Tangled Routes - 2nd Edition by Deborah Barndt (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition, Tangled Routes offers a vivid interdisciplinary examination of the global food system through the journey of a corporate tomato. Through case studies in the three NAFTA countries-Mexico, the United States, and Canada-Deborah Bar...

Book Synopsis

Now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition, Tangled Routes offers a vivid interdisciplinary examination of the global food system through the journey of a corporate tomato. Through case studies in the three NAFTA countries-Mexico, the United States, and Canada-Deborah Barndt examines the dynamic relationships between production and consumption, work and technology, biodiversity and cultural diversity, and health and environment. The compelling stories of women workers along the tomato trail humanize her analysis of globalization, taking into account the intersections of gender, race, class, family status, and north-south relations.

Review Quotes

Tangled Routes has much to offer a feminist classroom. The flexibility of Barndt's chosen methodology allows her to focus on one product within the entire process of getting the product from the field to the table. The magnitude of the project-globalization from above and from below-also suggests that qualitative research can be a laborious and painstaking process. It is an example for students to learn how the scope of a project may inhibit an in-depth analysis of a particular feature if there are many other different and complex parts to examine. Instructors may also explore other possible themes to use in their classrooms, such as women and work, social oppression, or cultural/corporate hegemony. Barndt's thoroughness in explaining occurrences within the food system as well as the stories of individuals directly or indirectly involved with the process, discloses an array of ideologies embedded within the global food system. Unveiling these social beliefs can elicit thought-provoking classroom conversations, allowing for rich analyses of the intersections taking place along the tomato trail.

Barndt provides a rare synthesis of academic scholarship with an eminently accessible presentation of a social activist. Her writing style and liberal use of photographs are unusual in an academic work, yet Barndt's scholarly credentials are strong. Highly recommended.

Describes in vivid detail the intricate path of the commodified tomato from the agricultural fields of the South to the fast-food restaurants and supermarkets of the North.

In this extensively-researched book, Deborah Barndt shines a spotlight on the 'corporate tomato.' . . . An extensive index makes this an essential addition to the libraries of people concerned with justice.

Tangled Routes caught my attention when I decided that I really needed to add a more global perspective to my course. It offers the unique opportunity to follow a single product across space and time and introduces globalization from above and below. This approach allows both sides to be seen clearly, demonstrating that some of the issues do not have simple answers. The connection of women to globalization, not only through agriculture but through world production in general, is also a real plus. The photographs are wonderful, and the activist pieces at the ends of the chapters offer students some concrete examples for responding to a corporate world.

The author examines concepts old and new in an innovative, creative, and thoroughly engaging manner by mixing a strong writing style with a series of contextualising photographs. . . . An excellent interdisciplinary text that is equally useful inside and outside the classroom.

The life histories of the women workers are insightful and compelling, and . . . the photographs are superb.

The strengths of this book are its organization and clarity, its skillful interweaving of global processes and local realities, and its attention to methodology. I definitely plan to use it again in my international studies course.

This book is an original contribution to the vast literature on globalization, providing a timely, relevant analysis as well as a set of creative and concrete strategies to challenge industrial agricultural practices. Activists and students alike will gain much from it.

This is a detailed, ethnographically rich text for undergraduates. The feminist and ecological perspectives are clear and compelling. The book also fits nicely as a case study for the world capitalist system and food as commodity. This is the final work I assign in my food and culture class because it summarizes and applies so many of the course theories and concepts in a single case that students are able to use to discuss a variety of issues.

What consumers have both an obligation and a right to know about where their food comes from and what it means.

Who could believe that the story of a tomato's northward journey could reveal the true heart of corporate globalization? Women, that's who. Women whose toil speeds the journey and whose stories leap off the page to touch our hearts and our consciousness. Deborah Barndt's Tangled Routes is a wonderful and important book.

With Tangled Routes, Deborah Barndt pioneers a method for demystifying the technologies of globalization with an extraordinarily well-crafted and lively ethnography of the transnational tomato chain. Along the way, we encounter not only the women working the fields, factories, and fast-food outlets but also the variety of survival practices and resistances that constitute 'globalization from below.' These compelling stories counterpoint the spatial and social abstractions of the genetically engineered corporate tomato, its neoliberal trade regime, and its flexible workplaces. Barndt's coherent framing of a series of situational accounts models an understanding of the underside of globalization that is instructive, empowering, and richly textured.

About the Author

Deborah Barndt is professor of environmental studies at York University in Toronto. A photographer and activist, she has worked with social justice movements in Canada, the United States, and Central America for over forty years.