Industrial chicken meat and the Good Life in Bolivia

The consumption of industrially produced chicken meat has been on the rise in Bolivia, at the same time as the philosophy of Vivir Bien has gained national and international attention. This paper provides detailed insights into the production, distribution, and consumption of industrial chicken meat in Bolivia (with a focus on the Cochabamba region). It asks how this tendency stands in relationship to the government discourse of Vivir Bien. The paper shows how the concrete policies of the Morales government have fostered the industrialization of the chicken meat sector and the food sector in general. The paper concludes that the discourse of the Morales government masks what is happening “on the ground” in Bolivia. In the case of the chicken meat sector, the concern for food security has been more important to the Morales government than environmental standards, animal health, the situation of small-scale producers, and the identity aspect of food consumption