Pizza: A study of the post-industrial racialization of processed food in the United States

Abstract

Race and food are inextricably linked in the post-industrial food system through historical and contemporary processes of racialization. This research approaches the racialization of food through a discussion of a beloved American food; pizza. By means of an investigation into the production and consumption of pizza this study will shed light on specific facets of the post-industrial food system in order to reveal in what ways it reproduces historical racisms and contributes to the proliferations of new forms of racial inequalities. In addition, this research will investigate how the corporatization and liberalization of the American economy adds to the ways in which food is racialized. Three levels of pizza will be distinguished here; the cultivation of pizza’s main ingredients on the farm (Ch 2), the nutritional properties of pizza (Ch 3), and the socioeconomic implications of the consumption of pizza (Ch 4). Each chapter will address a different aspect of the post-industrial food industry and will discuss how it reproduces and proliferates racial inequalities.