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From Columbus to ConAgra: The Globalization of Agriculture and Food
Combines current theory on globalisation of food with case studies to discuss the changing agricultural and food system in the era of ConAgra and other large transnational corporations. This volume looks at the operations of these corporate giants and examines the winners and losers.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 1994
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February 19, 2020
A 25 year old set of conference proceedings is bound to be a crapshoot. For the genre, it is well above average. The introductory essay frames a future that now looks very much like the present. Contributions were uneven. The ones that saw trends in the globalization of the food system leading to increased concentration of corporate wealth, disruption of the nation-state, displacement of farmers, and a growing gap between high income urban centers and rural poverty made picking up the book worthwhile. Others essays plodded along at best or were so filled with loose jargon as to be incomprehensible.
The central issue is that as economies have globalized, both capital and commodities have been freed, while labor remains tightly regulated by nation-states and land is in the hands of a few who collect rents. While the problem is not new, the global crisis of displacement of the rural poor and the increased dependence of transnational corporations on a mobile work force has shaken the modern nation-state. The book was published on the cusp of the internet changing global commerce and is not mentioned once. Obviously it is pre-9/11. None of the authors talked about a country that would build a wall to keep out workers desperately needed to keep corporate agribusiness humming, but the inherent conflict between the winners and losers of globalization is a constant theme throughout all essays.
The final two essays really hit home. Bonnano concludes with a ringing call for a transnational democratic debate about our food systems. We need to go beyond local, regional and national institutions to deal with transnational corporate control, and the nation-states are entirely incapable of dealing with them. Mustafa Koc gets the final chapter, and provides a stark view of the inevitable contradictions and conflicts caused by globalization. Whether we like it or not, we live in a global society as well as a global economy. Changing the discourse has been and will continue to be messy, complicated, and filled with tension. Again, Koc calls for a global response. That call is still relevant today.
The central issue is that as economies have globalized, both capital and commodities have been freed, while labor remains tightly regulated by nation-states and land is in the hands of a few who collect rents. While the problem is not new, the global crisis of displacement of the rural poor and the increased dependence of transnational corporations on a mobile work force has shaken the modern nation-state. The book was published on the cusp of the internet changing global commerce and is not mentioned once. Obviously it is pre-9/11. None of the authors talked about a country that would build a wall to keep out workers desperately needed to keep corporate agribusiness humming, but the inherent conflict between the winners and losers of globalization is a constant theme throughout all essays.
The final two essays really hit home. Bonnano concludes with a ringing call for a transnational democratic debate about our food systems. We need to go beyond local, regional and national institutions to deal with transnational corporate control, and the nation-states are entirely incapable of dealing with them. Mustafa Koc gets the final chapter, and provides a stark view of the inevitable contradictions and conflicts caused by globalization. Whether we like it or not, we live in a global society as well as a global economy. Changing the discourse has been and will continue to be messy, complicated, and filled with tension. Again, Koc calls for a global response. That call is still relevant today.
Displaying 1 of 1 review