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The complexities of globalization: The UK as a case study of tensions within the food system and the challenge to food policy
Abstract
This article proposes a number of arguments about the contemporary food system. Using the UK as a case study, it argues that the food system is marked by tensions and conflicts. The paper explores different strands of public policy as applied to the food system over the last two centuries. It differentiates between various uses of the term globalization and proposes that the real features and dynamics of the new world food order are complex and neither as benign nor as homogeneous as some of its proponents allow. Opposition to the new era of globalization is emerging in the food system. This is already having some impact, questioning not just the products of the food system but the nature of its production and distribution.
... The constraints imposed by reduced oil availability and increased price will be felt not only in transportation of food across the globe. The very industrialised basis of modern food production, already the subject of much criticism (Lang 1999) is now increasingly in jeopardy. ...
... Nowhere is seen a better example of the inadequacies of 'the market' than in food production. It exists primarily to support international trade rather than food security, and total reliance on it is shown to be both naïve and simplistic (Lang 1999). ...
Written before fracking and oil from tar sands became predominant, and in the expectation that the climate and biodiversity emergencies (catastrophes) would be positioned as priorities in local and national government policy and planning, this report sought to place sustainability at the heart of local government. The fact that nearly 15 years later, still very few politicians understand the enormity of our collective environmental predicament is a mark of the inadequacy of so-called representative government. That does not, however, detract from the stance and insight presented in this document, or the relevance of these issues, which gain in importance with every passing day.
... Calls for a democratization of the food system emerged in the early 2000s, and were reinforced through concepts such as civic/alternative food networks (Hassanein, 2003). The concept of "food democracy" was first prominently coined in 1999 by the food scholar and former farmer Tim Lang (Lang, 1999). It develops a critical perspective on the state of the current food system and its organization (Hassanein, 2008;Booth and Coveney, 2015;Bornemann and Weiland, 2019a). ...
... The constitution of the current food system is hardly compatible with the idea of (direct) democratic self-determination, as it promotes the disenfranchisement of people with regard to the choice and organization of their food supply. In a system of industrial mass food production run by a small number of multinational corporations, people are disconnected from their food base and left with few opportunities to participate in shaping the food system (Lang, 1999;Hassanein, 2003;Booth and Coveney, 2015;Petetin, 2016). Power is concentrated in corporate farms, lobbying groups, and multinational food corporations, potentially sanctioned by governmental allies, and these alliances largely escape direct democratic control (Hamilton, 2004;Booth and Coveney, 2015). ...
Conventional food systems continue to jeopardize the health and well-being of people and the environment, with a number of related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still far from being reached. Food Policy Councils (FPCs)—since several decades in North America, and more recently in Europe—have begun to facilitate sustainable food system governance activities among various stakeholders as an explicit alternative to the shaping of food systems by multinational food corporations and their governmental allies. In contrast to the former, FPCs pursue the goals of food system sustainability through broad democratic processes. Yet, at least in Europe, the agenda of FPCs is more an open promise than a firm reality (yet); and thus, it is widely unknown to what extent FPCs actually contribute to food system sustainability and do so with democratic processes. At this early stage, we offer a comparative case study across four FPCs from the Upper-Rhine Region (Freiburg, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg)—all formed and founded within the past 5 years—to explore how successful different types of FPCs are in terms of contributing to food system sustainability and adhering to democratic and good governance principles. Our findings indicate mixed results, with the FPCs mostly preparing the ground for more significant efforts at later stages and struggling with a number of challenges in adhering to principles of democracy and good governance. Our study contributes to the theory of sustainable food systems and food democracy with the focus on the role of FPCs, and offers procedural insights on how to evaluate them regarding sustainable outcomes and democratic processes. The study also offers practical insights relevant to these four and other FPCs in Europe, supporting their efforts to achieve food system sustainability with democratic processes.
... Global food systems are marked by tensions, threats, and conflicts (Tim, 1999), leading to increasing agricultural risk. Such risk may originate from many sources and practices, including crop management, markets and environmental impact and often lead to financial losses (Antón, 2009;Motha et al., 2011) for the affected farm and farming communities. ...
... Furthermore, a high percentage of respondents encountered these risks, which indicates that the Mbororo community's food system is under pressure. These threats to the food system of the Mbororo community might also negatively affect other communities as for instance urban cities that depend on meat and milk from the Mbororo community (Tim, 1999). Specifically, the results have shown that the livelihood of the Mbororo community is centred especially on cattle, though a few of these families' substitute home consumption by practising subsistence crop farming. ...
Increasing population pressure, coupled with the effects of climate change manifested by longer dry seasons, wildfires, and conflicts, threatens the food systems of minority communities. In the case of the Mbororo minority community of Northwest Region of Cameroon, these threats are exacerbated by already existing problems of marginalisation. This study assesses agricultural risks in the global context of food distribution and gross domestic product that also poses a specific threat to the food system of the Mbororo people. The study aims to (1) assess the types of agricultural risk encountered by the Mbororo community, (2) examine the likelihood and severity of these risks, and (3) appraise local risk management strategies adopted to minimise the negative impacts of these risks on the food system. The study makes use of a mixed method approach for data collection. Findings have revealed animal diseases (83 %), absence of infrastructures (83.6 %), price variation (76.6 %), and drought (75.8 %) as the most encountered risks in the case study area. Especially, drought, political insecurity, pest and rodent, farmer-grazer conflict, and crop and animal diseases emerged as the highest intensity or priority risks with the need for urgent management strategies intervention. Agricultural risk assessment is frequently used to assess and prioritize risks but has hardly been used in the case of minority groups such as the Mbororo community of Northwest Cameroon.
... By probing the power dynamics and adaptation practices necessary to implement and use the global system of GIs in the specific Norwegian national and food-cultural context, our chapter relates to the body of literature that seeks to understand and develop the concept of food democracy (FD). FD is a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1954, 7) that has been underdeveloped since it was coined by Tim Lang in the late 1990s (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b. Various authors have discussed its content, focusing on different aspects such as food security (e.g., Sonnino, Moragues Faus and Maggio 2014), power relationship between consumers and market or producers (Dubuisson-Quellier and Lamine 2008; Tovey 2009), the global food system (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b and citizenship and human rights (Hassanien 2008;Lamine, Darolt and Brandenburg 2013). ...
... FD is a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1954, 7) that has been underdeveloped since it was coined by Tim Lang in the late 1990s (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b. Various authors have discussed its content, focusing on different aspects such as food security (e.g., Sonnino, Moragues Faus and Maggio 2014), power relationship between consumers and market or producers (Dubuisson-Quellier and Lamine 2008; Tovey 2009), the global food system (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b and citizenship and human rights (Hassanien 2008;Lamine, Darolt and Brandenburg 2013). Booth and Coveney claim that "The essence food democracy is about the redistribution of power within the food system" (2015,16). ...
This edited volume covers the topic of Geographical Indication (GI) from a global perspective, using case studies from agri-food. The main theme is the re-evaluation of GI policies around the world: their resilience against capitalism and their role as facilitator or stumbling block for neoliberalism.
... By probing the power dynamics and adaptation practices necessary to implement and use the global system of GIs in the specific Norwegian national and food-cultural context, our chapter relates to the body of literature that seeks to understand and develop the concept of food democracy (FD). FD is a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1954, 7) that has been underdeveloped since it was coined by Tim Lang in the late 1990s (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b. Various authors have discussed its content, focusing on different aspects such as food security (e.g., Sonnino, Moragues Faus and Maggio 2014), power relationship between consumers and market or producers (Dubuisson-Quellier and Lamine 2008; Tovey 2009), the global food system (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b and citizenship and human rights (Hassanien 2008;Lamine, Darolt and Brandenburg 2013). ...
... FD is a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1954, 7) that has been underdeveloped since it was coined by Tim Lang in the late 1990s (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b. Various authors have discussed its content, focusing on different aspects such as food security (e.g., Sonnino, Moragues Faus and Maggio 2014), power relationship between consumers and market or producers (Dubuisson-Quellier and Lamine 2008; Tovey 2009), the global food system (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b and citizenship and human rights (Hassanien 2008;Lamine, Darolt and Brandenburg 2013). Booth and Coveney claim that "The essence food democracy is about the redistribution of power within the food system" (2015,16). ...
Geographical indications (GIs) were initially established as public instruments to inhibit the unfair appropriation of a territory’s reputation. With their inclusion in the terms of the widely adopted agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and their subsequent international diffusion, however, many countries incorporated GIs as private property instruments organized by producer groups with minimal state control. Brazil can be situated in a third group of countries where a plurality of institutional arrangements prevails reflecting the different articulations and conflicts within state bodies and between state and non-state actors. This chapter explores the ways in which the contrasting results of GI in Brazil confirm the flexibility of its institutional framework for different sectors and territories and underscore the fragility of the Brazilian model.
... By probing the power dynamics and adaptation practices necessary to implement and use the global system of GIs in the specific Norwegian national and food-cultural context, our chapter relates to the body of literature that seeks to understand and develop the concept of food democracy (FD). FD is a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1954, 7) that has been underdeveloped since it was coined by Tim Lang in the late 1990s (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b. Various authors have discussed its content, focusing on different aspects such as food security (e.g., Sonnino, Moragues Faus and Maggio 2014), power relationship between consumers and market or producers (Dubuisson-Quellier and Lamine 2008;Tovey 2009), the global food system (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b and citizenship and human rights (Hassanien 2008;Lamine, Darolt and Brandenburg 2013). ...
... FD is a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1954, 7) that has been underdeveloped since it was coined by Tim Lang in the late 1990s (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b. Various authors have discussed its content, focusing on different aspects such as food security (e.g., Sonnino, Moragues Faus and Maggio 2014), power relationship between consumers and market or producers (Dubuisson-Quellier and Lamine 2008;Tovey 2009), the global food system (Lang 1999a(Lang , 1999b and citizenship and human rights (Hassanien 2008;Lamine, Darolt and Brandenburg 2013). Booth and Coveney claim that "The essence food democracy is about the redistribution of power within the food system" (2015,16). ...
The regulation and labeling scheme for PDO, PGI and TSG was set up in Norway in 2002, modeled on corresponding systems for geographical indications (GIs) in the European Union. The implementation of GI in Norway was demanding, causing administrators, producers, consultants and others to make a significant and all-round effort to adapt the scheme to the Norwegian food culture and the Norwegian food culture to the scheme. This chapter probes the theme of this mutual adaptation work and its consequences.
Norway makes up the food-cultural context in this study, whereas Tørrfisk fra Lofoten (Stockfish from Lofoten (SfL)) is used as a specific case of a GI product. SfL was selected as unit for analysis mainly because it is also registered as a third-country GI product in the European Union. Including the Norway/EU dimension makes it possible to consider not only the local and national levels but also the multilevel dimension and complexity of GI systems as part of the analysis – making the power within, and the consequences of, the adaptation work even more complex and intriguing.
The analysis is based on diverse forms of empirical material, such as document studies of laws, policy documents, other documents and interviews with people responsible for working out product regulations in producer organizations. Interviews have also been conducted with key informants representing public administrative bodies administering the regulation. The analysis is not dedicated to any specific methodological or theoretical tools but takes inspiration from an adapted set of perspectives to describe and understand the cultural adaptation work of GI schemes and products.
The conclusion is that the evolution of GI in Norway, with SfL as the case study, can be understood as a chain of adaptations and adaptive practices necessary to unite the dynamic that occurs in modern global regulations’ ordering of the cultural status of traditional local products. The consequences of this food-cultural adaptation work give voice to and empower local actors and subordinate groups, but they can also be seen as instruments that hamper democratic forms of development.
... Foster and Lunn (2007) trace UK nutrition policy from the postwar "remnants of wartime endeavours, such as fortification" aimed at preventing micronutrient deficiencies, through the emergence of chronic diseases in the 1960s, and a shift in focus toward pathogenesis and prevention, to publication of the country's first dietary guidelines, and the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA) first report on heart disease in the 1970s. The 1980s saw the first set of guidelines on amounts of fat, salt, sugar, and fiber for the UK population, by the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education, but it was not until the Conservative government's Health of the Nation white paper, launched in 1992, that the diet-health connection was firmly established (Lang, 1999a), in a public health policy with specific nutritional targets, supported by the work of COMA. The same year saw the establishment of the Nutrition Taskforce-a multisector committee involving food manufacture, retail, catering, health, and the voluntary sector-to work with government departments c to produce and oversee a broad strategic and operational program. ...
... NGOs were active throughout the 1980s and 1990s, forming an "extraordinarily effective lobby" (Lang, 1999a, p. 175). Lang (1999a) describes how "a food movement" of public health professionals, specialists, and a new generation of NGOs developed, achieving reform around "food adulteration, the public health, and the reform of state institutions" (p. 175). ...
... The phenomenon of corporate lobbying and influence over the global environmental institutions can be confirmed by analyzing their participation in international forums. Lang (1999) studied in early 1990s that along with 104 governments 100 TNCs represented in global environmental meetings. Over a period of two years, 662 industry representatives took part in such meetings compared to 26 representatives of public interest groups (Lang, 1999). ...
... Lang (1999) studied in early 1990s that along with 104 governments 100 TNCs represented in global environmental meetings. Over a period of two years, 662 industry representatives took part in such meetings compared to 26 representatives of public interest groups (Lang, 1999). Nowadays, the presence and representation of these corporate players is more prominent and clearly visible. ...
The large corporations have an inevitable presence in the modern world. Generally, all developing countries have formulated environmental standards and regulations to preserve their environment. However, the ‘regulatory chill’ by powerful companies supersedes environmental regulations. Moreover, an increasing number of global corporations prefer suing the States in international arbitration court under investor-State dispute settlement clauses of bilateral investment treaties. As a result, the States either adopt ‘regulatory chill’ or ‘race to the bottom’ principles to keep the economic investment within countries. Adding to the plight of weak States, the ‘corporate takeover’ occupies the State, and the environmental regulations are either diluted or suspended to pave way for complete economic liberalization. It is an outcome of intrusion and takeover by corporate power into governance structures and institutions, apart from financial sponsorship of election contestants. In such precariousness of domestic environmental affairs, what are future implications? May the ‘corporate environmental accountability regime’ be shaped internationally, and appreciated and enforced by already weak States? In case of perfect corporate takeover of the State, what will happen to State sovereignty or regulatory autonomy? How will the global environmental governance institutions respond to overall failure of States in fixing the corporate hegemony?
... Moreover, while the 20th century marked the advent of supermarkets [5], recent decades have seen the success of new forms of online commerce [6]. All these new forms of retailing have furthered and strengthened the food global value chains, thereby transforming them [7][8][9][10]. On the one hand, they favoured a global standardisation of agrifood production and food consumption patterns [5]. ...
This paper investigates the socioeconomic and cultural transformation in food artisan entrepreneurship due to the complexification of the food sector and ongoing globalisation through a case study conducted among the artisan butchers of Genoa, Italy. The butcher's trade has enjoyed centrality and social and cultural promotion that made butcher shops key places in the urban foodscape. However, this centrality is challenged by both new consumption trends and the imposition of large-scale organised distribution as the fulcrum of mass food trade. These changes raise the question about the future of the profession and its knowledge. This paper addresses this question by investigating the structure of the butcher's business and the practices involved in knowledge creation and transmission, exploring the factor of change and its effects on the butcher's profession, as well as the very foundational aspects of the artisanship. The research suggests that artisanship should be read as a form of entrepreneurship capable of placing and moving the craftsman within the global social hierarchy of a community. Therefore, the preservation of artisanship and its sociocultural complexity cannot be limited to the mere preservation of gastronomic forms and techniques.
... Konefal, Mascarenhas, and Hatanaka (2005) consider how decisions about the global food system (e.g., the rise of private standards) are increasingly done by private actors (e.g., multinational retailers) rather than in the public sphere where they are open to public scrutiny. Lang (1999) likewise considers the role of market concentration in the food system and highlights a need for a critical evaluation of the political economy of the global food system. Galli et al. (2020) consider how to develop, design and effectively integrate policies to achieve food system sustainability, recognizing the many facets of the food system. ...
Food systems and food networks have gained increased attention among agricultural and applied economists in recent years. This chapter presents a new topic that has not been included in previous Handbook chapters, aiming to provide a broad review of the research related to food systems and food networks to guide and motivate agricultural and applied economists new to this space in conducting research on these topics. Many of our examples come from local and regional food systems and food networks as they are both of wide interest globally, and because they represent a growing volume of expertise among researchers. It would be a daunting task attempting to include all literature in this domain given the complexity of research subjects by agricultural and applied economists and scholars from other fields. However, the frameworks and approaches we discuss can be applied to food systems and food networks at a variety of scales and in a variety of contexts. Unsurprisingly, definitions of food systems and food networks are not fully agreed upon by scholars. In this chapter, we begin with discussing various definitions of food systems and food networks; the types of research questions one might want to answer related to food systems and food networks; and the theories, frameworks, data, and methods used to study and answer these questions. This chapter provides examples of the interdisciplinary nature of this work including: (1) examinations of components of food systems versus food networks, (2) characteristics and interactions of actors in building and maintaining food systems and food networks, and (3) integrated systematic approaches to understanding and enhancing food systems and food networks to address societal problems. Our chapter concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges we see for agricultural and applied economists in this field moving forward. Through this work, we hope to stimulate innovative approaches among agricultural and applied economists, working with other disciplines, to explore and analyze relationships, influences, and impacts of food systems and food networks to enhance social, economic, and environmental sustainability and equity.
... The distance the food travels from the source point to the consumption point is termed as food miles. Timothy Lang first coined the term in 1990 to assess the distance travelled by the food and its impact on the environment to go towards sustainability (Lang, 1999). The process to calculate the environmental impact on each stage of transformation and distribution is known as the 'life cycle analyses' of that food product. ...
The aim of this paper is to measure the annual carbon footprint, when vegetables and grains travel from farms to consumers. The focus is on the food basket of Cuttack City, Odisha, India. Primarily, this is an exploratory research which includes research instruments namely interviews and survey through questionnaire with the transportation authority across the distribution channel. Additional data collected thorough secondary sources, existing literature. The major findings of this research are the amount of greenhouse gas emission, for the vegetable, rice, wheat, milk and pulses etc., which comprise the food basket, with comparative analysis of grains versus vegetables & milk products, when travels through the distribution network and reaches the consumers of Cuttack City. The study scope is limited to Cuttack City only and the product scope is limited to the vegetarian food and the milk products. This research will provide a better understanding to measure the environmental impact caused by the transportation of food items. Based on this research, distribution channels redesigning can done to make them environmental friendly and sustainable, to achieve food security.
... What we produce as food does not align with what we should consume for a healthy diet. The food system has undergone considerable change in recent decades, with globalization and international food trade facilitating the consumption of new products, access to the same foods all year round rather than seasonal foods (Lang, 1999;The Guardian 2014), and cheap energydense, nutrient-poor foods. Consumption (particularly meat and dairy) has increased but so has the concentration of global energy intakes, through a few staple crops e.g. ...
The key message from this research, in light of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, is the need for preparation and contingency planning with national food system strategies and internationally agreed measures to protect food and nutrition security. Fundamentally, prevention, in the form of reducing climate risks through deep and rapid mitigation and well-resourced support for adaptation in the food system, integrated with the reversal of environmental damage through the use of sustainable production methods and ecosystem restoration will help progress towards protecting food and nutrition security against future risks.
... In 1996, an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) caused the death of 180,000 cattle with 4.4 million cattle culled on-farm in efforts to prevent further spread [29], as well as 178 deaths from a variant Creutzfeld Jakobs Disease (vCJD), the human version of the prion disease [30]. UK exports of beef were badly impacted by the BSE crisis, "essentially putt[ing] the UK meat trade into quarantine" [31]; furthermore, UK beef was banned in the rest of the European Union from 1996 until 2006, with China only lifting its ban on UK beef and lamb imports in 2018 [30]. The economic costs to the UK industry from the BSE crisis were estimated to be around £4 billion [29,32]. ...
This paper explores the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis as a disruptor to Britain’s beef and sheep supply chains. The assessment of COVID-19 impacts is based on the triangulation of farming and industry news reports, submissions to a government COVID-19 enquiry and interviews with industry experts. We find that livestock farming and farm services were least affected compared to processing, retailing, foodservice, or consumers. Primary and secondary processors continued to operate during the first COVID-19 lockdown but had to quickly become ‘COVID secure’. The most dramatic effect was the overnight closure of hospitality and catering and the redirection of supplies to the retail sector. This picture of a resilient British beef and sheep industry may also be conceptualised as relatively locked in and resistant to change. Red meat production is tied to the land it farms on and operates on 12–36-month production cycles, making it difficult to change trajectory if disruptions do not directly affect farming. Emerging changes in agricultural payments, trade post-Brexit, and societal and environmental pressures may well be the disruptors that have far-reaching impacts on the beef and sheep supply chains.
... Regulations, programs, plans, and other (semi-)legal items are examples of policy outputs that directly result from decision-making actions. The roots of modern food policy rely on the rise of productionism in the post-World Wars era as a solution to the food supply problem (Lang 1999;Lang et al. 2009). Food security is commonly defined by four pillars: availability, access, utilization, and stability, which have been expanded to include two additional dimensions: agency and sustainability (Clapp et al. 2021). ...
The Caribbean region remains susceptible to an increasing frequency of natural disasters, rising international debt, out-migration, rapid urbanization, and high imports to meet basic needs. Food and nutrition insecurity persists in these small island states, with around 67.5% of the population living in moderate or severe food insecurity. Policy adjustments required to address the targets subsumed by the second sustainable development goal (SDG2 or Zero Hunger) are still at an infant stage. This research offers rigorous and up-to-date analyzes of the current status of Caribbean food policies and practices through a scoping review and expert interviews to answer the question, “What constraints and enablers impact the ability of small island states to achieve the Zero Hunger goal?”. A scoping review is performed following the relevant population, concept, and context (PCC) methodology by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). Five major challenges and barriers are identified through the scoping review: (i) island geography, (ii) governance deficiencies, and (iii) institutional constraints, compounded by (iv) collaboration barriers, and (v) externally imposed impediments (including environmental and financial shocks). To address these challenges, synergistic linkages and restrictive connections have been recognized for SDG2 localization. It was concluded that three dimensions of food security (utilization, agency, and sustainability) are mainly overlooked, necessitating special attention and action. By identifying bridging institutions and engaging various actors in supporting shared rulemaking, power, conflict management, and knowledge-sharing among local, national, and regional policy actors, a polycentric governance system is recommended as a suitable mechanism to help islands move towards food security.
... The recent history of food safety in the UK can be described in a succinct way, connecting the significant growth in the consumption of chicken products (meat and eggs) from the 1950s onwards, with a transformation in the organisation of food retailing, shopping, and regulation. As discussed by Wales et al (2006: 189), the focus of post-second world war UK food policy had been the assurance of a 'reasonable national supply of affordable food,' which first saw the intensification of food production, followed by a centralisation of food retailing (especially from the 1980s onwards), in what has been termed 'productionism' (Lang 1999). Significant are the final decades of the 20 th Century, and especially the 1990s, which were characterised by a series of food scares that moved from concerns over Salmonella in chicken and eggs (late 1980s), through worries over Listeria and E. coli, to the BSE scandal (1996) and foot & mouth disease (early 2000s). ...
... In spite of the emergence of a rapidly expanding body of literature on both national and municipal food policies in recent years (e.g. Barling, Lang, & Caraher, 2002;Carey, 2013;Lang, 1999;MacRae, 2011;Mah & Thang, 2013;Mansfield & Mendes, 2013;Mendes, 2007;Rocha & Lessa, 2009;Sonnino et al., 2019;Termeer, Drimie, Ingram, Pereira, & Whittingham, 2018;Yeatman, 2003), the institutionalization of these policies across local administrations has largely remained unchartered territory. In this chapter we therefore focus on what happens inside the local administration to start addressing this gap. ...
... Then, the foodways have to be considered in their entirety to raise the locality's prominence as part of the solution by community base to acknowledge the interdependency between of resources, access and practice. This also illustrates that localism carries political heft in opposition to the globalization of diets (Lang, 1999, Hinrichs, 2000. Kirwan and Maye's (2013) review of the links between food security and local food movements to encourage local and alternative food movements is significant. ...
Agriculture has revealed the most significant areas of linked urban/-rural development. Relationships between land attributes, policy, degradation, agricultural practices, food and resources access is a challenge from biophysical processes and economic choices at the local/-global levels. This light on the practice of cultivation agriculture precision with school farm by small community-farmers at rural-peri urban in Bandung upland with promoting the transformation of agriculture and ecological to steward long-term social, economic, and environmental viability with food production to food security-sovereignty. The interventions and mobilization in agriculture precision with school farms augments a knowledge and understanding of foodways, farm and ecology for food healthy, nutritious diets, environmental sustainability and generating a source of income along increase environmental awareness in collectivity-community farmers action. This study examines small local community farmers to improve cultivation with the practice of agriculture precision in school farm in Bandung upland. This offers hope in pulling agriculture out of the crisis of ecological and environmental degradation, the foodways system and nutrition, social; and economic forces, including overcoming the COVID19 situation.
... UK food policies have been inclined to favour production interests as opposed to consumer and citizen interests (Lang, 1999). However, public confidence has been weakened following various controversies. ...
The aim of this paper is to fill a research gap to show how 'below the line' comments can be used for digital food activism. As the study focuses on genetically modified (GM) crops and foods, the study also reveals the narratives deployed by commenters in this particular debate. This paper attempts to provide an answer through a qualitative data analysis using a grounded theory approach and a discourse analysis. The findings reveal a lack of trust in science and political authority, and the use of alternative knowledges by digital food activists. The paper concludes by discussing how this study adds to the understanding of digital food activism. Whilst the below the line comments as a form of digital food activism may not connect to action in the non-virtual world, they do offer an opportunity for debate.
This paper is open access. It is available on Digital Geography and Society through this link https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2021.100017
... The global food system provides critical underpinning support for society and represents the clearest connection between human needs and the ability of the environment to provide them. The food system has undergone considerable change in recent decades, with globalisation and international food trade facilitating the consumption of new products, access to the same foods all year round rather than seasonal foods (Lang 1999; The Guardian 2014), and cheap energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Consumption (particularly meat and dairy) has increased but so has the concentration of global energy intakes, through a few staple crops (e.g. ...
The COVID‐19 pandemic is a major shock to society in terms of health and economy that is affecting both UK and global food and nutrition security. It is adding to the ‘perfect storm’ of threats to society from climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, at a time of considerable change, rising nationalism and breakdown in international collaboration. In the UK, the situation is further complicated due to Brexit. The UK COVID‐19 Food and Nutrition Security project, lasting one year, is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and is assessing the ongoing impact of COVID‐19 on the four pillars of food and nutrition security: access, availability, utilisation and stability. It examines the food system, how it is responding, and potential knock on effects on the UK’s food and nutrition security, both in terms of the cascading risks from the pandemic and other threats. The study provides an opportunity to place the initial lessons being learnt from the on‐going responses to the pandemic in respect of food and nutrition security in the context of other long‐term challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
... In spite of the emergence of a rapidly expanding body of literature on both national and municipal food policies in recent years (e.g. Barling et al. 2002;Carey 2013;Lang 1999;MacRae 2011;Mah and Thang 2013;Mansfield and Mendes 2013;Mendes 2007;Rocha and Lessa 2009;Sonnino et al. 2019;Termeer et al. 2018;Yeatman 2003), the institutionalization of these policies across local administrations has largely remained unchartered territory. In this paper we therefore focus on what happens inside the local administration to start addressing this gap. ...
To overcome pressing food system challenges, academics and civil society actors have called for the development of integrated food policies. Municipalities have increasingly picked up on these calls by developing municipal food strategies. It remains unclear, however, whether and how these commitments have resulted in a genuine institutionalization of food governance across local administrations. We address this gap through an in-depth study of how food governance ideas were institutionalized in the Dutch municipality of Ede, which is considered a frontrunner in municipal food policy. Drawing on discursive institutionalism, we explore how actors, ideas and discourses mutually shaped the institutionalization process. Our analysis shows that food governance ideas were institutionalized following a discursive-institutional spiral of three stages. First, an abstract food profile discourse emerged, which was institutionalized exclusively amongst a small group of policy makers. In the second stage, the discourse shifted to a more elaborate integrated food policy discourse, which was institutionalized across various departments. Finally, a food system discourse emerged, which was institutionalized across an even broader range of policy departments. Our study suggests that integrated food policy can be institutionalized within a relatively short time span. A food strategy, budget and organizational innovations seem key in this process, although they can also be constraining. At the same time, we conclude that retaining a food policy institutionalized remains challenging, as sudden ideational change may cause rapid deinstitutionalization.
... This is not to say that social scientists have not studied the role of lobbying and campaigning on agri-food policy, innovation or governance structures. Lang (1999) described "a loose collection of public health professionals, specialists, and a new generation of Non Governmental Organizations" as an effective lobby in introducing food safety legislation in the UK, among other achievements. Campaigners are noted to have influenced international governance structures such as the General Agreement on Trade and Agriculture (GATT), the precursor to the World Trade Organisation (Glover 2002) as well as company divestment from agricultural portfolios (Newell 2003). ...
This paper explores the role of regulation and legislation on influencing the development and diffusion of technologies and methods of crop production. To do this, the change in pesticide registration under European Regulation 1107/2009 ‘Placing Plant Protection Products on the Market’ was followed through the UK’s agricultural system of innovation. Fieldwork included: a series of interviews conducted with scientists, agronomists and industry organisations; a programme of visiting agricultural events; as well as sending an electronic survey to British potato growers. The innovation system is noted to have made the legislation less restrictive than originally proposed. The most notable system response to the legislation is the adjustment of agrochemical company pesticide discovery strategy and their expansion into biologically derived treatments. There have also been other innovation responses: agricultural seed companies have been breeding in pathogen resistance in their cultivars; agricultural consultancies are prepared to recommend pathogen-resistant seeds; scientists are using the change as justification for adopting their solutions; the agricultural levy boards funded research into off-label pesticide uses; and producers, potato growers in particular, have been seeking advice, but not changing their growing practices.
... Moreover, the existing food policy scholarship has focused predominantly on efforts at national and supranational levels (e.g. Lang 1999;Pinstrup-Andersen 2000;Drimie and Ruysenaar 2010;Marsden 2010;IPES-Food 2016;Moragues-Faus, Sonnino, and Marsden 2017;Candel and Biesbroek 2018;Termeer et al. 2018). Moreover, most studies that do focus on food governance at local level are small-n case studies that are conceptual or normative in nature (see for example Blay-Palmer 2009; Rocha and Lessa 2009;Moragues-Faus and Morgan 2015;Cretella and Buenger 2016;Hawkes and Halliday 2017); very few comparative and systematic assessments of local food policies have been performed. ...
Local governments around the world increasingly engage in food governance, aiming to address food system challenges such as obesity, food waste, or food insecurity. However, the extent to which municipalities have actually integrated food across their policies remains unknown. This study addresses this question by conducting a medium-n systematic content analysis of local food policy outputs of 31 Dutch municipalities. Policy outputs were coded for the food goals and instruments adopted by local governments. Our analysis shows that most municipalities integrate food to a limited extent only, predominantly addressing health and local food production or consumption. Furthermore, municipalities seem hesitant to use coercive instruments and predominantly employ informative and organizational instruments. Nonetheless, a small number of municipalities have developed more holistic approaches to address food challenges. These cities may prove to be a leading group in the development of system-based approaches in Dutch local food policy.
... Voedselsysteem-denken en het rapport 'Naar een voedselbeleid' De roep om 'voedselbeleid' is niet nieuw, maar beperkte zich lange tijd tot wetenschappelijke kringen. Vanuit de analyse dat veel voedselgerelateerde problemen en determinanten een sterke onderlinge verwevenheid vertonen, beargumenteerden verschillende -met name Britse -sociologen vanaf het eind van de jaren negentig dat er behoefte was aan een betere afstemming van relevante beleidsinspanningen (bijvoorbeeld Barling, Lang & Caraher, 2002;Lang, 1999;Lang, Barling & Caraher, 2009;MacRae, 2011;Maxwell & Slater, 2003). Deze analyse sloot nauw aan bij de opkomst van denken in termen van 'voedselsystemen', een concept dat raakvlakken vertoont met dat van 'earth systems' (Biermann, 2007). ...
To address a range of interconnected food-related challenges, Dutch policymakers have invested in the development of integrated food policy in recent years. This article discusses this development in two parts. The first part contains a detailed description of the main events and lines of thinking that characterized the food policy process. From this description it becomes clear that food policy has been gradually developing towards a separate institutionalized policy domain. In the second part, this development is analysed from a policy integration perspective. This analysis shows that although considerable steps towards strengthened policy integration have been made, the Dutch ‘Food agenda’ does not yet proceed beyond symbolic levels. This particularly shows in the absence of concrete policy goals and in a policy instrument mix that has not been adjusted to strengthen consistency and effectiveness. In addition, the involvement of relevant ministries gradually decreased after the initial stages. The article concludes that the food policy process has arrived at a critical juncture: the next steps of the new government will prove decisive for whether food policy integration intentions will advance beyond the drawing board. Political and administrative leadership are identified as key conditions for such further steps to occur.
... During the latter half of the 20th century, globalization drove food production and consumption [13,[16][17][18][19][20][21], resulting in a nutrition transition phenomenon worldwide that has led to the westernization of food consumption patterns [17,18,[22][23][24]. In the Mediterranean countries, these eating pattern shifts could compromise both the beneficial effects in terms of the health and well-being of the Mediterranean dietary pattern [14,[25][26][27] and its quality as a sustainable diet model [22,28]. ...
Despite proposed conceptual frameworks of eating behaviors, little is known about environmental factors contributing to changes in food habits. Few studies have reported the external influence of tourism on the inhabitants’ eating patterns. The present study aimed to investigate whether tourism pressure affects Canary Islands inhabitants’ adherence to the Mediterranean diet pattern. Data were obtained from a health and lifestyle population-based survey conducted in 2009 and 2015. From the reported intake frequency, a Mediterranean diet score was defined (0 to 11 points). Tourist overnight stays, which were stratified by nationality and area of destination, were used as a proxy variable to measure tourism pressure. A multilevel linear regression analysis by restricted maximum likelihood estimation was performed to examine the relationship between tourism pressure and the Mediterranean diet score. A significant negative association between the Mediterranean diet score and British tourism pressure was observed (β = −0.0064, p = 0.010), whereas German tourism pressure increased inhabitants’ adherence (β = 0.0092, p = 0.042). The socioeconomic level of tourists seems to play a role in differences in the tourism pressure effect by nationality. Further investigation of other highly touristic destinations is needed to confirm these findings that could contribute to a shift in tourism and public health nutrition policies.
... There are gaps in the strategy and, of course, many intentions are yet to be realised. The tensions within the contemporary food system are many and their resolution may not be achieved by policies formulated within the trade liberalisation-economic competitiveness paradigm and multilevel governance boundaries set by the AoA-CAP reforms (Lang 1999;Barling and Lang 2003a). The response at the international level of the EU was to introduce institutional reforms also, including an international food agency in the form of EFSA that came into operation some three years after the FSA, alongside a significant policy review. ...
... The food sector is submerged in a continuous improvement and adaptation cycle to make it capable of fulfilling changing consumer needs and demands (Lang 1999). Food manufacturing has historically pursued improved flexibility to react faster and better to market changes and therefore obtain larger benefits, which are the vital factor for business success in highly competitive markets. ...
Existing large-scale centralised food production practices are often unsustainable due to requirements for significant transportation of both raw materials and finished products. These approaches also require substantial concentrated demands on energy and water. In addition, increasing amounts of food waste are being generated worldwide by manufacturers and retailers due to their dependence on unreliable demand forecasting methods as part of centralised production practices. Regulatory pressures and policy requirements as well as consumer demands for increased variety, improved traceability, and healthy diets are forcing manufacturers and retailers to reconsider their ingredient sourcing, production, storage, and distribution strategies. “Distributed and Localised Manufacturing” (DLM) aims to provide the food sector with capabilities to improve the efficiency of production systems, to optimise logistics operations across supply chains, and to extend the shelf life of products. However, to achieve these potential benefits, the implementation of DLM will involve many challenges that need to be carefully considered and addressed. This article explores these challenges and describes four specific implementation models to aid with the development of innovative and appropriate DLM structures for various food products.
... As a contribution to a natural and renewable resource, FSP has created a unique eco-agri-food system for healthy plant cultivation in varied spatial settings and shaped by changing human dietary preferences. Agri-food studies' interest in FSP as part of an eco-agri-food system has led to the idea that FSP can reduce the negative or enhance the positive externalities of the food systems (Lang, 1999;Kortright and Wakefield, 2011). Much effort has been dedicated to transforming the farming sector through incentives, policies, subsidies and institutionalcommunicational measures towards an agricultural model that does not create externalities. ...
... It survived, but only with a supreme national effort that united the nation. 18 The situation now is obviously different, in many ways. Hostile submarines no longer threaten the UK's supply chains but, on the other hand, the nation is now divided to an extent not seen in decades. ...
Brexit will have profound implications for health and health policy yet, while much attention has focused on health professionals, medicines and health protection, the risk of food insecurity, and thus health, has received less attention. We identify five major threats to the availability and affordability of food supplies. These are a lack of regulatory alignment restricting ability to import foods from the EU and beyond, a shortage of agricultural labour in the UK, increased prices of imported foods due to tariffs, damage to supply chains, for example, due to customs delays and loss of interoperability of transportation, and damage to agricultural production and food flows in Ireland.
... These particular students and youth-based groups raise the prominence of locality as part of the solution for larger environmental and social problems that the society is facing. Yet, it also illustrates that local carries a political load in opposition to the globalization of diets (Lang, 1999;Hinrichs, 2000). ...
Within the last three years, the growth of alternative and local food initiatives in Bandung, a medium-sized city in Indonesia, has been extraordinary. Not only has the number grown rapidly, but the types and modes of entities have also evolved from merely initiatives, to collaborative networks and movements, to the extent that this movement in unity may have the capacity to influence the way in which the local and national governments govern the agricultural sector. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation and a series of group discussions, this paper documents the seemingly smooth transition of agri-environmental practices that are engineered by the community sector in Bandung. The research thus leads to a conclusion that we need to look beyond individual actions in seeing social transformation, and through a coordinated collective movement, there is a promising impact on the sustainability of the local food system in Bandung and elsewhere. Practitioners and activists within the local food networks need to take a precaution in safeguarding this rapid interest in the movement.
... In institutional theory, this concept is related to the strength of the institutions, which confer stability and regularity 13 The 'homogenization' thesis also gained space in the sociology of consumption. However, here too, instead of McDonaldization (Ritzer 1998), many authors have preferred to draw attention to the diversity of consumption practices, which results from the encounter between different cultures, each with its own practices, ways of doing, objects and meanings (Lang 1999;Warde 2005). to the world (Fligstein 2001;Beckert 2009). ...
The food regime approach occupies a privileged place in the sociology of agriculture and food. However, it is criticized for its structural, universalist and homogenizing bias. From a dialogue between institutionalism and pragmatism, this contribution discusses an alternative framework constructed from the ‘social order’ concept, which defines the existence of different arrangements of practices related to socio-technical and institutional apparatuses. Both the critique of the ‘regime’ narrative and the new proposition are associated to a reinterpretation of Brazil’s agricultural trajectory. Contrasting with the overemphasized export-oriented plantation/agribusiness image that prevails in the majority of analysis about Brazilian insertion in globalized agri-food regime, this paper explores the heterogeneity of production and consumption practices, arguing for the coexistence of multiple and contradictory ordering processes.
... Globally, food policy is constantly evolving to deal with new challenges, including changes in food safety hazards as a result of global food trade and the emergence of new risks such as genetically modified organisms [19]. It has also evolved in response to political pressures and a desire to increase consumer confidence [20]. In other disciplines, such as conservation, environmental protection, and occupational safety there has been attempts to move away from "command and control" to an outcomes-based regulatory approach [13]. ...
Foodborne illness is a global public health burden. Over the past decade in Australia, despite advances in microbiological detection and control methods, there has been an increase in the incidence of foodborne illness. Therefore improvements in the regulation and implementation of food safety policy are crucial for protecting public health. In 2000, Australia established a national food safety regulatory system, which included the adoption of a mandatory set of food safety standards. These were in line with international standards and moved away from a “command and control” regulatory approach to an “outcomes-based” approach using risk assessment. The aim was to achieve national consistency and reduce foodborne illness without unnecessarily burdening businesses. Evidence demonstrates that a risk based approach provides better protection for consumers; however, sixteen years after the adoption of the new approach, the rates of food borne illness are still increasing. Currently, food businesses are responsible for producing safe food and regulatory bodies are responsible for ensuring legislative controls are met. Therefore there is co-regulatory responsibility and liability and implementation strategies need to reflect this. This analysis explores the challenges facing food regulation in Australia and explores the rationale and evidence in support of this new regulatory approach.
... At the same time, free-trade agreements and the phasing out of food reserves, along with national food policies have fostered the increasing interconnectivity and dependency of a country on the global system [3] [29]. All of these transformations have contributed to shaping the current globalized food industry, one where the typical commodity chain traverses multiple continents before reaching the consumer, and consumers have access to the highest variety of products than ever before in human history [1] [12] [41]. Coupled with this expansion, meat has emerged as a primary commodity in the typical diet, where developed countries may fill 70% of their protein consumption with animal-based products, sometimes reaching over 300 grams of meat per person daily [44] [53] [64]). ...
The prevailing global livestock industry relies heavily on natural capital and is responsible for high emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). In recent years, nations have begun to take more of an active role in measuring their resource inputs and GHG outputs for various products. However, up until now, most nations have been recording data for production, focusing on processes within their geographical boundaries. Some recent studies have suggested the need to also embrace a consumption-based approach. It follows that in an increasingly globalized interconnected world, to be able to generate a sustainable food policy, a full systems approach should be embraced. The case of Israeli meat consumption presents an interesting opportunity for analysis, as the country does not have sufficient resources or the climatic conditions needed to produce enough food to support its population. Therefore, Israel, like a growing number of other countries that are dependent on external resources, relies on imports to meet demand, displacing the environmental impact of meat consumption to other countries. This research utilizes a multi-regional consumption perspective, aiming to measure the carbon and land footprints demanded by Israeli cattle and chicken meat consumption, following both domestic production and imports of inputs and products. The results of this research show that the “virtual land” required for producing meat for consumption in Israel is equivalent to 62% of the geographical area of the country. Moreover, almost 80% of meat consumption is provided by locally produced chicken products but the ecological impact of this source is inconsequential compared to the beef supply chain; beef imports comprise only 13% of meat consumption in Israel but are responsible for 71% of the carbon footprint and 83% of the land footprint. The sources of Israel’s meat supply are currently excluded from environmental impact assessments of Israeli processes. However, they constitute a significant fraction of the system’s natural capital usage, so they must be included in a comprehensive assessment of Israel’s consumption habits. Only then can policy be created for a sustainable food system, and inter-regional sustainability be achieved.
... Th erefore, in areas where agriculture was unable to intensify or use economies of scale in order to respond to the agrarian cost-price squeeze (by enlarging holdings, increasing inputs and technology, etc.), farms became increasingly dependent on state support, and were also pushed to abandon commercial agriculture if they were not able to compete under the productivist rationale (Marsden et al. 1993; Van der Ploeg and Renting 2000 ). Th e productivist paradigm's message was also delivered through policy instruments such as subsidies telling farmers to intensify, get larger , or get out (Lang 1999). Th e productivist regime was further reinforced by the role of agricultural economists in shaping scientifi c spheres and mainly analysing rural areas and agrarian change through the lens of modernization (Newby 1982). ...
The different chapters of this book discuss key aspects of agricultural modernization and raise some important questions about politico-economic and socio-ecological transformations taking place in countries of both the Global North (Europe in particular) and the Global South (with specific examples from Brazil and India). Our starting point is that, because of complex socio-economic interactions, environmental pressures, and fierce disputes, agriculture and rural development are today among the most controversial areas of policymaking, planning, and lobbying. With the encroachment of contemporary capitalism upon food production and biological systems, agriculture has become increasingly associated with, and subordinate to, a globalized agroindustrial complex that exerts decisive influence over technology, financing, logistics, and commercialization. In general terms, a—partial and problematic—transition from agriculture to agribusiness has taken place over the last century, with the last two decades or so seeing a further transition to neoliberalized agribusiness. Consequently, the concept of agribusiness, which was originally introduced in the 1950s at the time of Fordist agriculture in the USA, has had to mutate in order to encapsulate agricultural production based on business-friendly state interventions, policy liberalization, and the dominance of transnational corporations.
... Therefore, in areas where agriculture was unable to intensify or use economies of scale in order to respond to the agrarian costprice squeeze (by enlarging holdings, increasing inputs and technology, etc.), farms became increasingly dependent on state support, and were also pushed to abandon commercial agriculture if they weren't able to compete under the productivist rationale Van Der Ploeg and Renting, 2000). The productivist paradigm's message was also delivered through policy instruments such as subsidies telling farmers to intensify, get larger, or get out (Lang, 1999). The productivist regime was further reinforced by the role of agricultural economists in shaping scientific spheres and mainly analysing rural areas and agrarian change through the lens of modernization (Newby, 1982). ...
In the collective imagination, Mediterranean agri-food systems are based on small farms that expand through high nature value (HNV) landscapes, where farmers use traditional and culturally specific practices to produce foodstuffs that are recognized globally as part of the famous Mediterranean diet. However, the actual dynamics of the Mediterranean agri-food system reveal a much more complex and diverse reality, with distinct socionatural configurations—from highly intensive vegetable production to extensive cereal farms—which do not fit the stereotype and are seldom analysed in an integrated fashion (see Ortiz-Miranda et al. 2013). Not only are these historical socio-ecological systems being bypassed, but Mediterranean dynamics have struggled to fit into European agrarian change and rural development paradigms developed in the Anglo-Saxon tradition (which are the main influence behind European Union policies). This difficulty has prompted an image of ‘delay’ in Mediterranean countries, either in adopting productivist pathways (e.g. increasing the size of agricultural holdings) or in developing an internal market for organic products or urban food policies.
... Therefore, these foods are less exposed to practices or conditions that may affect their quality. Local foods are becoming the intrinsic bearers of many positive elements, such as social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and health benefits (Schimmenti et al., 2016;Lanfranchi and Giannetto, 2015;Cranfiled et al., 2012;Feagan, 2007;Born and Purcell, 2006;Lang, 1999). The perception of quality is extended to personal needs, including food security, environmental sustainability of production, their ethical content (fair wages, animal welfare) and the place where the food is produced (Lanfranchi et Lusk et al., 2007;Kirwan, 2006). ...
During the last few decades consumer demand for local foods has increased around the world, particularly in the USA and Europe. Such consumer trend also contributes to redefine a new alternative geography of food; in which local foods are perceived to be of better quality and safer. Moreover, consumers frame local food quality not only in terms of general attributes, such as taste and price, but also in terms of more subjective attributes closely linked to social and environmental aspects of products. These attributes are recognised by consumers as a range of socially constructed food quality criteria, which play an important role in the creation of information about quality and consumer decision-making. In this study, to better understand the choice of consumers with respect to food sourced locally, it was decided to analyse, as illustrative case product, the consumption of honey. More in depth, the aim of this study is to identify the quality characteristics that most influence the purchase of locally produced honey, or to identify those that may affect transactions in the local market for honey, guiding the choices of consumers. © 2016, SRAC - Societatea Romana Pentru Asigurarea Calitatii. All rights reserved.
This study explores South Sulawesi's glocalisation. This study is conducted in Makassar City, Pare-Pare City, and Bulukumba Regency due to their higher urban and tourism context mobilisation, port accessibility, and port potential. This study investigates using phenomenology. Document analyses, observations, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions (FGD) contribute to carefully selecting culinary or tourism industry experts as informants. According to the research, globalisation and localisation have affected South Sulawesi dishes' appearance, aroma, flavour, and environment (sight and touch). Since these are commercial dishes, fundamental ingredients and market values are essential. Since "traditional terminology" is devalued, contemporary cuisine is also gaining popularity. Modernisation and globalisation have altered the community's ontological security. Globalisation, technology, and transportation have altered every aspect of celebrations, including food. Due to the absence of a commercial context (anticipated monetary rewards), the festival is the only location where traditional culinary offerings are more likely to persist than elsewhere.
A study on behalf of the GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH) within the scope of the sector project “Agricultural trade: Strengthening LDCs’ integration into the global economy” Conducted by FIAN (FoodFirst Information & Action Network) INTERNATIONAL e.V.
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Summary
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With 5 million hectares of cropping land, Brazil is the biggest producer of sugarcane the world over. More than half of the sugarcane produced is currently being turned into ethanol to fuel vehicles on the domestic market. The dual structure of the sugarcane and alcohol processing industry means that Brazil is able to react flexibly to developments in prices and is therefore one of the leading players on the world market.
Brazil has a strong domestic market for sugar; however, the share of exports continually increased in the nineties. In 2000 Brazil produced 9.45 million tonnes of sugar for the domestic market and 7.7 million tonnes for the export market, equivalent to 25 per cent of total world sugar exports. At an average of US$200 per tonne, Brazil has the lowest production costs worldwide. Modern, export-oriented firms even manage to produce at a rate of US$160 per tonne.
Should all the market restrictions be lifted, Brazil would be able to meet Europe’s entire demand for imported sugar. However, the impacts this would have are seen in a different light in the various key cultivation areas within Brazil:
1. In southern parts of Brazil, the state-promoted production of alcohol fuel through the PROALCOOL (Pro-alcohol) programme in the seventies led to the creation of the world’s largest sugarcane cultivation area. In a bid to promote sugar exports, enormous investment has been undertaken since the mid-1990s in transport infrastructure and in agrosector modernisation, making this sector one of the most efficient in the world today. Also, enterprises are now merging with the support of international capital. The relaunch of the PROALCOOL programme, along with rising domestic demand in Brazil’s industrial centres, mean that the domestic market still has a pivotal role to play in Brazil's economic future.
Although the social status quo in these enterprises has improved, mechanisation in the agricultural sector will ultimately lead to job losses for hundreds of thousands of rural workers. Until now there have been no measures designed to cope with the resulting social problems. Technological advances have been achieved in environmental protection, but the concept of ecologically harmful monocultures based on “latifundios” or large-scale land owners and land concentration remains the same.
2.) Owing to the influence of the domestic market in southern parts of Brazil, it is to be expected that expanding sugar production in
response to additional export requirements following the liberalisation of the European market will essentially be found in the Midwest and Minas Gerais where modern structures are being built up as well. The extension of arable land here will be in the severely threatened Cerrado ecological system (tree savannah), known as the breadbasket of Brazil. Furthermore, bodies of surface water and thus the Panatal and other wetland areas will bear the brunt of agro-chemicals and sedimentation. The spin-off effects of sugarcane plantations in terms of employment are so slight that the local population will be forced to move to other regions, thereby exerting more pressure on regions that are as yet without human settlements, such as the fringe of the Amazon basin.
3.Owing to its topography, antiquated production structures and the very inflexible oligarchy of sugar producers, Brazil’s Northeast, homeland of the Brazilian sugar industry, will only be marginally competitive in comparison with other parts of Brazil. Many production plants and arable farms have closed down in recent years. Indeed, the region now has the lowest social standards in the whole of Brazil. NGOs perceive this crisis as an opportunity to decrease the region's dependency on the sugarcane industry and to reduce land concentration. A renaissance of the sugar industry under present framework conditions would, however, run counter to ongoing efforts to introduce agricultural reform, establish more differentiated economic structures and reafforest the Mata Atlântica.
market will promote a non-sustainable model of agricultural economics that would lead to economic growth but would offer virtually no solutions to the ecological and social problems it would bring with it. At the international level, gradual liberalisation could give ACP states the scope they need to catch up technologically and thus become more competitive towards Brazil. However, in these countries too, the question remains as to whether the industrial agricultural economy will meet these countries’ ecological and social needs.
As far as the negotiations for new sugar market regulations are concerned, it has to be emphasised that the WTO does not have a mandate for ecological and social issues, although its regulations and policies have enormous implications in this regard. Attention should be drawn here to the respective responsibilities of other international institutions whose legal mandates even contradict each other (inter alia ILO and Agenda 21). Brazil has signed many international treaties and conventions and is therefore bound to their implementation. The Brazilian legal code already offers instruments for implementing these treaties, whereby emphasis is to be placed on the following:
• Brazil is a signatory state to the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Human Rights. In sugar cultivation areas, basic human rights such as the right to adequate food and the right to health are being violated. The extension of arable areas frequently contravenes conventions designed to protect indigenous peoples.
1.)Some ILO regulations have already been introduced into labour law and into trade union conventions. However, informal employer-employee relationships and social grievances are still widespread.
2.) The provisions of various environmental conventions (conventions on biodiversity and climate change etc.) have to be implemented on the national level; however, they hardly feature at all in the extension of arable land.
At the national level, implementation of the conventions can be made more effective through the following measures:
3.) Brazil already has well-defined environmental and social legislation which, however, is largely ignored in the sugar and alcohol industries. The Brazilian government should therefore strengthen agencies and bodies responsible for controlling enterprises.
4.) Besides measures in the field of environmental technology, the extension of crop areas calls for an assessment of both environmental and social impacts which should contain viable participatory strategies for solving the problems of the population groups affected and for protecting ecologically sensitive areas.
•State programmes should be directed towards decentralised agricultural development in support of small farmers. Implementation of agrarian reform as a basic condition for combating rural poverty along with the implementation of the human right to adequate food should be promoted without delay.
International trading partners should support Brazil, for example, via the pilot project for the protection of Brazilian tropical forests (PPG7).
It should, however, be pointed out that European sugar-beet production is not ecologically sustainable either and only has marginal impacts on employment. Ecologically sound and decentralised agriculture is therefore needed in Europe too, especially in view of its eastward extension. Hence, the restructuring of the sugar industry is a project that concerns the entire global community and one which demands changes on the part of all actors involved.
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Resumo
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O Brasil é o maior produtor de cana-de-açúcar do mundo. Os cultivos de cana ocupam hoje cerca de 5 milhões de hectares. Mais do que a metade da cana produzida é transformada em álcool usado como combustível para carros. A estrutura dupla do setor industrial, que possibilita produzir álcool e açúcar, permite aos produtores do Brasil agir com maior flexibilidade no comércio internacional, sendo assim um dos países dominantes no mercado mundial de açúcar.
O açúcar produzido no Brasil é colocado, prioritariamente, no mercado interno. Porém, na última década, cresceu a parte da produção de açúcar destinada à exportação. No ano 2000 foram produzidos 9,45 milhões de toneladas para o mercado interno e 7,7 milhões de toneladas para exportação, representando 25% no comércio mundial. Os custos da produção são os mais baixos no mundo.
A média nacional é US$ 200.00 por tonelada. Empresas modernas conseguem produzir uma tonelada de açúcar com o custo de US$ 160.
No caso de uma abertura total do mercado da Europa, os baixos custos da produção brasileira possibilitariam suprir 100% das importações européias, o que teria diferentes impactos nas principais regiões produtoras:
•No Sudeste e no Sul, o programa PROALCOOL estimulou desde os anos 70 significamente a expansão da produção da cana-de-açúcar, formando a maior concentração da agroindústria canavieira do mundo. O setor investiu nos anos 1990 em infraestruturas de transporte e na modernização da agricultura e da indústria, criando o centro produtivo mais eficiente em nível global. Pode-se observar nos últimos anos a concentração de capital e indústrias, inclusive por investidores internacionais. Mas a demanda interna é ainda um fator muito relevante para o desenvolvimento futuro, particularmente se a renovação do PROALCOOL anunciada pelo governo for colocada em prática.
Embora as empresas mais modernas apresentem alguns avanços com respeito às questões sociais, a preocupação maior é que a mecanização do corte da cana poderá gerar milhares de desempregados, para os quais não existem programas oficiais de apoio. Nas questões ambientais, pode-se registrar avanços tecnológicos, principalmente no setor industrial. Mas ainda permanece o modelo de monocultura ecologicamente não-sustentável e predatória, baseado em latifúndios, o que contribui para a concentração da posse da terra.
•·Como a demanda interna de açúcar nos centros industriais do Sudeste aumentará no futuro, pressupõe-se que a expansão da produção adicional para exportação, induzida pela abertura do mercado europeu, acontecerá sobretudo no Centro-Oeste e em Minas Gerais, onde a estrutura da agroindústria canavieira é semelhante à do Sudeste. A ampliação da área cultivada, possivelmente acontecerá no ecosistema do Cerrado, um dos mais ameaçados no Brasil.
Além disso, um dos problemas mais graves seria o aumento a contaminação das águas de superfície com sedimentos e agrotóxicos, causando impactos negativos no Pantanal e outras áreas. Como a agricultura moderna gera pouco emprego, a população local marginalizada é obrigada a migrar para outras regiões. Assim, poderia aumentar a pressão populacional em áreas naturais como, por exemplo, as margens da bacia Amazônica.
•O setor sucro-alcooleiro no Nordeste é caracterizada por uma estrutura industrial ultrapassada controlada por uma oligarquia tradicional pouco flexível. Além disso, a topografia não permite a mecanização em grandes partes da área canavieira tradicional. Por isso, o setor não é competitivo com os centros canavieiros nos demais regiões produtoras, apesar de algumas usinas trabalharem com lucro. Na última década muitas usinas e plantações foram desativadas. A região tem os piores índices sociais do Brasil. ONGs e movimentos sociais vêem na crise uma chance para romper com a dependência das usinas geradoras de miséria e para enfrentar a concentração da posse da terra. Um crescimento da economia canavieira no contexto atual seria contraproducente às initiativas para a implementação da reforma agrária, para promover a diversificação da produção agroindustrial e para a recuperação da Mata Atlântica, entre outros.
Para todas as regiões a abertura do mercado europeu - seja totalmente ou gradualmente - significa o fortalecimento de um modelo agroindustrial não-sustentável, que somente visa ao crescimento econômico sem ofercer soluções para os problemas ecológicos e sociais, que o mesmo produz. No nível internacional, a liberalização gradual poderia abrir espaço para os países da ACP melhorarem os padrões tecnológicos, aumentando a competitividade
Com relação ao Brasil. Mas também para estes países é questionável, se o modelo agroindustrial nesta forma seria adequada para as próprias necessidades sociais e ecológicas. No contexto das negociações na OMC um aspecto relevante é que ela mesma não tem mandato em questões ecológicos e sociais, enquanto suas políticas causam graves impactos. Por isso, é necessário destacar outros tratados e convenções internacionais sobre questões ecológicas e sociais, assinados pelo Brasil, que não são cumpridas, como por exemplo:
• O Brasil assinou o Pacto Internacional sobre Direitos Econômicos, Sociais e Culturais da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), que, em muitos aspectos, nas áreas canavieiras, não são cumpridos, como por exemplo, os direitos à alimentação, saúde, água potável etc. Também, muitas vezes não são respeitados os direitos das populações tradicionais e indígenas nos casos da expansão das plantações.
• Algumas diretrizes da Organitação Internacional do Trabalho (OIT) foram incorporadas às leis e contratos com os sindicatos. Mas ainda são comum no setor sucro-alcooleiro condições insalubres de trabalho, bem como o descumprimento crônico da legislação trabalhista, entre outros abusos sociais.
• As condições previstas nos acordos ambientais (convenções para a biodiversidade e para o clima, entre outros) precisam ser concretizadas em nível nacional. Elas não são respeitados, por exemplo, na expansão da área da agricultura.
A legislação brasileira já oferece instrumentos para realizar o cumprimento das obrigações;
• O Brasil tem uma legislação social e ambiental bem avançada que não é cumprida no setor sucro-alcooleiro. O Brasil precisa fortalecer entidades para fiscalizar as empresas.
• Além de avanços na tecnologia ambiental nas usinas, é necessário uma avaliação social e ambiental nas áreas da expansão das plantações, incluindo estratégias participativas para determinar soluções para problemas da população ameaçada pela expulsão da terra. Também, devem ser incluídas propostas concretas para mitigar impactos ambientais.
• Políticas públicas devem ser destinadas para as necessidades da agricultura familiar e para a diversificação da produção agroindustrial em vez de beneficiar exclusivamente o setor empresarial. A reforma agrária, como pré-condição de uma mudança socio-econômica para combater a pobreza, precisa ser acelerada.
Os demais países que participam nas negociações internacionais devem apoiar o Brasil nesses esforços, como, por exemplo, através do Programa Piloto para proteção das Florestas Tropicais do Brasil - PPG-7. Cabe destacar, que a produção da beteraba na Europa segue os mesmos padrões não sustentáveis que a produção da cana nas empresas modernas no Brasil, gerando pouco emprego. Por isso, na Europa também é necessário "ecologizar" e decentralizar a agroindústria, particularmente com respeito à ampliação da UE para o leste.
A reestruturação da econômia de açúcar é um projeto comum em nível Global; que deve cobrar mudanças de todos os participantes.
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Zusammenfassung
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Mehr als die Hälfte der Produktion wird derzeit zu Ethanol als Treibstoff für Kraftfahrzeuge für den inländischen Verbrauch verarbeitet. Durch die duale Struktur der Zucker- und Alkoholproduktion kann Brasilien flexibel auf Preisentwicklungen reagieren und ist damit einer der dominierenden Akteure auf dem Weltmarkt.
Brasilien verfügt über einen bedeutenden inländischen Zuckermarkt. Allerdings nahm der Exportanteil in den 90er Jahren ständig zu. Im Jahr 2000 betrug die Produktion 9,45 Mio Tonnen Zucker für den inländischen und 7,7 Mio t für Exportmärkte, was einem Weltmarktanteil von 25% entspricht. Mit durchschnittlich US$200 pro Tonne hat Brasilien weltweit die geringsten Produktionskosten. Moderne, exportorientierte Firmen produzieren sogar zu etwa US$160 / t.
Im Falle einer uneingeschränkten Marktöffnung ist Brasilien in der Lage, die Importe Europas vollständig zu decken. Bezüglich der daraus resultierenden Auswirkungen ergeben sich unterschiedliche Perspektiven in den wichtigsten Anbauzonen Brasiliens:
• In den südlichen Landesteilen ist seit den 70er Jahren durch die staatliche geförderte Produktion von Alkoholtreibstoff (PROALCOOL-Programm) die weltweit größte Konzentration des Zuckerrohranbaus entstanden. Seit Mitte der 90er Jahre wurden und werden mit Blick auf den Export von Zucker enorme Investitionen in Transportinfrastrukturen und in die Modernisierung des Sektors getätigt, der heute zu den effizientesten der Welt zählt. Es finden Konzentrationsprozesse der Unternehmen unter Einsatz von internationalem Kapital statt. Mit einer Neuauflage des PROALCOOL-Programms und einer steigenden inländischen Nachfrage der industriellen Zentren ist der Binnenmarkt weiterhin ein wichtiger Faktor im Hinblick auf zukünftige Entwicklungen.
Zwar hat sich die soziale Situation innerhalb dieser Betriebe verbessert, jedoch ist aufgrund der Mechanisierung im Agrarbereich mit der Freisetzung von hundertausenden Landarbeitern zu rechnen. Bisher gibt es keine Maßnahmen, die auf die daraus resultierenden sozialen Probleme abzielen. Bezüglich des Umweltschutzes sind technologische Vebesserungen zu registrieren, doch das Konzept einer ökologisch äußerst bedenklichen Monokultur, die auf Großgrundbesitz beruht und die Landkonzentration erhöht, besteht fort.
• Wegen des Einflusses des Binnenmarktes in den südlichen Landesteilen ist anzunehmen, dass eine Expansion für die durch die Marktöffnung Europas induzierte, zusätzliche Exportproduktion vor allem im Mittelwesten und Minas Gerais stattfinden würde, in dem ebenfalls eine moderne Struktur aufgebaut wird. Die Ausweitung der Anbaufläche erfolgt hier im ohnehin stark bedrohten Ökosystem Cerrado (Baumsavanne), das als „Kornkammer“ Brasiliens gilt. Zudem werden Oberflächengewässer und damit das Pantanal und andere Feuchtgebiete durch Agrarchemikalien und Sedimenteintrag belastet. Die Beschäftigungseffekte des Zuckerrohranbaus sind gering, so dass die lokale Bevölkerung abwandern muss. Dadurch steigt der Druck auf unbesiedelte Regionen, z. B. am Rande des Amazonasbeckens.
• Der Nordosten als traditioneller Standort der Zuckerwirtschaft ist wegen der Topografie, veralteter Produktionsstrukturen und einer wenig flexiblen Oligarchie der Zuckerproduzenten nur bedingt gegenüber den anderen Anbauzonen konkurrenzfähig. In den letzten Jahren wurden viele Betriebe und Anbauflächen stillgelegt. Die Region hat die niedrigsten Sozialstandards Brasiliens. NGOs sehen in der Krise die Chance, die Abhängigkeit von der Zuckerrohrwirtschaft und die Grundbesitzkonzentration abzubauen. Eine Wiederbelebung der Zuckerwirtschaft unter den derzeitigen Rahmenbedingungen würde kontraproduktiv zu den Bemühungen um die Umsetzung der Agrarreform, dem Aufbau einer differnzierteren Wirtschaftsstruktur und Wiederaufforstungen der Mata Atlântica wirken.
Für alle Regionen gilt, dass sowohl bei einer schnellen als auch bei einer graduellen Öffnung des europäischen Zuckermarktes ein nicht nachhaltiges Modell der Agrarwirtschaft gefördert würde, das zwar ökonomisches Wachstum, aber kaum Lösungen für die mit ihm verbundenen ökologischen und sozialen Probleme bietet. Auf internationaler Ebene könnte eine schrittweise Liberalisierung den AKP-Staaten Spielraum einräumen, den technologischen Rückstand aufzuholen und so konkurrenzfähiger gegenüber Brasilien zu werden. Aber auch in diesen Ländern ist zu fragen, ob die industriellen Agrarwirtschaft den ökologischen und sozialen Erfordernissen des Landes entspricht.
Im Hinblick auf die Verhandlungen um eine neue Zuckermarktordnung ist darauf hinzuweisen, dass die WTO zunächst kein Mandat für ökologische und soziale Fragen hat, wiewohl ihr Regelwerk und ihre Politiken diesbezüglich enorme Auswirkungen haben. Hier ist die Verantwortung anderer internationaler Institutionen mit teilweise konkurrierenden rechtlichen Regimes zu betonen (u.a. ILO und Umweltabkommen). Brasilien hat viele internationale Abkommen und Konventionen unterzeichnet und sich damit zu deren Implementierung verpflichtet. Das brasilianische gesetzliche Regelwerk bietet bereits Instrumentarien, die Abkommen umzusetzen. Hervorzuheben sind u. a. folgende Punkte:
• Brasilien ist Unterzeichnerin des UN-Paktes über wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Menschenrechte. In den Zuckeranbauzonen werden Grundrechte wie das Recht auf Nahrung und das Recht auf Gesundheit verletzt. Bei der Ausweitung von Anbauflächen wird oft gegen Abkommen zum Schutz der traditionellen und indigenen Bevölkerung verstoßen.
• Einige Bestimmungen der internationalen Arbeiterorganisation (ILO) flossen in das Arbeitsrecht und in gewerkschaftliche Vereinbarungen ein, jedoch sind informelle Arbeitsverhältnisse und soziale Misstände nach wie vor weit verbreitet.
• Die Vorgaben verschiedener Umweltabkommen (Biodiversitätskonvention, Klimakonvention etc.) müssen auf nationaler Ebene konkretisiert werden, finden aber in der Regel bei der Ausweitung von Agrarflächen kaum Beachtung.
Auf nationaler Ebene kann über folgende Maßnahmen eine effektivere Umsetzung der genannten Abkommen erreicht werden:
• Brasilien hat eine weit entwickelte Umwelt- und Sozialgesetzgebung, die gerade in der Zucker- und Alkoholwirtschaft vielfach nicht zum Tragen kommt. Die brasilianische Regierung muss Instanzen zur Kontrolle der Betriebe stärken.
• Neben Maßnahmen zum technischen Umweltschutz ist bei der Erweiterung der Anbaugebiete eine umfassende Umwelt- und Sozialverträglichkeitsprüfung notwendig, die wirksame partizipative Strategien zur Problemlösung der betroffenen Bevölkerungsgruppen und den Schutz ökologisch sensibler Gebiete beinhaltet.
• Staatliche Programme sollten auf eine dezentralen Agrarentwicklung zur Stützung der Kleinproduzenten ausgerichtet sein. Die Umsetzung der Agrarreform als Vorraussetzung zur Bekämpfung der ländlichen Armut und der Erfüllung des Rechts auf Nahrung ist zügig voranzutreiben.
Die internationalen Handelspartner sollten Brasilien unterstützen, etwa über das Pilotprogramm zum Schutz der tropischen Wälder Brasiliens (PPG7).
Es ist gleichwohl darauf hinzuweisen, dass auch der europäische Zuckerrübenanbau keineswegs ökologisch nachhaltig ist und nur geringe Beschäftigungswirkungen hat. Eine Ökologisierung und Dezentralisierung der Landwirtschaft ist daher auch in Europa - insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Osterweiterung - notwendig. So gesehen handelt es sich bei der Umstrukturierung der Zuckerwirtschaft um ein globales Gemeinschaftsprojekt, das allen Akteuren Änderungen abverlangt.
This article explores representations of food labour at different stages in the supply chain through a labour process theory perspective. Employing multi-modal critical discourse analysis it analyses visual data collected from three television programmes focused on dairy production and consumption. The research sheds light on the power relations inherent to food production and the devaluing of manual food labour in supply chains, which are shaped by the current capitalist socio-political environment. The findings expose ways in which media can reinforce dominant understandings of food supply chains, while making aspects of food labour invisible.
As the United States has become increasingly polarized, policymakers have had difficulty gaining bipartisan support for policy proposals. Political polarization can lead to the othering of individuals, a process characterized by the tendency to construct members of an opposing party in negative ways. In this article, we examine the creation and disruption of othering through the lens of language convergence/meaning divergence (LC/MD) and pragmatic ambiguity. LC/MD and pragmatic ambiguity framed our case study of the successful bipartisan passage of the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) in 2016. We found that othering was produced through a maestro Discourse of Polarization that structured interactions between other Discourses, including the Discourse of National Security and the Global Good Discourse. Discordant framings of the three Discourses created the ambiguity necessary to disrupt othering and achieve collective action. The findings provide new theoretical insights into othering processes while pragmatic ambiguity broadens LC/MD in important ways.
Proper nutrition is an essential need for children's balanced biological, psychological, mental, and social development. The shortage of proper nutrition, either in quantity or quality, will impact the child's health, causing many diseases and even death (WHO, 2021). Malnutrition has different forms, including undernutrition and hunger, and overweight and obesity due to a deficiency of micronutrients, which play an essential role in growth, bone health, fluid balance, and several other processes. Children's hunger is a pressing challenge facing the global community as around 10,000 children worldwide die from hunger each day (Chinyoka, 2014). Accordingly, there is severe pressure on governments and international organizations to fight malnutrition and hunger and provide multiple alternatives to healthy food sources.
This book highlights the potential of school farms to fight hunger and malnutrition by providing access to locally produced, fresh, and healthy food as well as providing young students with educational opportunities to learn, interact with nature, and develop their skills.
Hunger is one of the most pressing concerns we face today and there is a clear need to provide alternative sources of food to feed a fast-growing population. School farms offer a sustainable opportunity to produce food locally in order to feed underprivileged students who rely on school meals as an integral part of their daily diet. Approaching the concept of school farms through four themes, Problem, People, Process, and Place, the book shows how they can play an essential role in providing sustainable and healthy food for students, the critical role educational institutions can play in promoting this process, and the positive impact hands-on farming can have on students' mental and physical wellbeing. Utilizing the authors' personal hands-on experiences, and drawing on global case studies, the book provides a theoretical framework and practical guidance to help with the establishment of school farms and community-based gardening projects and an education system which promotes a sustainable and healthy approach to food, agriculture, and the environment.
This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of food security, agriculture, healthy and sustainable diets, education for sustainable development, and urban studies. It will also be of great interest to practitioners and policymakers involved in food policy, developing school and community projects, global health and international development, as well as education professionals.
This book explores the agrifood system transitions in Brazil to provide a new understanding of the trajectory of agriculture and rural development in this country. It accentuates the increasing diversifi cation and hybridization of food production and consumption practices throughout history.
With a framework that combines convention theory, neoinstitutional approaches and practice theory, this book suggests the concept of “food orders” which represents different arrangements of practices, institutions and sociotechnical artifacts. By exploring the interrelations between these elements, the book looks at six different food orders: industrial, commercial, domestic, aesthetic, civic and fi nancial, in tandem with examples of practices, sectors and territories to understand the dynamics of each one. This aids in understanding the main tendencies of the agrifood sector in such a vast country that, being a major player in global food markets, also affect production and consumption dynamics in several other countries. Besides, this book also seeks to comprehend the current institutional changes in Brazil that may be critical to interpret the global dissemination of populist and autocratic governments.
Offering key insights into the contemporary sociology of agriculture and food, this book demonstrates how strengthening democracy and supporting the organization of civil society are major challenges when we think about transition for sustainable food systems.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Food Orders 2. Modernization and Consolidation of the Industrial Order 3. The Reinvention of the Commercial Order 4. Crisis and Resilience of the Domestic Order 5. Ethical Criticism and the Construction of a Civic Order 6. Aesthetic Order: Immaterializing of Food 7. From Agribusiness Economy to the New Financial Order 8. Conclusions
At present, the food market shows apparently the prevailing position of fast-food operators in many Western Countries. However, the concomitant presence of the traditional lifestyle model known as the ‘Mediterranean Diet’ in Europe should not be excluded. The fragmentation of the current market of foods and beverages––sometimes discussed in terms of ‘Food Wars’––involves many possible products and lifestyles, including vegan foods, religion-based diets, ‘healthy’ or fast-weight loss diets, organic foods, Mediterranean Diet… and also the so-called ‘Street Foods’. These products are diffused as a cultural heritage in all known urbanised areas of the world, suggesting relationships with social aggregation, economic convenience, typical folk elements, etc. The study of street foods can help when speaking of the examination of several historical products of Sicily, Italy, and particularly of the largest Sicilian city, Palermo.
Using a critical power lens and the concept of organisational hypocrisy, we explore how actors across the supply chain have been able to pass risk and responsibility for environmental impacts down the supply chain, in addition to associated economic costs. We use vignettes to relay farmers’ experiences and voices, which remain seldom heard in both practice and research. We argue that the main effect of the hypocritical practice of ‘passing the environmental buck’ is a removal of the farmers’ agency, paradoxically coupled with an increase in their responsibilities. We see this approach by large corporations as a mechanism that helps to mask their increasing dependence on this group to achieve their environmental goals.
The UK food system, it is argued here, is not sustainable in that it is beset by vulnerabilities and lacks the resilience to overcome these. Focusing on the UK, and relying on earlier empirical data, the nature of these vulnerabilities is explained, as is their impact on the global, carbon-dependent, agro-food system. The earlier data were generated by scenarios of different food futures. These were employed as a research tool, as both their generation and their consideration involved stakeholders concerned with the supply chains for both dairy produce and wheat in the UK. The scenarios and their underpinning methodology are explained by reference to theories of systems' transitions. This article explains how scenarios of this kind can try and capture landscape pressures which might threaten the dominant paradigm and leave room for niche activity to challenge the mainstream. It will also warn, however, that the mainstream will seek to incorporate and marginalise the niche activity. The article concludes that the methodology adopted can draw out critical factors and, in the present case, tease out some early thinking about the nature of transitions towards a more sustainable and resilient system of production and consumption of food.
Introduction - significance and theoretical orientations the development of culinary cultures ethnological food research nutritional trends beliefs and practices about food and health - the lay perspective eating disorders patterns of food consumption shortage and plenty food technology and its impact the impact on food of colonialism and migration the public sphere - professional cooks and eating outside the home domestic cookery, home economics and girls' education food in the division of labour at home food in total institutions conclusion - commensality and society.
In the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estiated that Pacific Asia would absorb two-thirds of the over $3 billion increase in global demand for farm exports by the year 2000. Pacific Asian imports would be assisted by $1 billion in U.S. Export Enhancement Program subsidies to American exporters. A portion of this lucrative market (much of which is tinned beef and processed foods sold in South Korea and Taiwan) would involve bulk wheat and corn imports by Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.
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Poverty, other forms of social inequality and human impacts on the environment are increasingly recognized as important, perhaps fundamental, health determinants. These determinants, in turn, are largely conditioned and constrained by economic practices, and by government legislation that regulates such practices or seeks to mitigate inequalities that arise from them. Over the past two decades the ability of national governments to intervene in economic practices has been reduced by two interrelated phenomena: the dominance of a neoliberal economic orthodoxy, which emphasizes free (unregu-lated) markets and àminimal' welfare state, and the growth in regional and global free trade and investment agreements. There is mounting evidence that policies based on neoliberal economic theory, including free trade/investment agreements, may seriously undermine public health by increasing social inequalities, depleting natural resources and increasing environmental pollu-tion. This evidence has sparked a call among many public interest non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and policthink tanks' for appending stronsocial clauses' to global trade and investment agreements to ensure that such agreements are socially just and environmentally sustainable. This paper proposes creation of a strong public health lobby, both nationally and internationally, to join with other public interest NGOs in the social clause campaign. It begins by defining and critiquing some of the basic tenets of neoliberal economic ortho-doxy which underpin the push towards global free trade and investment agreements. It then describes the current status of these agreements, and provides examples of how such agreements might imperil public health. The paper then discusses the social clause initiative, and concludes by advancing a proposal for a public health lobby presence at those fora where trade and investment agreements are negotiated and monitored.
Launched in 1986, the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round of international trade talks has been dominated by a confrontation between the US and the EC over farm policy reform. Both sides proclaim their commitment to devising a GATT regime which will bring an end to the anarchy in world agricultural markets, yet neither is willing to address the underlying cause of the present malaise: structural over‐production in their own farm sectors and the resulting accumulation of surpluses. The use of export subsidies to put these surpluses on to world markets caused developing countries severe trade and food security problems in the 1980s; and a Uruguay Round deal is unlikely to bring any relief. What it will do, however, is introduce new regulations which, enshrined in international trade law, will restrict the right of developing countries to manage their own food systems. Most importantly, the use of trade measures to control food imports and price support measures to promote staple food production could be severely constrained, or banned, by a ‘farm superpower’ GATT agreement.
The European food industry is experiencing rapid structural change, notably, with the emergence of huge retail firms with massive buying power and, concomitantly, concentration in the manufacturing sector. Key consumer trends are driving change in the food industry, including: very slow population growth; strong demand for convenience products; and better educated consumers concerned about health, nutrition, food safety, and the environment
The balance of power in the food industry has shifted in the favour of the grocery retailer. Major retail firms, particularly in the UK, but, increasingly in other EU countries, are establishing premium own label products as a mechanism for differentiating themselves from their competitors, and increasing their gross margins. Supermarket own label products in the UK are leading the explosion of new food products that are entering the market. The emergence of retailer-driven vertical partnerships in the food industry is a UK phenomenon reflecting, inter alia, retail firms seeking to maintain and increase margins in a static market, and the desire to minimise their exposure to food safety risks. The implications of these developments are critically important for all in the food industry; not least, for farmers and manufacturers who must position themselves to supply the major retail and food service firms. Irrespective of whether a manufacturer or farmer is a supplier of own label products or nationally branded products, there will be an increasingly important requirement to show excellence in innovation — innovation in new product development, marketing and supply chain management.
Foodborne illness is any disease syndrome that results from ingestion of food. Symptoms of foodborne illness range from slight discomfort to severe reactions that terminate in death. The annual incidence of foodborne illness in the United States is estimated to range from 12.6 to 81 million cases. Frequently there are numerous cases in an outbreak which is then investigated. This involves (a) acting on notification of illness, (b) preparing for the investigation, (c) verifying the diagnosis, (d) developing a case definition, (e) making epidemiologic associations, (f) investigating where foods were mishandled, (g) analyzing data and plotting an epidemic curve, (h) calculating the incubation period and the food-specific attack rate, (i) testing for statistical significance, (j) interpreting results, (k) calculating the economic impact, (l) submitting a report, and (m) using results to prevent foodborne illness in the future. The annual cost of foodborne illness in the United States is estimated to be $7.7 to $8.4 billion; the per case cost of salmonellosis is estimated to be $500 to $1,350; that of listeriosis $137,000; and that of botulism $322,000. Foodborne illness results in both direct (treatment of victims, time lost from employment, recall of product, destruction or reprocessing of product, litigation) and indirect (pain, grief, suffering, loss of productivity, loss of leisure time, and death) costs.
Over recent years there have been extensive and dramatic changes in the world of food. Developments include biotechnology, large supermarkets, all-year round exotic fruits and vegetables, fast food, and ethnic restaurants. This book argues to study these phenomena requires an interdisciplinary approach from across the social sciences. Insights around the nature of food systems are explored and an argument is made for a number of propositions that build upon and reconstruct existing food systems theory. Food system theory is developed further by defending the system-of-provision approach. Applications of food system theory are presented for the UK sugar system, showing how it has shifted over time and how it is distinctive relative to other sugar producers. A critical examination is given of the application of standard neoclassical demand theory to the determination of diet, specifically assessing the evolution of its use empirically with UK National Food Survey (NFS) data. A technique for consumer durables is used to calculate from NFS data patterns of food purchase. Calculations are then given for food norms for a variety of meat products, class and food preferences, and dairy products by level of food expenditure. -from Authors
The restructuring of the world food system under corporate control since the Second World War has resulted in a crisis with environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The symptoms of the crisis include loss of farmland and fan oers (and in the United States, especially minority farmers), impoverishment of rural economies and the decline of small towns, shrinking of the farmer's share of the food dollar, erosion of the soil, pollution of air and water with synthetic pesticides and farm run-off, the spread of monoculture and the correspondent decline of biodiversity—the litany of problems goes on and on. In the absence of a unified organizational response, a wide variety of individuals and groups have tackled different aspects of these problems and proposed solutions. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.
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Man's increasing population, technology, and consumption are overloading Earth's capacity to adsorb, replenish and repair. Global environmental problems pose major health risks which along with their scientific uncertainties are assessed within a broad biological, historical and social context. Chapters 1 to 4 detail the nature of problems posed by ecological disruption. Chapters 5 to 10 review the underlying problems of excessive population growth and the five main categories of ecological disruption: climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, land degradation and food production, loss of biodiversity, and increasing growth of cities. Chapters 11 to 13 take a broader look at the social implications of population health problems before examining the prospects for moving forward in terms of scientific uncertainty and policy incentives. -after Author
Sample Chapter 3: Hedgerows Hedgerows provide the framework of the English countryside. In the form in which we know them in Britain, hedgerows exist in only a handful of other spots around the world, principally central Tasmania, Normandy, Ireland and New England. Hedgerows have defined field and territorial boundaries in our countryside from Saxon times. And the pattern they have imposed on our fields, built up gradually over thousands of years, does more to distinguish our landscape than any other feature. By providing abundant cover, hedgerows have made England's wildlife richer by far than that of other lands: the primrose and the violet, the hedgehog and the dormouse owe their abundance to the hedgerow; and it is our network of bushy hedges which has made England par excellence the country of small songbirds. Most important of all, however, it is the hedgerow that has given our landscape the peculiar intimacy that distinguishes it from all others. As Richard Jefferies wrote in 1884without hedges, England would not be England'. Today, however, our hedgerows are disappearing fast. Farmers removed a quarter of the hedgerows in England and Wales between 1946 and 1974, about 120,000 miles in all, or 4,500 miles a year.' The loss is continuing, as the hedgerow gets in the way of a wide range of new agricultural techniques. In 1978, 74 miles of hedgerow in England and Wales were grubbed out in the course of preparation for new drainage schemes alone to stop their roots fouling new drains. The regional variations that provide much of the subtlety of our countryside are intimately bound up with differences in the composition, shape and layout of hedgerows. The low, square, beech hedges of Exmoor are quite distinct from the tall hedgebanks of Devon and Cornwall, as the oak studded hedges of the Weald are quite unlike the straight hawthorn and ash hedges of the Midlands, and these distinctions are vital to the differences in the character of these areas. Geology, geography and biology all play a part in distinguishing these hedge types from each other, but the most important distinguishing feature is age. It is a popular misconception that the basic structure of the lowland landscape is only two hundred years old, a creation of eighteenth-century enclosure. Our different kinds of hedgerow illustrate perhaps better than any other landscape feature the basic law of landscape history that everything in the landscape is much older than it seems.
Globalization aggravates economic disparity within a nation as well as between nations. Such disparity poses serious implications to the social and health status of the economically underprivileged. Furthermore political espousal of free‑ market capitalism enervates socialistic institutions. Thus globalization or national efforts for adapting to this epochal change is suspect of having negative impact on national health. Using the under‑5 mortality rate as the health index and the ratio of the total sum of export and import over GDP by expenditure as the globaliza‑ tion index this correlation has been investigated using relevant statistical data compiled by international agencies. The analysis has provided some corroborating trends. It also helped identify some other economic and political situations that affect nations'health status. These situations are often engendered by globaliza‑ tion thus further corroborating its negative impact on health. 1. Socio-Economic Impact of Globalization Political‑economy of globalization Globalization has been a controversial issue for some time. The controversy centers around its long‑term effect on the economic and social fabric of a nation state. It is widely suspected of aggravating the economic disparities within a nation as well as between nations. Any society with a growing economic disparity inevitably suffers from various forms of social stress. How such social stress is dealt with largely depends on the polity of that society. In this regard democratic polity in which the populace has some effective means for political participation has proven its merit over time. The history of the Industrial Revolution and subsequent development of socialism in England is exemplary. Likewise in many industrialized nations democratic polity has had measurable success in developing socialistic institutions that mitigate some negative impact of economic disparity.
The issue addressed here is whether the spread of rationalization, or what I have termed `McDonaldization', is inexorable. That issue is examined spatially and temporally. Spatially, what we are witnessing is the increasingly global dissemination of rationalization, much of it emanating from the United States. The temporal growth is discussed from the point of view of the expansion of McDonaldization to birth and before and death and beyond; rationalization is coming to contain the entire life course (and more). Evidence of expansion does not, of course, necessarily mean that growth is inevitable. There are some hopeful social developments and there are some things that individuals can do, but it is difficult at this point to envision anything powerful enough to stem the tide in the direction of rationalization.
Richard W Lacey Cypsela Publications, £15.99, pp 200 ISBN 1 899516 00 XIn Mad Cow Disease Richard Lacey presents his view of two aspects of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)--the science of this intriguing disease and the chronology of the government's response to an unprecedented epidemic.Lacey accuses the government of acting slowly, of not spending enough money, of not basing its decisions on science, and, more particularly, of being inconsistent about the relationship between BSE and scrapie. On this last point the government had little alternative but to look to scrapie, a disease of almost identical pathogenesis (but which even Lacey believes offers little risk to humans), while remembering that BSE is new and therefore has the potential (but only the potential) to be different. The government has already spent more than £150 million on disease control and research and its speed of response has been constrained by the …
'Globalization’ is one of the key concepts of our time. It is used by both the right and the left as the cornerstone of their analysis of the international economy and polity. In both political and academic discussions, the assumption is commonly made that the process of economic globalization is well under way and that this represents a qualitatively new stage in the development of international capitalism. But is there in fact such a thing as a genuinely global economy? Globalization in Question investigates this notion, providing a very different account of the international economy and stressing the possibilities for its continued and extended governance. The new edition of this best-selling text has been thoroughly revised and updated to take into account new issues which have become salient in the period since the first and second editions were published. Several new chapters have been added and others combined or re-written to assess the growing supra-national regionalization of the international economy, the emergence of India and China as new super-powers, and the possibilities for the continued governance of the global system. A new author has been added to strengthen the analytical embrace of the book given the untimely death of Paul Hirst in 2003. Globalization in Question's third edition is a continuing intervention into current discussions about the nature and prospects of globalization. The book has far-reaching implications which will be of interest to students and academics in a number of disciplines including politics, sociology, economics and geography, as well as to journalists and policy-makers.
Scientists have long recognized the importance of the demographics and epidemiologic transitions in higher income countries. Only recently has it become understood that similar sets of broadly based changes are occurring in lower income countries. What has not been recognized is that concurrent changes in nutrition are also occurring, with equally important implications for resource allocation in many low-income countries. Several major changes seem to be emerging, leading to a marked shift in the structure of diet and the distribution of body composition in many regions of the world: a rapid reduction in fertility and aging of the population, rapid urbanization, the epidemiologic transition, and economic changes affecting populations in different and uneven ways. These changes vary significantly over time. In general, we find that problems of under- and overnutrition often coexist, reflecting the trend in which an increasing proportion of people consume the types of diets associated with a number of chronic diseases. This is occurring more rapidly than previously seen in higher income countries, or even in Japan and Korea. Examples from Thailand, China, and Brazil provide evidence of the changes and trends in dietary intake, physical activity, and body composition patterns.
Analyses of economic and food availability data for 1962-1994 reveal a major shift in the structure of the global diet marked by an uncoupling of the classic relationship between incomes and fat intakes. Global availability of cheap vegetable oils and fats has resulted in greatly increased fat consumption among low-income nations. Consequently, the nutrition transition now occurs at lower levels of the gross national product than previously, and is accelerated further by high urbanization rates. Data from Asian nations, where diet structure is rapidly changing, suggest that diets higher in fats and sweeteners are also more diverse and more varied. Given that preferences for palatable diets are a universal human trait, fat consumption may be governed not by physiological mechanisms but by the amount of fat available in the food supply. Whereas economic development has led to improved food security and better health, adverse health effects of the nutrition transition include growing rates of childhood obesity. The implications of these trends are explored.