| The discourse of sustainability and food in online US media texts is examined in this thesis. The media, in reporting on food and climate change, positions sustainability rhetorically to support or refute existing practices, prescriptions, and activism. Such practices are characterized by certification and standards while prescriptions are evident as ideological discussions of the future of "food security" in the face of climate change. It was found that the term was used in negative portrayals of existing food certifications and that the use of the term sustainability, in discussion of the future global food supply and human population, reinforced a simplistic, production-focused growth paradigm. The environmental movement itself was targeted by media discourse on food sustainability, with some calling for its replacement with a nascent food movement. The construction of sustainability and food in online media has valuable implications for policy and activism as human communication becomes increasingly digitized. |
