Volume 30, 2014
Food
Andrew J. Pierce
Pages 131-143
The Power and Politics of Disgust
Toward a Critical Theory of Food
This essay argues, drawing from both philosophical and scientific work on disgust, that since disgust is a universal human emotion with roots in evolutionary adaptation, and since capitalism inevitably produces disgusting food, a critique of capitalism based upon the category of disgust and centered on the food system may be more practically effective than traditional critiques of capitalism. This critique forms the basis of what I call a critical theory of food.