Good to eat? Neoliberalism, commercial agriculture, and the genesis of agrarian taste in northern Bangladesh

This ethnographic study foregrounds the subjective interpretations of how marginal peasants in a northern Bangladeshi village justify locally produced coarse rice as palatable at the cusp of neoliberalism, commercial agriculture, and agroecological change. The main aim is to underscore how agrarian communities distinguish the quality of the paddy they cultivate for sale from that of the rice grains they eat at home. The production, distribution, and consumption of diverse varieties of rice elucidate the social dispossession and stratum of the peasantry, hence rationalizing the disparity in their quality standards. Stories about lore and ambivalence around a particular kind of rice suggest that agrarian workers’ perceptions of quality and taste are grounded in their collective food consciousness, social stratification, and legacies. By proposing the term “agrarian taste,” I argue that the rice marginal peasants consume is not just what they prefer; what they intake also entails what they do and where they belong in society. Owing to their class conditioning, agrarian communities value good-quality rice primarily for its edibility rather than its appearance or aesthetic appeal.