The simple is often the best: A political ecological analysis of a Norwegian broiler supply chain in the Pandemic Era

Abstract

The broiler industry is a key driver of the enormous growth in meat production and consumption across the world. Currently, a global outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is wreaking havoc on commercial poultry farms, and leaving masses of dead wild birds and other animals in its wake. Its zoonotic potential makes it one of several emerging infectious diseases monitored for pandemic risk. Infectious diseases represent one among various socioecological controversies surrounding the broiler industry. Increasing societal concern about the sustainability in agrifood systems pushes lead firms to change their behaviours in order to avoid reputational damage that might hinder accumulation, pursuing socioecological fixes to these problems. This master’s thesis is part of the research project Pandemic Entanglements: The Political Ecology of Industrial Meat Production in the “Pandemic Era” (PANDEMEAT), investigating the social dimensions of avian influenza outbreaks and preparedness in Norway and Denmark. My contribution to the project is a qualitative case study of a fully integrated broiler supply chain in Trøndelag, Norway, where the lead company Norsk Kylling, fully owned by the retailer Reitan Retail, controls the entire supply chain from the import of genetic material to the sales in Rema 1000 supermarkets. This production model is of particular interest because it represents a break with the strongly regulated Norwegian social corporate model in agriculture, challenged by increasing internationalisation, market-orientation and retailer-led restructuring of the agrifood industry. This thesis aims to explore the relations between corporate responses to socioecological issues that are challenging the broiler industry, including disease risk and in particular related to HPAI, and the dynamic social relations of production and power hierarchies in the supply chain and the wider agrifood industry. Main findings indicate that increasing disease risk and responses to this might strengthen Norsk Kylling’s efforts to consolidate their powerful position in the supply chain. Socioecological fixes related to ecological challenges including disease risk manifest in the company’s attempts to make accumulation strategies more sustainable, as they adapt to the changing mode of regulation in the Norwegian context. These developments contribute to strengthening the retailer dominance in the agrifood industry.