Bridging Intersectional Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice Frameworks to Examine the Impacts of the Meat Industry

Global production of meat has greatly increased over the last fifty years in comparison to rising population numbers, much of it driven by mass-scale industrial meat operations. The effects of the mass-scale meat industry are local, global, and wide-ranging, with social, environmental, and political-economic dimensions. The industry’s expansion of inexpensive meat options is driven by a goal to build consumption, not necessarily quality or ethical meat production, while finding ways to minimize operational costs. In this thesis, I bring together ecofeminist, environmental justice, and intersectional lenses to consider how they each, and collectively, aid in the examination of the meat industry, particularly the production of pork and pork products in the United States and to understand the multidimensional impacts endured by local communities who are often marginalized and disadvantaged. This study is a literature review, followed by a preliminary analysis of the meat industry using these frameworks whereby I examine the history of the meat industry in the U.S. and the contemporary production of hog meat in Duplin County, North Carolina. Through my guiding frameworks, I discuss the violence caused by animal operations, such as pollution, toxic waste dumping, environmental degradation, and disease while highlighting how BIPOC and low-income communities tend to disproportionately be burdened with these harms. I argue that by bridging ecofeminist and political-economic frameworks it is possible to investigate the intersectional dynamics of power, privilege, environmental justice, and racism more holistically, as these lenses allow for a deeper understanding of the meat industry’s supply and production chain as well as the experiences of those directly and indirectly affected. I conclude with recommendations for future research and social and political change, including increased regulations on the meat industry, closing the divide between ourselves and where our food comes from, and addressing systemic racism and inequalities that undergird environmental racism and injustices