The political economy of distillers’ grains and the frictions of consumption

ABSTRACT

Global political economists have highlighted how states and corporations enact environmentally destructive practices and create commodities that legitimate those same activities. Linking macroeconomic systems to situated micropractices, how a by-product of US ethanol production, distillers’ grains, has been transformed into a global animal feed commodity is explored in this study. The effect of this transformation is to legitimate both biofuel production and intensive livestock operations, while delegitimating the resistant ‘food vs. fuel’ argument proposed by critics of biofuel production. Yet the process of creating an animal feed commodity from industrial waste is also problematic, characterized by the creation of multiple ‘frictions of consumption’, concerning the product’s storability, flowability and digestibility. Bioscience experts work to overcome these frictions; yet these frictions may also offer opportunities for those seeking to resist these environmentally destructive industries.

KEYWORDS:

• Biofuels
• science and technology studies
• livestock
• animal feed
• frictions

Acknowledgement

Early drafts of this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, the Institute of Political Economy, Carleton University, the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Society of Food Studies, Agriculture and Human Values Society and the Canadian Association of Food Studies, and Memorial University Department of Geography Blue Box series. In addition, I would like to extend thanks to the reviewers for their excellent critiques, and special thanks to Kate Neville, Jennifer Clapp and Graeme Hayes for strengthening and improving the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. These are estimates because there are no official records kept on distillers’ grains.