nonhuman animals where they exist neither as property nor as persons, but are recognized as vulnerable, embodied, and relational (Deckha forthcoming). In so doing, the contextual ontological veganism outlined in this dissertation has legal, ontological, and ethical implications for how we understand ourselves and for how we relate to others through eating. iii Dedication For all of the others, and their others, who are targeted by agricultural power. iv Acknowledgements An immense and sincere thank you to my committee members, co-supervisors Chloë Taylor and Bryan Hogeveen, and Robyn Braun. Chloë’s commitment to the cultivation of her students, unwavering support, intellectual generosity, and encouragement to read promiscuously has pushed myself and my work in directions I otherwise could not have imagined. I am deeply grateful to have been her student. My intellectual development would have taken a very different trajectory had Bryan not given me space early in my doctoral studies to explore entirely new subject areas, and for that, I am profoundly thankful. Robyn’s keen wit, fierce intelligence, and sense of humour was a constant source of motivation throughout this process, for which my appreciation cannot be adequately expressed. To Miles and Jacques, my furry companions who have been by my side throughout this process: thank you for allowing me into your complex and wonderful worlds, and for your understanding and patience as this work has unfolded. Miles, for being the best office dog and company throughout the reading, writing, and thinking stages. Jacques, thank you for insisting that I take breaks so that we might go running and adventuring. I must also thank my colleagues and friends for their encouragement, advice, and support. Jillian Paragg, Vanessa Iafolla, Kelsi Barkway, Emily Jackson, and Ariane Hanemaayer, thank you for your friendship, intellectual community, and feedback over the course of this research. Jessica Lombard and Cari McGratten were an irreplaceable source of support and encouragement throughout the process. Filip Bidzinski was an important interlocutor at the outset of this research, whose insight and observations helped me sharpen my ideas. His support is wholly appreciated. Phillipe Chevalier’s friendship over the last two decades, coupled with his willingness to challenge, engage, and debate with me over the course of my studies has also been an important source of support that contributed not only to my intellectual development but to my overall well-being. My work has also benefitted from Jean-Philippe Crete’s astute feedback and help navigating the National Archives. Thank you also to Kelly Hannah-Moffat and Paula Maurutto for their warm welcome, mentorship, guidance, and support at the University of Toronto. Finally, to my parents, Julian and Karen, thank for your unwavering support and encouragement of my intellectual and professional development, above all else. This work was supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Sociéte et culture (FQRSC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Killiam Trust. v Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... v Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Politicized Ontologies of Life ............................................................................................... 3 Agricultural Power ............................................................................................................... 6 Summary of Chapters ........................................................................................................... 8 Chapter One: The Colonial Deployment of Agricultural Power ............................................... 13 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 13 Critical Ontologies: Destabilizing Accounts of Life ......................................................... 19 Humans and Animals in Western Philosophy .................................................................. 20 Part I: Arbitrary Humanism, Competing Ontologies: Politicizing the Species-Barrier .. 24 Part II: Animal Agriculture: Civility, Property, Territory ................................................ 35 Establishing civility. ......................................................................................................... 35 Settlement through Agriculture: Land and Animals as Tools of Colonization ............ 37 Competing ontologies of land. .......................................................................................... 37 Attracting immigrants, settling land. ................................................................................ 41 Animal Agriculture: Living Property, Deadened life ...................................................... 45 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter Two: Food, Edibility, Property: Toward a Contextual Ontological Veganism ........... 50 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 50 Plumwood: Against Ontological Veganism ...................................................................... 53 Anthropocentric intermediate positions ............................................................................ 57 Institutionalized Human Exceptionalism and the Impossibility of the Human as Food ............................................................................................................................................... 60 Beyond Edibility .................................................................................................................. 64 Toward a Contextual Ontological Veganism ................................................................... 69 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 75 Chapter Three: Agricultural Power and ‘Imitation Foods’: Critiquing the Legal and Ontological Construction of Plant-Foods as "Fake” ................................................................

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