Within debates on globalization and sustainable development, food has become a prominent, visible and increasingly contested topic. To feed an expanding and ever more demanding world population, food has to be produced, stored, processed, cooled and transported in ever larger quantities and improved qualities, using major parts of the surface of our planet. Food production not only claims a considerable share of world space but crucial resources – minerals, energy and water – as well. As expressed by the American environmental sociologist Alan Schnaiberg (1980), the modern food system ...