Commodity Systems In the Anthropocene

The science and discourse of the Anthropocene has emerged recently to describe the geologic era where human activity has become the dominant factor shaping climate change, environmental degradation, and food insecurity, pushing many environmental and socio-economic activities beyond sustainable planetary boundaries. The industrial agrifood sector is a major contributor to these negative externalities. Commodity Systems Analysis is a conceptual framework and research methodology in the sociology of agrifood employed to identify all actors and their relative power along the commodity chain, and to expand the chain approach to include the institutional governance framework of the state, corporations, labor, farmers, science/universities, consumers, and social movements. This special session invites papers that investigate how specific commodity systems are responding to the challenges of the Anthropocene and long-term agrifood system sustainability through adaptation, mitigation, and/or other paths of transition, transformation, and contested governance. We invite papers that engage the challenges and opportunities facing commodity production in the Anthropocene.