「食物即訊息」：論尾關露絲小說中的風險論述和環境行動主義

“Food Is the Message”: Risk Narratives and Environmental Activism in the Works of Ruth Ozeki

氣候變遷與異常是當今二十一世紀人們有目共睹的全球現象，有鑑於其所帶來的災難與危機，各領域學者紛紛提出對應的解決之道。近年來許多關於農食議題的相關環境文學與影片亦逐漸受到大眾關注，環境學者更提出救環境從送入口中的食物開始。由於黑心食品與食物中毒的事件每隔不久就會出現在國內外的新聞報導中，全球化的巨大鎖鍊又將新的不平等風險加諸在每個環境公民身上，因此全球環境風險與食物危機有著密不可分的關係。本文企圖從日裔美籍作家尾關露絲（RuthOzeki）的作品《食肉之年》（My Year of Meats; 1999）和《天下蒼生》（AllOver Creation; 2003），來探討作品中關於肉品生產問題和基因改造食物的論點、風險論述、以及文本中主人翁們的環境行動主義實踐。小說中呈現了科學如何介入環境保護議題與風險認知，並產生又迎又拒的矛盾情節，專家與大眾因風險認知不同而衍生出的辯論與行動，以及環境行動份子的形象與訴求以及與主流勢力相互角力所引發的激辯，皆為本文討論的重點。藉由檢視尾關在文本中依賴敘事科學來揭露美國食品工業體系如何影響本國與他國人民和大眾的日常生活，主人翁們又如何在這個勢力龐大的食品帝國所製造出來的全球風險社會中生存與抵抗，進而分析環境行動主義藉由食物議題，對於成為環境公民的意識是否提供另一條面對全球食品／環境風險的出路。

Climate change and anomaly are global phenomena in the twentyfirst century. Under globalization it is often the case that new inequalities and risks emerge around basic human needs. In view of disasters and crises they bring, scholars have proposed alternative solutions. The public are also concerned about environmental literature and film which focus on the issues of agriculture and food. There is a global environmental food crisis, which shackles the world with a great chain of risk. Japanese-American writer Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats (1999) and All Over Creation (2003) both illustrate the omnipresent risks not only in the meat itself (beef in this case), as produced by the corporate meat industry in which animals suffer and laborers work in miserable conditions, but also in the bioengineered crop plant (for example potatoes). This essay argues that, aware of the risk created by global industrialized or GM food production, Ozeki in both novels highlights the issues of food and depicts how environmental activists, such as ecofeminist activists or antibiotechnology activists confront the crises. The politics of food and narrative science, as shown in both novels, are not only thoroughly intertwined with ethical, cultural, and environmental disputes over the basic rights of human and nonhuman animals, but also demonstrate the blurring of boundaries between body and environment, natural and unnatural food, and public and domestic sphere. Therefore, through a representation of food activism, Ozeki in her works show how food issues reshape people’s everyday life and make a “global” turn in terms of consciousness raising or engaging ecological citizenship.