RICE UNIVERSITY By Drew Robert Winter A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE Doctor of Philosophy APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE Cymene Howe (Apr 15, 2020) Cymene Howe James Faubion James Faubion (Apr 15, 2020) James Faubion Cary Wolfe Cary Wolfe (Apr 16, 2020) Cary Wolfe HOUSTON, TEXAS April 2020 i Abstract Hyperanimals: framing livestock and climate change in Danish Imaginaries By Drew Robert Winter The IPCC and UN FAO have both suggested a global reduction in meat consumption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But how do nations and citizens resolve tensions between ecological stewardship and meat consumption? What is implied in eating meat and raising livestock in a country where the historical imaginary yokes national values to the pig-producing countryside? To answer these questions, this dissertation examines how climate change is affecting meat consumption and production logics in Denmark. Though the country has a reputation for progressive environmental policy, its formerly large agricultural sector continues to exert disproportionate political influence, and many citizens consider pork its most "traditional" food. In 2016, a publicly-funded advisory council issued a report suggesting that parliament pass a beef tax to reduce consumption and reflect its environmental impact. The report was the most controversial the council had ever issued, with members receiving angry phone calls and politicians arguing the council should be disbanded. The proposal put national tensions between sustainability and agriculture in full view, and it became clear that such a tax would not be passed. Based on 16 months of fieldwork with meat industry workers, food innovation NGOs, environmental activists, and animal rights advocates, this dissertation explores how stakeholders in the meat-climate debate produce and enact knowledge; while industry scientists used HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 ii quantification as a stand-in for making ethical claims, NGOs attempted to make new environmental subjects through educational eating programs and pressure campaigns to increase availability of plant-based foods. These efforts are contrasted with activists who work directly with animals, whose work is biopolitical and affective. All actors claim to be in favor of "environmental sustainability" but are governed by conflicting internal regimes and motivations. What emerged was a hydra of anxieties not just about climate but human-animal relationships in general, that I call "hyperanimal." HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 iii Acknowledgements The number of things that must fall into place in order to create a written dissertation is high. Most of those things involve time, effort, and encouragement from others towards the potential author. My first, and most persistent supporters are my family, especially my parents, Drew and Sue Winter, and maternal grandfather, Robert Dumas. My initial confidence and interest in graduate school came from the support of friends who were also intellectual mentors: Kate Blake, Judith Roof, Anthony Nocella, and Johnny Lupinacci. Once I began applying to graduate school, I studied for the GRE and wrote my applications alongside my close friend Larry Butz, who forced me to improve my study habits and discipline. Howard Bossen and Carol Glasser were gracious in writing letters of support on my behalf, along with the ever-supportive Judith Roof. My then-partner Katherine Brindle put up with my constant studying, writing and rewriting applications, and my decision to move across the country to attend Rice University. In doing so, I was re-united with Larry, and we were able to continue a partnership of intellectual growth. Once entering the anthropology department, I met and worked with scholars whose brilliance, dedication, and commitment to cooperative scholarship I will forever emulate. My cohort of Svetlana Borodina, Víctor Giménez, Ellie Vainker, and Helena Zeweri were excellent fellow students, as were classmates from other cohorts—especially Rebecca Gimbel, Kristin Gupta, Reza Hashemitaba, Maureen Haver, Jing Wang, Adam Webb-Orenstein, and Eliza Williamson. The atmosphere of the department was led by professors whose scholarly achievements were matched by their patience and engagement, under whom I felt extremely privileged to HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 iv study: Andrea Ballestero, Dominic Boyer, Eugenia Georges, and Zoe Wool developed my sense of the anthropological and academic world. I was humbled to have exclusive time with Cary Wolfe in an independent study, where we spent hours discussing animal scholarship at a level I'd never known before. Altha Rodgers was key to keeping me on track with administrative responsibilities. Once arriving in the field, a new university became my intellectual home, and the faculty there went out of their way to break the (false, in my experience) stereotypes of Danes as insular and cold: Lotte Holm, Mickey Gjerris, Peter Sandøe, and especially my KU advisor who also oversaw my Danish language exam, Bodil Just Christensen. In 2016 I became a Digital Content Editor at Cultural Anthropology, where I had the privilege of working with Marcel LaFlamme, who was an excellent supervisor. Upon returning from 14 months in the field, I was repeatedly slowed down by self-doubt, gaining courage and confidence through Cymene Howe and James Faubion providing me direction and making me feel capable precisely in their responsiveness but lack of micromanagement. I also received sage advice on how to approach the dissertation from Alex Blanchette, Jan Dutkiewicz, Ted Geier, Kendra Coulter, and my fellow post-field workshop members, the "precarious future refusers." The single most powerful experience to propel my dissertation writing was attending the 2019 Animals and Society Summer Institute—organized by Margo DeMello, Jane Desmond, Kim Marra, and Kenneth Shapiro—where I met a host of animal studies scholars who gave me a whole new community with which to think: Hallie Abelman, Danielle Alessi, Pablo Castello, Alessia Cecchet, Limor Chen, Genevieve Cottraux, Paula D'Amico, Alice DiConcetto, Anderson Hagler, Laure Hoenen, Gabriela Jarzebowska, Alexandra Kimbo, Katarzina Łogoźna-Wypych, HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 v Katherine Mershon, Austin Hoffman, Cara Miller, Katie Netti, Mariana Olsen, Mira Reyes, Peter Sands, Francisco Santiago-Avila, Mihaiela Swift, Georgitta Valiyamattam, and Kevin Wienke. Apart from my academic and related families, friendships have been vital to my self- confidence and happiness, and they are brilliant people in their own ways: Katie Breslin, Rasmus Svolgaard, Jason and Line Møller, Samantha Plasencia, Rachel Blomer, Donovan Torres, Signe Tolbøll, Hallie Workman, and Tayler Zavitz. Finally, I am grateful for the family with which I share my home, who have experienced the stress of a dissertation by proxy, and to whom I owe the daily love and support that kept me writing: Laura Rogers, Sam Winter, Max Rogers, and Maggie Rogers. HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER 1 65 CHAPTER 2A 93 CHAPTER 2B 122 CHAPTER 3: 151 CHAPTER 4: 191 CONCLUSION 215 WORKS CITED 226 HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 7 Introduction Five of us stood outside the Super Brugsen grocery market, handing out leaflets while our hands shivered under the off-white sky. It was the third market we'd leafleted that afternoon. My colleague offered a leaflet to a man in his sixties who was clutching frikadeller (Danish meatballs) against his chest with one arm. He refused the leaflet, but began speaking to my colleague. “Meatballs are the truth!” the man declared confidently, pointing to the stack of meatballs resting on his chest. “Meatballs are real. Meatballs are the only truth” he repeated. “I don’t disrespect EcoJustice, but everything they do is shit.”1 The leaflet was not related to climate change or meat, but rather to a particular brand of toilet paper that was using trees logged from circumpolar forests. He did not yell, or contort his face in anger—he gently wagged his index finger with the confidence of a retiree who saw this 21-year-old volunteer as well-intentioned, but naïve and misguided. I was too far away to hear his exact words, but his smile confirmed the tone that my colleague later disclosed. I knew immediately that this incident—an elderly Danish man standing outside in the rain, emphatically pointing to pork chops and saying “meatballs are the only truth” would be a highlight of my research on attitudes towards meat’s climatological impact. It encompassed the modern discussion around meat and climate change, if in a caricatured way: a young student of environmental science attempted to diplomatically persuade an elderly man who clung to his 1The man used the Danish word “lort” which literally means “shit” in the sense of excrement. HOUSTON, TEXAS APRIL 2020 8 relationship to familiarity and physical presence so much that he actually scolded her for acting on claims that she—to him—could not see and feel with her own senses. He was declaring the value of these meats in their tangibility, their immediacy, and their understood utility—in contrast to the abstract, distant (in time and space), and allegedly vague values of ecological advocacy championed by activists like the woman who offered him a leaflet outside of his grocery store. This scene is not memorable for some kind of lurid humor about a man standing on a street corner arguing that the ultimate font of knowledge comes from ground beef. It is memorable because