I am a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. My major substantive interest is the sociological study of food. I see food as a lens for investigating questions that lie at the intersection of multiple areas like culture, politics, gender and the environment. Much of my work examines discourses of ethical consumption, and investigates how consumers seek social transformation within the constraints of contemporary market forces. I am also deeply interested in the topic of foodies – what they value, how they eat, and why the hamburger remains such an iconic food. My latest research project focuses on the cultural politics of meat consumption.
Research and teaching areas: sociology of food, cultural sociology, consumer culture, gender, environmental sociology and political ecology, and critical theory.
photo credit: Polina Teif
New Book
Happy Meat: The Sadness and Joy of a Paradoxical Idea
Josée Johnston, Shyon Baumann, Emily Huddart, Merin Oleschuk. 2025. Stanford University Press.
North Americans love eating meat. Despite the increased awareness of the meat industry’s harms – violence against animals, health problems, and associations with environmental degradation – the rate of meat eating hasn’t changed significantly in recent years. Instead what has emerged is an uncomfortable paradox; a need to square one’s values with the behaviors that contradict those values. The discourse of happy meat ultimately may not be a sufficient response to the critiques of meat-eating, rife, as it is, with internal contradictions. However, we make the case for its cultural and theoretical importance, as it exemplifies the significance of social context and emotions for understanding eating practices.
Josée Johnston 