Governing Global Food and Agriculture
ERS-PSCI 606/GGOV 621 Course Outline*
Fall 2015
Course Director: Prof. Jennifer Clapp
Office: EV2 2041; Office Hours: Wednesdays 1-3pm, or by appointment
Email: jclapp @ uwaterloo.ca
Times and Location: This course meets Wednesdays 8:30am-11:20am in EV3 3406
Course Information:
Calendar Description: This course examines the international rules and organizations that have emerged to govern
the increasingly global system of food and agriculture. Specific themes to be covered include governance issues
related to the rise of global food corporations, agricultural trade liberalization and the WTO, food aid distribution,
international agricultural assistance, the global agro-chemical industry, and agricultural biotechnology.
Detailed Description: We will examine the globalization of the agro-food system and the various mechanisms that
have arisen to govern it at the global level. We will begin by addressing the current debate on the state of global food
security and food sovereignty. The recent ‘food crisis’ has fuelled the debate over how best to address access to and
production of food in the global system. Some argue that more scientific and technical intervention, combined with a
more globalized food system, is the only option. Others argue that alternative agricultural systems on a smaller and
more local scale are sufficient to feed the world's growing population. With this debate in mind, we will trace the
historical trajectory of the globalization of the industrial and scientific agricultural model and its current manifestation
of the push for genetic engineering in agriculture. We will then turn to look at broader issues with respect to
agricultural trade and aid, as well as the rise of corporate actors in the global food system. The rise of alternative
agricultural models, such as organic, fair trade and food localism in response to these global forces, will then be
examined. We then turn to look at recent developments that pose particular challenges to the global food system and
resistance movements, including the complex nexus between biofuels, the global ‘land grab’ and the ‘financialization’
of food and agriculture and the global challenges posed by food practices such as diet and waste. Finally, we will
consider the politics of the debate over the future of food in a globalized world.
Marks Distribution:
Reading Responses (3) 30% (10% each)
Policy/Analysis Presentation 5%
Policy/Analysis Brief 10%
Book Review Presentation 10%
Book Review Essay 25%
Participation 20%
Reading Responses: For 3 of the weeks (after week 1), you are to write a one to two page (single spaced) ‘editorial’
that the ideas presented in that week’s assigned readings. Please try to develop an argument or main point about that
readings as it relates to the topic we are studying that week, and try to incorporate the following in your reading
response: 1) What information, ideas or content in the readings did you find helpful or useful to your thinking about
global governance and/or the global food system, and in what way? (i.e. did the readings provide new information or
concepts that made you think about these issues in a different way? Or did they reinforce your thinking on that topic?)
2) What information, ideas or content in the readings did you disagree with or take issue with, and why? Your
reaction paper should include a short introduction that outlines your main argument(s) and the rest should back up
your points by explaining your reasoning and reference that week’s readings (and any others you deem relevant). You
will be called upon to discuss at least one point from your paper in class. The schedule for reading responses will be
determined in the first class.
* Draft – subject to minor changes prior to first class 1 Policy/Analysis Brief Presentation: You are to present to the class on a key issue, institution or initiative in global
agrifood governance. Each student is to present on a different topic, with varying dates for these presentations. You
should outline the history and background to the issue, institution or initiative, and the key debates with which it is
associated. You will have 15 minutes for this presentation. The idea is to present your topic in the context of the
material we are discussing that week. You should not be writing a reading response for that week (choose other weeks
for those!). Please feel free to bring up questions for class discussion. You can use powerpoint if you wish. The topics
for these briefs are listed with the readings each week. Sign up for topics will take place in the first week of class.
Policy/Analysis Brief: You are to write up your presentation topic as policy/analysis brief. This paper should be
approximately 2500-3000 words in length (excluding references). Please include references to your key sources, as
you would in an academic paper. Your sources should be varied – from academic articles and books, official
websites, and NGO websites. The write up for your brief will be due two weeks after you present it in class, to give
you time to finalize it in written form and incorporate feedback from the class discussion.
Book Review: You are to write a review of one of the books listed at the end of this outline. There may be another
book you wish to review that is not on this list – if so, please let me know. (I explicitly excluded books that were
aimed at the popular audience). The book review should analyze the key ideas presented in the book and clearly link
them to the readings and discussions in this course (which should be properly cited where appropriate). Please try to
make an argument about the broader literature in the context of your review. This review should be approximately
1500 words in length (excluding references). Due on December 11, 2015. Assignments can be collected from Prof.
Clapp directly in January or by scan/email if requested. Late papers are highly discouraged and will be penalized 5
percent per day that they are late, unless other arrangements are made in advance.
Book Review Presentation: in the last two meetings of the course, each student will present his/her book review
essay to the rest of the class. You should be organized, clear, and persuasive in presenting your review. Presentations
will be organized by book theme to approximate panels at a conference; chairs and discussant roles will also be
assigned. The schedule for these presentations will be determined in class.
Class Participation: You are expected to be present and to participate in all class sessions. A mark out of 5 will be
given for attendance. A mark out of 10 will be given for participation in discussions. Good participation is not simply
a matter of speaking out in class. It involves contributions that demonstrate your engagement and connection with the
course materials. This might include showing that you are making connections between different parts of the course
materials and also between course materials and current events and external readings, as well as demonstration that
you have carefully weighed the arguments and viewpoints expressed in readings and in class and have incorporated
them into your own analysis. Each week, you are expected to have read and thought about that week’s readings, and
come prepared to discuss your thoughts and ideas with your classmates in a constructive and respectful manner.
Course Materials:
Readings: The required readings for this course are all freely available via the library or online and I will do
my best to post them in LEARN.
Assigned readings should be read before the relevant classes.
Policies:
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, member of the University of Waterloo
community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Refer to Academic Integrity
website (https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/) for details.
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or
unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 (https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policiesprocedures-guidelines/policy-70) Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please contact the
department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic
offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an
2 offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g. plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group
work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate
Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71
(https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-71) Student Discipline. For typical penalties
check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties (https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-proceduresguidelines/guidelines/guidelines-assessment-penalties).
Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and Grievances) (other than a
petition) or Policy 71 (Student Discipline) may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a
ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 (Student Appeals)
www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm.Note for Students with Disabilities: AccessAbility Services
(http://uwaterloo.ca/disability-services/), located in Needles Hall, Room 1132, collaborates with all academic
departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic
integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please
register with the office at the beginning of each academic term.
Schedule of Topics and Readings:
September 16
Key Issues in the Global Food System: Introduction to the Course
Key topics for discussion: defining food security and food sovereignty, entitlements, right to food, globalization of
food and agriculture, distancing in the food system.
Optional readings:
• Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen. 1989. “Entitlement and Deprivation” in Hunger and Public Action, Oxford,
1989. 20-34.
• H. Charles Godfray et al. 2010. “Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People”, Science, Vol.
327, pp.812-218.
• Patel, Raj. 2010. “What Does Food Sovereignty Look Like?” Journal of Peasant Studies 36 (3), pp.663-673.
Film: The Global Struggle for Food (30 minutes)
September 23
The Rise of a Global Food System: Power, Distance and Governance
• Friedmann, Harriet, and Philip McMichael. 1989. “Agriculture and the State System: The Rise and Decline of
National Agricultures, 1870 to the Present.” Sociologia ruralis 29(2): 93–117.
• Kneen, Brewster. 1992. “Distancing: The Logic of the Food System” in From Land to Mouth: Understanding
the Food System. Toronto: NC Press, 24-34.
• Margulis, Matias E. 2013. “The Regime Complex for Food Security: Implications for the Global Hunger
Challenge.” Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations 19(1): 53–67.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø How important was reform of the Committee on World Food Security for the effectiveness of global food
governance?
Further reading
•
McKeon, Nora. 2011. “Global Governance for World Food Security: A Scorecard Four Years After the Eruption
of the ‘Food Crisis.’” Berlin: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. http://foodgovernance.com/2011/10/16/new-report-globalgovernance-for-world-food-security/.
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Braun, Joachim von. 2009. “Addressing the Food Crisis: Governance, Market Functioning, and Investment in
Public Goods.” Food Security 1 (1): 9–15.
Barling, David, and Jessica Duncan. 2015. “The Dynamics of the Contemporary Governance of the World’s Food
Supply and the Challenges of Policy Redirection.” Food Security 7 (2): 415–24.
Candel, Jeroen J. L. 2014. “Food Security Governance: A Systematic Literature Review.” Food Security, June.
doi:10.1007/s12571-014-0364-2.
González, Humberto. 2010. “Debates on Food Security and Agrofood World Governance.” International Journal
of Food Science & Technology 45 (7): 1345–52.
Jarosz, Lucy. 2011. “Defining World Hunger: Scale and Neoliberal Ideology in International Food Security
Policy Discourse.” Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 14 (1):
117–39.
Marsden, Terry. 2013. “From Post-Productionism to Reflexive Governance: Contested Transitions in Securing
More Sustainable Food Futures.” Journal of Rural Studies 29 (January): 123–34.
Clapp, Jennifer, and Sophia Murphy. 2013. “The G20 and Food Security: A Mismatch in Global Governance?”
Global Policy 4 (2): 129–38.
De Schutter, Olivier. 2012. “Reshaping Global Governance: The Case of the Right to Food: Global Governance
and the Right to Food.” Global Policy 3 (4): 480–83.
September 30
Three: Multiple Dimensions of Food Crises
• Headey, Derek and Shenggen Fan. 2008. “Anatomy of a Crisis: The Causes and Consequences of Surging
Food Prices.” Agricultural Economics 30: 375-91.
• Collier, Paul. 2008. “The Politics of Hunger: How Illusion and Greed Fan the Food Crisis.” Foreign Affairs,
November/December: 67-79.
• Sage, Colin. 2013. “The Interconnected Challenges for Food Security from a Food Regimes Perspective:
Energy, Climate and Malconsumption.” Journal of Rural Studies 29: 71–80.
• Timmer, C. Peter. 2010. “Reflections on Food Crises Past.” Food Policy 35(1): 1–11.
• Lang, Tim. 2010. “Crisis? What Crisis? The Normality of the Current Food Crisis.” Journal of Agrarian
Change 10 (1): 87-97.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø Did we learn the right lessons from the 1970s global food crisis?
Ø Meat, dairy and rising powers: What is the role of diet in understanding ‘food crises’ past and present?
Ø Climate change and food security: what is the connection?
Film: Excerpts from Seeds of Hunger (portions, if time)
Further Reading:
• Rothschild, Emma. 1976. “Food Politics”, Foreign Affairs, Vol.54, No.2. , pp.285-307.
• McMichael, Philip. 2009. “A Food Regime Analysis of the ‘World Food Crisis’.” Agriculture and Human
Values 26(4): 281–95.
• Jarosz, Lucy. 2009. “Energy, Climate Change, Meat, and Markets: Mapping the Coordinates of the Current
World Food Crisis.” Geography Compass 3(6): 2065–83.
• Berazneva, Julia, and David R. Lee. 2013. “Explaining the African Food Riots of 2007-2008: An Empirical
Analysis.” Food Policy 39: 28–39.
• Vermeulen, Sonja J., Bruce M. Campbell, and John S.I. Ingram. 2012. “Climate Change and Food Systems.”
Annual Review of Environment and Resources 37(1): 195–222.
• Kumar, Neha, and Agnes R. Quisumbing. 2013. “Gendered Impacts of the 2007-2008 Food Price Crisis:
Evidence Using Panel Data from Rural Ethiopia.” Food Policy 38: 11–22.
• FAO, Henning Steinfeld, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, Mauricio Rosales, C. de Haan, and Pierre Gerber. 2006.
“Livestock’s Long Shadow.” http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM
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Clapp, Jennifer. 2009. “Food Price Volatility and Vulnerability in the Global South: Considering the Global
Economic Context.” Third World Quarterly 30(6): 1183–96.
Swan, Samuel Hauenstein, Sierd Hadley, and Bernardette Cichon. 2010. “Crisis Behind Closed Doors: Global
Food Crisis and Local Hunger.” Journal of Agrarian Change 10(1): 107–18.
Freidmann, Harriet. 1993. “The Political Economy of Food: A Global Crisis.” New Left Review I (197): 29–
57.
Cudjoe, Godsway, Clemens Breisinger, and Xinshen Diao. 2010. “Local Impacts of a Global Crisis: Food
Price Transmission, Consumer Welfare and Poverty in Ghana.” Food Policy 35 (4): 294–302.
Rosset, Peter. 2008. “Food Sovereignty and the Contemporary Food Crisis.” Development 51 (4): 460–63.
doi:10.1057/dev.2008.48.
Van Der Ploeg, Jan Douwe. 2010. “The Food Crisis, Industrialized Farming and the Imperial Regime.”
Journal of Agrarian Change 10 (1): 98–106.
Weis, Tony. 2010. “The Accelerating Biophysical Contradictions of Industrial Capitalist Agriculture.”
Journal of Agrarian Change 10 (3): 315–41.
October 7
Green Revolution
• Wright, Brian D. 2012. “Grand Missions of Agricultural Innovation.” Research Policy 41 (10): 1716–28.
• Pingali, Prabhu L. 2012. “Green Revolution: Impacts, Limits, and the Path Ahead.” Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 109(31): 12302–8.
• Kerr, Rachel Bezner. 2012. “Lessons from the Old Green Revolution for the New: Social, Environmental and
Nutritional Issues for Agricultural Change in Africa.” Progress in Development Studies 12(2/3): 213–29.
• Jacques, Peter, and Jessica Jacques. 2012. “Monocropping Cultures into Ruin: The Loss of Food Varieties
and Cultural Diversity.” Sustainability 4 (12): 2970–97.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa: Africa’s saviour or corporate curse?
Ø Ecological consequences of industrial food systems: a necessary trade-off for achieving global food security?
Ø Philanthropic foundations and agricultural revolutions past and present
Film: Seeds of Plenty, Seeds of Sorrow (1 hour)
Further Reading
• Evenson, R. E. and D. Gollin. 2003. “Assessing the Impact of the Green Revolution, 1960-2000”, Science,
300, pp.758-762.
• Parayil, Govindan. 2003.“Mapping Technological Trajectories of the Green Revolution and the Gene
Revolution from Modernization to Globalization”, Research Policy 32, pp.971-990.
• Sumberg, James, Dennis Keeney, and Benedict Dempsey. 2012. “Public Agronomy: Norman Borlaug as
‘Brand Hero’ for the Green Revolution.” Journal of Development Studies 48(11): 1587–1600.
• Holt Jiminez, Eric. 2008. “Out of AGRA: The Green Revolution Returns to Africa.” Development, 51(4), pp.
464–471.
• Patel, Raj. 2013. “The Long Green Revolution.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 40(1): 1–63.
• Pimentel, David. “Green Revolution Agriculture and Chemical Hazards.” The Science of the Total
Environment 188: S86–S98.
• Stavi, Ilan, and Rattan Lal. 2013. “Agriculture and Greenhouse Gases, a Common Tragedy. A Review.”
Agronomy for Sustainable Development 33(2): 275–89.
• McMichael, Anthony J, John W Powles, Colin D Butler, and Ricardo Uauy. 2007. “Food, Livestock
Production, Energy, Climate Change, and Health.” Lancet 370(9594): 1253–63.
• Negin, Joel, Roseline Remans, Susan Karuti, and Jessica C. Fanzo. 2009. “Integrating a Broader Notion of
Food Security and Gender Empowerment into the African Green Revolution.” Food Security 1 (3): 351–60.
doi:10.1007/s12571-009-0025-z.
• Scoones, Ian, and John Thompson. 2011. “The Politics of Seed in Africa’s Green Revolution: Alternative
Narratives and Competing Pathways.” Ids Bulletin 42 (4): 1–23.
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Stevenson, James R., Nelson Villoria, Derek Byerlee, Timothy Kelley, and Mywish Maredia. 2013. “Green
Revolution Research Saved an Estimated 18 to 27 Million Hectares from Being Brought into Agricultural
Production.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (21): 8363–68.
Thompson, Carol B. 2012. “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA): Advancing the Theft of
African Genetic Wealth.” Review of African Political Economy 39 (132): 345–50.
October 14
Agricultural Biotechnology and Seed Politics
• Falkner, Robert. 2007. “The Global Biotech Food Fight: Why the United States Got It so Wrong.” Brown
Journal of World Affairs 14 (1): 99–110.
• Glover, D. (2010). The corporate shaping of GM crops as a technology for the poor. The Journal of Peasant
Studies, 37(1), 67-90.
• Herring, R. J. (2007). The genomics revolution and development studies: science, poverty and politics.
Journal of Development Studies, 43(1), 1-30.
• Jansen, Kees and Aarti Gupta. 2009. “Anticipating the Future: ‘Biotechnology for the Poor’ as Unrealized
Promise?” Futures 41 (7), pp. 436-445
Analysis/Policy Brief Topics:
Ø The Biosafety Protocol: effective protection from unwanted GMOs?
Ø Are GM crops the key to resolving world hunger?
Ø Open source seeds movement: potential and challenges
Film: Seed Battles (or Bitter Seeds or The World According to Monsanto (portions only; if time))
Further Reading:
• Borlaug, Norman. 2004. “Biotech Can Feed 8 Billion”, New Perspectives Quarterly, 24 (4), pp.97-102.
• Wield, David, Joanna Chataway and Maurice Bolo. 2010. “Issues in the Political Economy of Agricultural
Biotechnology” Journal of Agrarian Change. 10 (3), pp. 342-366.
• Dibden, Jacqui, David Gibbs, and Chris Cocklin. 2013. “Framing GM Crops as a Food Security Solution.”
Journal of Rural Studies 29: 59–70.
• Paarlberg, Robert. 2010. “GMO Foods and Crops: Africa’s Choice”. New Biotechnology 27 (5), pp.609-613.
• Kleinman, Daniel Lee, and Abby J. Kinchy. 2007. “Against the Neoliberal Steamroller? The Biosafety
Protocol and the Social Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnologies.” Agriculture and Human Values 24(2):
195–206.
• Dale, P. J. 2002. “The Environmental Impact of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: a Review.” The Journal
of Agricultural Science 138(03): 245–48.
• Prakash, Aseem, and Kelly L. Kollman. 2003. “Biopolitics in the EU and the U.S.: A Race to the Bottom or
Convergence to the Top?” International Studies Quarterly 47(4): 617–41.
• Newell, Peter, and Ruth Mackenzie. 2004. “Whose Rules Rule? Development and the Global Governance of
Biotechnology.” IDS Bulletin 35(1): 82–91.
• Tansey, Geoff. 2002. “Patenting Our Food Future: Intellectual Property Rights and the Global Food System.”
Social Policy & Administration 36(6): 575–92.
• Zerbe, Noah. 2007. “Risking Regulation, Regulating Risk: Lessons from the Transatlantic Biotech Dispute.”
Review of Policy Research 24(5): 407–23.
• Falkner, Robert, and Aarti Gupta. 2009. “The Limits of Regulatory Convergence: Globalization and GMO
Politics in the South.” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 9(2): 113–33.
• Kloppenburg, Jack. 2010. “Impeding Dispossession, Enabling Repossession: Biological Open Source and the
Recovery of Seed Sovereignty.” Journal of Agrarian Change 10(3): 367–88.
• Srinivas, Krishna Ravi. 2006. “Intellectual Property Rights and Bio Commons: Open Source and Beyond.”
International Social Science Journal 58(188): 319–34.
• Deibel, E. (2013). Open Variety Rights: Rethinking the Commodification of Plants. Journal of Agrarian
Change. 13 (2), pg. 282-309
6 October 21
Trade in Food and Agriculture
• Laborde, David and Will Martin. 2012. “Agricultural Trade: What Matters in the Doha Round?” Annual
Review of Resource Economics 4: 265-83.
• Hawkes, Shona and Jagjit Kaur Plahe. 2012. “Worlds Apart: The WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture and the
Right to Food in Developing Countries”, International Political Science Review 34 (1): 21-38.
• Wise, Timothy A. 2009. “Promise or Pitfall? The Limited Gains from Agricultural Trade Liberalisation for
Developing Countries.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 36 (4): 855-870.
• MacDonald, Graham K., Kate A. Brauman, Shipeng Sun, Kimberly M. Carlson, Emily S. Cassidy, James S.
Gerber, and Paul C. West. 2015. “Rethinking Agricultural Trade Relationships in an Era of Globalization.”
BioScience, Vol.65, No.3, 275-289.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø Food security and the WTO: The key issues behind the India vs. US showdown?
Ø What are the potential environmental implications of agricultural trade liberalization?
Ø Food sovereignty and food trade: should agriculture be ‘in’ or ‘out’ of the WTO?
Film: Trade Trap (30 minutes)
Further reading
• Bureau, Jean-Christophe, Sébastien Jean, and Alan Matthews. 2006. “The Consequences of Agricultural
Trade Liberalization for Developing Countries: Distinguishing Between Genuine Benefits and False Hopes.”
World Trade Review 5(02): 225–49.
• Aksoy, M. Ataman. 2005. “Global Agricultural Trade Policies” in Global Agricultural Trade and Developing
Countries, edited by M. Ataman Aksoy and John C. Beghin 37-54.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGAT/Resources/GATfulltext.pdf
• Burnett, Kim, and Sophia Murphy. "What place for international trade in food sovereignty?." Journal of
Peasant Studies 41.6 (2014): 1065-1084.
• Swinnen, Johan, Alessandro Olper, and Thijs Vandemoortele. 2012. “Impact of the WTO on Agricultural
and Food Policies.” World Economy 35(9): 1089–1101.
• Schoenbaum, Thomas J. 2011. “Fashioning a New Regime for Agricultural Trade: New Issues and the Global
Food Crisis.” Journal of International Economic Law 14(3): 593–611.
• Pritchard, Bill. 2009. “The Long Hangover from the Second Food Regime: a World-historical Interpretation
of the Collapse of the WTO Doha Round.” Agriculture and Human Values 26(4): 297–307
• Schmitz, Christoph, Anne Biewald, Hermann Lotze-Campen, Alexander Popp, Jan Philipp Dietrich,
Benjamin Bodirsky, Michael Krause, and Isabelle Weindl. 2012. “Trading More Food: Implications for Land
Use, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and the Food System.” Global Environmental Change 22(1): 189–209.
• Winders, Bill. 2009. “The Vanishing Free Market: The Formation and Spread of the British and US Food
Regimes.” Journal of Agrarian Change 9(3): 315–44.
• Fader, Marianela, Dieter Gerten, Michael Krause, Wolfgang Lucht, and Wolfgang Cramer. 2013. “Spatial
Decoupling of Agricultural Production and Consumption: Quantifying Dependences of Countries on Food
Imports due to Domestic Land and Water Constraints.” Environmental Research Letters 8 (1): 014046.
• Baldos, Uris Lantz C., and Thomas W. Hertel. 2015. “The Role of International Trade in Managing Food
Security Risks from Climate Change.” Food Security 7 (2): 275–90.
October 28
Transnational Agrifood Corporations and Global vs. Alternative Value Chains
• Richards, Carol, Geoff Lawrence and David Burch. 2011. “Supermarkets and agro-industrial foods: The
strategic manufacturing of consumer trust.” Food, Culture & Society 14 (1): 29-47.
• Maertens, Miet, Bart Minten, and Johan Swinnen. 2012. “Modern Food Supply Chains and Development:
Evidence from Horticulture Export Sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Development Policy Review 30 (4): 473–
97.
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Raynolds, Laura T. (2000). Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade
movements. Agriculture and human values, 17(3), 297-309.
Renting, H., Marsden, T. K., & Banks, J. (2003). Understanding alternative food networks: exploring the role
of short food supply chains in rural development. Environment and planning A, 35(3), 393-412.
Film: Merchants of Grain (1 hour)
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø The organic food industry: a genuine alternative or new corporate giants?
Ø Is sustainable certification for the major ingredient crops (soy, palm oil, sugar, etc) enough to ensure
sustainability in global value chains?
Ø Within and against the market: has the fair trade movement made a difference?
Further Reading:
• McMichael, Philip. 2013. “Value-chain Agriculture and Debt Relations: Contradictory Outcomes.” Third World
Quarterly 34(4): 671–90
• Murphy, Sophia. 2008. “Globalization and Corporate Concentration in the Food and Agriculture Sector.”
Development, 51 (4): 527–533.
• Fuchs, Doris and Agni Kalfagianni, 2010. “The Causes and Consequences of Private Food Governance.”
Business and Politics 12 (3), pp. 1-34.
• Burch, David and Geoff Lawrence. 2007. “Understanding Supermarkets and Agrifood Supply Chains”, in
Supermarkets and Agrifood Supply Chains. Ed. D. Burch and G. Lawrence. Cheltenham: Elgar, 1-28.
• Tallontire, Anne. 2007. “CSR and Regulation: Towards a Framework for Understanding Private Standards
Initiatives in the Agri-Food Chain.” Third World Quarterly 28(4): 775–91.
• Barrientos, S. 2008. Contract labour: The ‘Achilles heel’of corporate codes in commercial value chains.
Development and Change, 39(6), 977-990.
• Jaffee, Daniel and Philip Howard. 2010. “Corporate Cooptation of Organic and Fair Trade Standards”,
Agriculture and Human Values. 27: 387-399.
• Bacon, Christopher M. 2010. “Who Decides What is Fair in Fair Trade? The Agri-environmental Governance of
Standards, Access, and Price.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(1), pp.111-147.
• Taylor, Peter Leigh, Douglas L. Murray, and Laura T. Raynolds. 2005. “Keeping Trade Fair: Governance
Challenges in the Fair Trade Coffee Initiative.” Sustainable Development 13(3): 199–208.
• Henson, Spencer, and John Humphrey. 2010. “Understanding the Complexities of Private Standards in Global
Agri-Food Chains as They Impact Developing Countries.” Journal of Development Studies 46 (9): 1628–46.
• Pritchard, Bill, C. P. Gracy, and Michelle Godwin. 2010. “The Impacts of Supermarket Procurement on Farming
Communities in India: Evidence from Rural Karnataka.” Development Policy Review 28 (4): 435–56.
• Macdonald, Kate. 2007. “Globalising Justice Within Coffee Supply Chains? Fair Trade, Starbucks and the
Transformation of Supply Chain Governance.” Third World Quarterly 28(4): 793–812.
• Valkila, Joni and Anja Nygren. 2010. “Impacts of Fair Trade certification on coffee farmers, cooperatives, and
laborers in Nicaragua”, Agriculture and Human Values, Vol.27, No.3, pp.321-33.
• Sneyd, Adam. 2014. “When Governance Gets Going: Certifying ‘Better Cotton’ and ‘Better Sugarcane’”
Development and Change, January.
November 4
Finance and the Global Food System
• Ghosh, Jayati. 2010. “The Unnatural Coupling: Food and Global Finance.” Journal of Agrarian Change, 10
(1): 72–86.
• Irwin, Scott H, Dwight R. Sanders, and Robert P. Merrin. 2009. “Devil or Angel? The Role of Speculation in
the Recent Commodity Price Boom (and Bust).” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 41 (2): 377–
391.
• Isakson, S. Ryan. 2014. “Food and Finance: The Financial Transformation of Agro-Food Supply Chains.”
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1–27.
8 Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø To what extent did agricultural commodity speculation play a role in driving up food prices in the food crisis?
Ø Is the establishment of more commodity exchanges in developing countries the answer to food price
volatility?
Ø What are the prospects for more sustainable financial investment in agriculture?
Further Reading:
• Burch, D. and G. Lawrence. 2009. Towards a third food regime: behind the transformation. Agriculture and
Human Values, 26(4), 267-279.
• Clapp, Jennifer. 2014. “Financialization, Distance and Global Food Politics.” The Journal of Peasant Studies
41 (5): 797–814.
• Fuchs, Doris; Meyer-Eppler, Richard; Hamenstädt, Ulrich. 2013. Food for Thought: The Politics of
Financialization in the Agrifood System. Competition and Change. 17(3): 219–33.
• Songwe, Vera. 2011. “Food, Financial Crises, and Complex Derivatives: A Tale of High Stakes Innovation
and Diversification.” World Bank - Economic Premise (69): 1–9.
• Irwin, Scott H., and Dwight R. Sanders. 2011. “Index Funds, Financialization, and Commodity Futures
Markets.” Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy 33(1): 1–31.
• Sitko, Nicholas J., and T. S. Jayne. 2012. “Why Are African Commodity Exchanges Languishing? A Case
Study of the Zambian Agricultural Commodity Exchange.” Food Policy 37(3): 275–82.
• Ramachandran, Vijaya, Benjamin Leo, and Owen McCarthy. 2013. “Strategies to Improve the World Food
Programme’s Revenue Mobilisation and Procurement Practices.” Development Policy Review 31(3): 321–41.
• Naylor, Rosamond L., and Walter P. Falcon. 2010. “Food Security in an Era of Economic Volatility.”
Population and Development Review 36(4): 693–723.
• Mendoza, Ronald U. 2011. “Crises and Inequality: Lessons from the Global Food, Fuel, Financial and
Economic Crises of 2008–10.” Global Policy 2(3): 259–71.
• Sarris, Alexander, Piero Conforti, and Adam Prakash. 2011. “The Use of Organized Commodity Markets to
Manage Food Import Price Instability and Risk.” Agricultural Economics 42(1): 47–64.
• Isakson, S. Ryan. 2015. “Derivatives for Development? Small-Farmer Vulnerability and the Financialization
of Climate Risk Management: Small-Farmer Vulnerability and Financialization.” Journal of Agrarian
Change, July, forthcoming.
• Martin, Sarah J., and Jennifer Clapp. 2015. “Finance for Agriculture or Agriculture for Finance?” Journal of
Agrarian Change, July, n/a – n/a. forthcoming
• Williams, James W. 2014. “Feeding Finance: A Critical Account of the Shifting Relationships between
Finance, Food and Farming.” Economy and Society 43 (3): 401–31.
November 11
Politics of Land and Land Grabbing and Biofuels
• Deininger, K., & Byerlee, D. (2012). The rise of large farms in land abundant countries: Do they have a
future?. World Development, 40(4), 701-714.
• Cotula, L., Oya, C., Codjoe, E. A., Eid, A., Kakraba-Ampeh, M., Keeley, J., ... & Rizzo, M. (2014). Testing
claims about large land deals in Africa: Findings from a multi-country study. Journal of Development Studies,
50(7), 903-925.
• White, B., Borras Jr, S. M., Hall, R., Scoones, I., & Wolford, W. (2012). The new enclosures: critical
perspectives on corporate land deals. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4), 619-647.
• Lima, Mairon G. Bastos, and Joyeeta Gupta. 2013. “The Policy Context of Biofuels: A Case of NonGovernance at the Global Level?” Global Environmental Politics 13 (2): 46–64.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure vs. Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture: making sense
of voluntary initiatives to tame the worst effects of the global land grab
Ø Case study of land grab (pick a case and examine in depth)
Ø What are the prospects for a global consensus on sustainable use of biofuels?
9 Film: Agrofuels: Starving People, Fuelling Greed (30 minutes) or Kenya: Food or Fuel?
Further Reading:
• Margulis, Matias E., Nora McKeon, and Saturnino M. Borras. 2013. “Land Grabbing and Global
Governance: Critical Perspectives.” Globalizations 10(1): 1–23.
• Cotula, L. 2012. The international political economy of the global land rush: A critical appraisal of trends,
scale, geography and drivers, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39 (3-4), 649-680.
• Robertson, B. and P. Pinstrup-Andersen. 2010. “Global land acquisition: Neo-colonialism or development
opportunity?” Food Security 2: 271-283.
• Cotula, Lorenzo, et al. 2011. “Agricultural Investment and International Land Deals: Evidence from a MultiCountry Study in Africa”, Food Security 3 (S1): 99-113.
• De Schutter, Olivier. 2011. “How Not to Think of Land-grabbing: Three Critiques of Large-scale Investments
in Farmland” Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (2), pg. 249-279.
• Zoomers, Annelies. 2010. “Globalisation and the Foreignisation of Space: Seven Processes Driving the
Current Global Land Grab”, Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(2), 429-447.
• Akram Lodhi, Haroon. 2012. 'Contextualizing land grabbing: contemporary land deals, the global subsistence
crisis and the world food system', Canadian Journal of Development Studies, vol 33 no 2.
• Runge, C. Ford and Benjamin Senauer. 2007. “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor.” Foreign Affairs 86 (3):
41-53.
• Seufert, Philip. 2013. “The FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land,
Fisheries and Forests.” Globalizations 10(1): 181–86.
• Stephens, Phoebe. 2013. “The Principles of Responsible Agricultural Investment.” Globalizations 10(1):
187–92.
• White, Ben & Anirban Dasgupta. 2010. “Agrofuels Capitalism: A View from Political Economy.” The
Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(4): 593-607
• Daniel, S. 2012. Situating private equity capital in the land grab debate. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4),
703-729.
• Palmujoki, Eero. 2009. “Global Principles for Sustainable Biofuel Production and Trade.” International
Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 9(2): 135–51.
• Bastos Lima, Mairon G., and Joyeeta Gupta. 2014. “The Extraterritorial Dimensions of Biofuel Policies and
the Politics of Scale: Live and Let Die?” Third World Quarterly 35 (3): 392–410.
• Fortin, Elizabeth. 2013. “Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Sustainability Standards and Biofuels:
Understanding Standards Processes.” Journal of Peasant Studies 40 (3): 563–87.
• McMichael, Philip. 2010. “Agrofuels in the Food Regime.” Journal of Peasant Studies 37 (4): 609–29.
November 18
The Political Economy of Diet and Nutrition
• Hawkes, Corinna, Sharon Friel, Tim Lobstein, and Tim Lang. 2012. “Linking agricultural policies with
obesity and noncommunicable diseases: A new perspective for a globalising world.” Food Policy, 37, pp.
343-353.
• Dixon, Jane. 2009. “From the Imperial to the Empty Calorie: How Nutrition Relations Underpin Food
Regime Transitions.” Agriculture and Human Values 26 (4): 321–33.
• Weis, Tony. 2013. “The Meat of the Global Food Crisis.” Journal of Peasant Studies. 40 (1): 65-85.
• Lang, Tim, and David Barling. 2013. “Nutrition and Sustainability: An Emerging Food Policy Discourse.”
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 72 (01): 1–12.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation topics:
Ø What are the implications of the nutrition transition and the rise of the triple burden for developing countries?
Ø Development and meat: What are the drivers and implications of rising meat consumption in emerging
economies?
Ø Is there such a thing as a ‘sustainable diet’?
10 Further reading:
• Gómez, Miguel I., Christopher B. Barrett, Terri Raney, Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Janice Meerman, André
Croppenstedt, Brian Carisma, and Brian Thompson. 2013. “Post-Green Revolution Food Systems and the
Triple Burden of Malnutrition.” Food Policy 42 (October): 129–38.
• Alexander, Eleanore, Derek Yach, and George A. Mensah. 2011. “Major Multinational Food and Beverage
Companies and Informal Sector Contributions to Global Food Consumption: Implications for Nutrition
Policy.” Global Health 7 (26).
• Clark, Sarah E., Corinna Hawkes, Sophia M. E. Murphy, Karen A. Hansen-Kuhn, and David Wallinga. 2012.
“Exporting Obesity: US Farm and Trade Policy and the Transformation of the Mexican Consumer Food
Environment.” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 18 (1): 53–64.
• Yach, D. 2014. “Food Industry: Friend or Foe?: Food Industry: Friend or Foe?” Obesity Reviews 15 (1): 2–5.
• Freedhoff, Y. 2014. “The Food Industry Is Neither Friend, nor Foe, nor Partner: Can the Food Industry
Partner in Health?” Obesity Reviews 15 (1): 6–8.
• Kaan, Christopher, and Andrea Liese. 2010. “Public Private Partnerships in Global Food Governance:
Business Engagement and Legitimacy in the Global Fight against Hunger and Malnutrition.” Agriculture and
Human Values 28 (3): 385–99. doi:10.1007/s10460-009-9255-0.
• Moench-Pfanner, Regina, and Marc Van Ameringen. 2012. “The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
(GAIN): A Decade of Partnerships to Increase Access to and Affordability of Nutritious Foods for the Poor.”
Food & Nutrition Bulletin 33 (Supplement 3): 373S – 380S.
• Patel, Raj, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Lizzie Shumba, and Laifolo Dakishoni. 2015. “Cook, Eat, Man, Woman:
Understanding the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, Nutritionism and Its Alternatives from
Malawi.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 42 (1): 21–44.
• Scrinis, Gyorgy. 2008. “On the Ideology of Nutritionism.” Gastronomica 8 (1): 39–48.
• Scrinis, Gyorgy. 2008. “Functional Foods or Functionally Marketed Foods? A Critique Of, and Alternatives
To, the Category of ‘functional Foods.’” Public Health Nutrition 11 (05).
• “Social Movements Statement on Nutrition.” 2014. Development 57 (2): 305–9.
November 18
The Future of Food: Food Sovereignty or Sustainable Intensification?
• Wittman, Hannah, Annette Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe. “Origins & Potential of Food Sovereignty”. In
Desmarais, A., Wiebe, N., and Wittman, H. Food Sovereignty Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community.
Fahamu Books.
• Holt-Gimenez, Eric and Miguel Altieri. 2013. “Agroecology, Food Sovereignty and the New Green
Revolution.” Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 37: 90-102.
• Agarwal, Bina. 2014. “Food Sovereignty, Food Security and Democratic Choice: Critical Contradictions,
Difficult Conciliations.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6), 1247–1268.
• Godfray, H. C. J., & Garnett, T. (2014). Food security and sustainable intensification. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1639), 20120273.
Possible Policy/Analysis Presentation Topics:
Ø La Via Campesina: an effective social movement in the struggle for alternative food systems?
Ø Is sustainable intensification an oxymoron or the only hope we have for truly sustainable food security?
Ø The food waste scandal: What are the prospects for reversing the cycle of wastage?
Further Reading:
• Lee, Richard Philip. 2013. “The Politics of International Agri-food Policy: Discourses of Trade-oriented Food
Security and Food Sovereignty.” Environmental Politics 22(2): 216–34.
• Giménez, E.H., and A. Shattuck. 2011. Food crises, food regimes and food movements: Rumblings of reform
or tides of transformation? Journal of Peasant Studies, 38 (1), 109–144.
• Garnett, T., et al. 2013. “Sustainable Intensification in Agriculture: Premises and Policies.” Science
341(6141): 33–34.
• Pretty, Jules. 2003. “Agroecology in Developing Countries: The Promise of a Sustainable Harvest.”
Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 45(9): 8–20.
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Parfitt, J., M. Barthel, and S. Macnaughton. 2010. “Food Waste Within Food Supply Chains: Quantification
and Potential for Change to 2050.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
365(1554): 3065–81.
Quested, T.E., E. Marsh, D. Stunell, and A.D. Parry. 2013. “Spaghetti Soup: The Complex World of Food
Waste Behaviours.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling 79: 43–51.
Smith, Pete. 2013. “Delivering Food Security Without Increasing Pressure on Land” Global Food Security 2:
18-23.
Sage, Colin. 2012. “Addressing the Faustian Bargain of the Modern Food System: Connecting Sustainable
Agriculture with Sustainable Consumption.” International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 10(3): 204–
7.
Martinez-Torres, Elena and Peter Rosset, “La Via Campesina: The Birth and Evolution of a Transnational
Social Movement”, Journal of Peasant Studies, 37 (1): 149-175.
Borras, Saturnino M. 2010. “The Politics of Transnational Agrarian Movements.” Development and Change
41(5): 771–803.
Rosset, Peter. 2008. “Food Sovereignty and the Contemporary Food Crisis.” Development 51(4): 460–63.
McKenzie, Fiona C., and John Williams. 2015. “Sustainable Food Production: Constraints, Challenges and
Choices by 2050.” Food Security 7 (2): 221–33.
Chartres, Colin J., and Andrew Noble. 2015. “Sustainable Intensification: Overcoming Land and Water
Constraints on Food Production.” Food Security 7 (2): 235–45.
November 25 – student presentations – schedule TBD
December 2 - student presentations – schedule TBD
Potential Books for Book Review Essay:
• Akram-Lodhi, Haroon. 2013. Hungry for Change: Farmers, Food Justice and the Agrarian Question. Halifax,
Canada: Fernwood Books.
• Andree, Peter. 2008. Genetically Modified Diplomacy: The Global Politics of Agricultural Biotechnology and the
Environment. Vancouver: UBC Press.
• Barrett, Christopher and Daniel Maxwell. 2005. Food Aid After Fifty Years. London: Routledge.
• Bernauer, Thomas. 2003. Genes, Trade and Regulation: The Seeds of Conflict in Food Biotechnology. Princeton:
Princeton University Press
• Breger Bush, Sasha. 2012. Derivatives and Development: A Political Economy of Global Finance, Farming, and
Poverty. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Claeys, Priscilla. 2015. Human Rights and the Food Sovereignty Movement: Reclaiming Control. London:
Routledge.
• Cotula, Lorenzo. 2013. The Great African Land Grab? Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System.
London: Zed Books.
• Cullather, Nick. 2010. The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia.
Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press.
• David, Christina. 2005. Food Fights over Free Trade: How International Institutions Promote Agricultural Trade
Liberalization. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Eaton, Emily. 2013. Growing Resistance: Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically Modified Wheat.
Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
• Fowler, Cary and Pat Mooney. 1990. Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity. University of
Arizona Press.
• Fridell, Gavin. 2007. Fair Trade Coffee: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Market-Driven Social Justice. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
• Gottleib, Robert and Anupama Joshi. 2010. Food Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Jaffee, Daniel. 2007. Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Guthman, Julie. 2011. Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism. California Princeton
Press.
Juma, Calestous. 2011. The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kimura, A. H. 2013. Hidden Hunger: Gender and the Politics of Smarter Foods. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kinchy, Abby. 2012. Seeds, Science, and Struggle: The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Kloppenburg, Jack. 2004. First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press.
Lang, Tim, David Barling, and Martin Caraher. 2009. Food Policy: Integrating Health, Environment and Society.
Oxford University Press.
McKeon, Nora. 2015. Food Security Governance: Empowering Communities, Regulating Corporations. London:
Routledge.
McMichael, Philip. 2013. Food Regimes and Agrarian Questions (Fernwood).
Nestle, Marion. 2005. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health. Berkeley:
University of California Press
Paarlberg, Robert. 2009. Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press).
Paarlberg, Robert. 2010. Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Perkins, John. Geopolitics and the Green Revolution: Wheat, Genes, and the Cold War. Oxford University Press.
Ross, Sandy. 2011. The World Food Programme in Global Politics. Boulder: Reinner.
Scrinis, Gyorgy. 2013. Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice. Columbia University Press.
Sen, Amartya. 1983. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation
Shaw, John. 2001. The UN World Food Programme and the Development of Food Aid. New York: Palgrave.
Tansey, Geoff and Rajotte, Tasmin. 2008. The Future Control of Food: A Guide to International Negotiations
and Rules on Intellectual Property, Biodiversity and Food Security. London: Routledge.
Timmer, Peter. 2014. Food Security and Scarcity: Why Ending Hunger is So Hard. University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Vernon, James. Hunger: A Modern History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Weis, Tony. 2007. The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming. London: Zed.
Weis, Tony. 2013. The Ecological Hoofprint: The Global Burden of Industrial Livestock. Zed.
Winders, Bill. 2009. The Politics of Food Supply: U.S. Agricultural Policy in the World Economy. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Winson, Anthony. 1993. The Intimate Commodity: Food and the Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex in
Canada. Garamond Press.
Winson, Anthony. 2013. The Industrial Diet: The Degradation of Food and the Struggle for Healthy Eating.
Vancouver: UBC Press.
Holmes, Seth. 2013 Fresh fruit, broken bodies: Migrant farmworkers in the United States. Univ of California
Press.
I have likely missed some books - If the book you would like to review is not on this list, please let me know and
we can discuss its suitability for the book review assignment. I prefer that students review single authored
research oriented books, rather than edited or popular-audience books.
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