The Hand that Feeds

Food plays a major part in shaping human–animal relations, from nurturing farm and zoo animals to bringing wild birds into suburban gardens. Food-mediated interactions create personal interspecies bonds, enrich and alter environments, change species distributions, enable new relationships and reconfigure social perspectives, but also lead to many concerns over health and disease, for example, as well as conflicts over spaces and resources. However, previous attention has almost exclusively focused on the purpose-driven, utilitarian and economic aspects of feeding, rather than the affective and emotional encounters that motivate many feeding practices.

Presenting new research and interdisciplinary case studies, The Hand that Feeds considers animal feeding from historic to modern times. The volume explores the nuances and complexity of non-utilitarian feeding relationships, across urban and rural divides, in the wild, on the farm, at the zoo and in the garden, and how our feeding relationships have altered animal distributions and behaviours. The authors scrutinise contrasts between which species are promoted and which are persecuted, and how the species we choose to feed reflects broader world views and cultural values. Ultimately, this volume engages in the discussion of how we feed, why we feed, which animals we deem worthy of feeding and the widespread impacts of feeding relations.

Praise for The Hand that Feeds

‘An innovative and exciting collection of studies exploring the cultural phenomenon of animal feeding. Drawing on cutting-edge approaches and case studies from wild raptors to livestock and zoo animals, The Hand that Feeds has started a new conversation on this fundamental relationship between other species and ourselves.”

Aleks Pluskowski, University of Reading

‘This fascinating book explores the how, why and consequences of people feeding other species, drawing on perspectives from the historical, life and social sciences. Different voices bring diverse observations and viewpoints to a refreshingly lively and informative discussion of a topic that is anything but simple.’

Terry O’Connor, University of York

‘This is a fantastic interdisciplinary collection interrogating how human–animal relations are mediated by food…Food can be an enticement, a medicine or a poison; it can be a vehicle for protection and bonding, or distance and killing.’

Dolly Jørgensen, University of Stavanger