Description
This book takes a surprising take a look at the hidden world of broccoli, connecting American consumers keen on their health and diet with Maya farmers keen on holding onto their land and making money. Compelling life stories and wealthy descriptions from ethnographic fieldwork among supermarket shoppers in Nashville, Tennessee and Maya farmers in highland Guatemala bring the commodity chain of this seemingly mundane product to life. For affluent Americans, broccoli fits into on a regular basis concerns about eating right, being healthy, staying in shape, and valuing natural foods. For Maya farmers, this new export crop provides a possibility to make just a little extra money in difficult, incessantly risky circumstances. Unbeknownst to one another, the American consumer and the Maya farmer are bound together in webs of desire and subject matter production.