Materiality and Culture in the Battle of Alternative Proteins Against Meat

A documentary by Martin Viatour and Constanza Lobos Campusano

This documentary was created as part of the course Material Culture, taught by Liedeke Plate in the BA Arts & Culture Studies at Radboud University.

This video essay seeks to understand the different cultural and political whereabouts of the vegan and alternative proteins industry while exposing some core mechanisms of the meat industry. We unveil how the materiality of food works combined with a specific cultural discourse, such as gender or traditions to justify the treatment of animals and the subsequent ecological crisis, as well as how these processes are part of a highly lucrative capitalist enterprise.

We draw on Foucault’s theory of discourse, and, by adding materiality, we use Alexandra Sexton’s concept of “food semiosphere” to describe the cultural battle, on the ground of consumption and consumers, between plant-based and animal products.

Ultimately, we argue that there is no good reason to keep using animal products when presented with viable plant-based alternatives and that this statement is inherently part of the strategy of the plant-based industry. We stand with the observation that there is no real argument in favor of meat eating and that it is imperative, from an ecological, ethical, and profoundly political point of view, to transform the way we eat and consume.

Bibliography

Foucault, Michel. L’ordre du discours : leçon inaugurale au Collège de France prononcée le 2 décembre 1970. Editions Gallimard, 1971.

Sexton, Alexandra. « Alternative Proteins and the (Non)Stuff of “Meat” » . Gastronomica The Journal Of Food And Culture, vol. 16, n^o 3, janvier 2016, p. 66‑78. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2016.16.3.66.

Sexton, Alexandra E. « Eating for the post‐Anthropocene : Alternative proteins and the biopolitics of edibility » . Transactions Of The Institute Of British Geographers, vol. 43, n^o 4, juin 2018, p. 586‑600. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12253.

Oleschuk, Merin, et al. « Maintaining Meat : Cultural Repertoires and the Meat Paradox in a Diverse Sociocultural Context » . Sociological Forum, vol. 34, n^o 2, février 2019, p. 337‑60. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12500.

Winters, Ed. How to Argue with a Meat Eater (and Win Every Time). Vermilion, 2025.