Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 24, 2013

Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting

Hunger, Hegemony, and Inequality
The Discourse of Food in the U.S.

This paper addresses the intertwined issues of rising income inequality and food insecurity in the U.S. The ways that food security and insecurity are defined and discussed by the major agricultural companies are contrasted with the concepts and definitions used by food sovereignty activists. We argue that the hegemonic discourse of hunger and food security articulated and disseminated by the agricultural production companies, such as Monsanto and Cargill, contributes to, rather than alleviates widespread food insecurity. Local and regional food production offer alternatives that enable low income people to control and optimize their food choices.