The politics and practices of representing bodies in capitalism A discussion about public health in Mexico & beyond.

Background
This publication was produced from a roundtable discussion about the cultural politics of representation and metabolic illness commissioned by the organizers of the 2021 “Just Food” conference jointly held by the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), the Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS), the Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS), and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN). A film had been submitted titled, El Susto: Mexico’s Love Affair with Sugary Drinks Turns Deadly, produced by Karen Akins (2020) and Just Food organizers wished to screen it at the online conference and foster an academic roundtable discussion to unpack some of the tropes that frequently surround discussions of globalized markets of processed foods and the rise of metabolic illness.

With questions posed by the roundtable Chair, Emily Yates-Doerr, the discussion focused broadly on the challenge of problematizing the inequitable burden of metabolic illness among equity-seeking groups without stigmatizing those who consume foods that are often seen as the cause of disease. Specifically, panelists considered how to redress the corporate greed that drives expanding global markets for processed food, without pathologizing racialized and fat bodies. The panelists jointly insisted that academic inquiry and activism should keep the focus on political and economic structures, such as trade agreements and health policies, which undergird health inequities, rather than individual dietary choice or a lack of education.

Roundtable panelists were selected by the Just Food conference organizers because of their expertise on metabolic disorder, the cultural practice of capitalism(s), and techniques of representation. Because we believe the conversation has relevance for anyone working on or thinking about health and its representation – in or outside of Mexico -- we are reproducing it here. We have lightly edited the transcript of the conversation to help with readability.