Week 9 Trade in food: global grain and green beans

Week 9 March 20-22

Trade in food: global grain and green beans

 

Freidberg, Susanne 2004. French beans and food scares: culture and commerce in an anxious age. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Ch. 1 The Global Green Bean and Other Tales of Madness, pp. 1-31.

Kaufman, Frederick. 2010. The food bubble: how Wall Street starved millions and got away with it. Harper’s Magazine. July, 26-34.
Kaufman on Democracy Now thanks to Mike

In this next section we look at globalized food production and trade and what it means for farmers and workers in the Global South. Both articles are about global commodity networks and the ways these undermine livelihoods and lives in the Global South. Susanne Freidberg's book is less about food scares, as she says, and more about the repercussions that pricing and standards have on Burkina Faso's green bean growers and Zambia's fresh produce producers. Frederick Kaufman explains how grain speculation works to make food too expensive for the world's poor. Outline the arguments and make connections between the two articles or between these and previous articles. What did you learn about how global food commodity networks work?