Swidden

• Swidden : from “burned clearing”

• Intercropping

• Shifting cultivation

• Female labor

• Little use of ranching

• Has been used for millennia

Rice paddy irrigation

• Terraces adapted to hilly terrain.– Increase productive

land– Reduce erosion

• Intensive agriculture.• Usually small (3 ac

often sufficient for a family)

Pastoral nomadism

• Migratory lifestyle– Uncertain environment– Rainfall irregular– Highly adaptable

• Wealth is often measured by herd size.

• Sedentary cultivation has been promoted in many places by governments.

Key points

• Traditional farming methods are usually • Sustainable under traditional

circumstances.• Ill-suited for machinery.• Highly adapted to the environment.

Globalizing agriculture

• Longer supply chains. • Increased product differentiation.• More market niches.• Concentrating ownership in input and

processing sectors.

Global Corn

• Responds well to fertilizer– 20 bushels/acre to 160 in last 100 years

• 55% animal feed, 19% export,14% ethanol, 7% HFCS and other sweeteners.

• 10% of our calories from corn sweeteners.• As much as 40% of a US corn farmers

income may come from subsidies.• Of the 10,000 things in your grocery store,

2500 use corn.

Environmental impact

• Intensive use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizer.

• Water pollution: algal bloom and fish die-off– “dead zone” in Gulf of Mexico

• GMOs: unknown, but possible impacts include bioaccumulation of pesticide in soil, the emergence of pesticide resistant pests, and decreasing biodiversity.

Social impact in LDCs

• In Mexico• Corn prices have dropped.

– Good for livestock and processed foods– Tortilla prices have not dropped because of

monopolies– Small farmers have lost their farms.

• Massive rural unemployment in Mexico.• Africa

– Reluctant to accept “food aid” in the form of GMO crops

The global chicken• Since WWII, 5->70 lbs per

person/year.• Low-fat diets led to increased

consumption of chicken.• US South is the world’s largest

supplier of broilers.• 1980-2000, 500% increase in

broiler trade, with US share from 22-46%. (But China’s share is increasing also)

• 40% of exports are leg quarters.

• We know more about chicken nutrition than human nutrition.

Global Shrimp

• Between 2000 and 2003, – dockside prices fell 40-60%– ½ gulf fleet stopped business, including ice

houses, processing plants and docks.– Deckhands were replaced with unpaid family

members.

• US consumption has tripled since 1980.• US shrimp production was stable.• Why did prices fall?

Production changes

• “Blue Revolution”– Investment in Latin America and Asia– Aquaculture was the solution to

overpopulation.

• Top exporters are Thailand, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mexico.

• Trade volume increased by 240% in 20 years, value increased by 70%.

Economic changes

• Strong US economy in late 1990s.• Some countries relied on shrimp exports

to repay foreign debt.• Economic slump in 2001…

– Demand dropped, inventories grew.– US only major importer without significant

tariffs.

Other changes

• Cultural Changes– Low-carb and low-fat diets.– Restaurants promoted shrimp as healthy alternative, especially

as prices fell

• Political Changes– Chloramphenicol scare in Europe.– Lower standards in US.

• Ecological changes– Intensification allowed diseases to spread, causing unstable

supply in late 1990s.– Temporary high prices spurred production increases.

• In 2001: disease outbreaks declined, new exporters entered the market, and price collapsed.

Actor-network theory

• Initial supposition: traditional dichotomies (nature/culture, traditional/modern, tangible/intangible) are not useful.

• The world is made of connections (or heterogeneous associations)– Commodity network, not commodity chain.– It is the links, not the nodes which are important.– The activity of non-humans may be just as important.– It is the connections that cause things to happen, not the actors

themselves.

• Immutable mobiles: technologies, types of peoples, money, coffee beans, etc (i.e. What is being circulated)

• Stresses the importance of intermediaries (those that tie the networks together)

ANT and shrimp

• Immutable mobiles: shrimp, chloramphenicol, money, technology

• Heterogeneous associations: – Relation of industry to state and private

investment.– Relation of European and American publics,

states and medias to chloramphenicol.– Changing relation between Americans and

food/diet, and the repositioning of shrimp.

Standards• Standards are necessary for creating commodities.• What can be standardized?

1. Things (Tomatoes: shape, color, seed depth, ripening time, spacing of rows and plants, etc)

2. Workers (labor is mechanical, workers are replaceable)3. Consumers (expectations, fashions)4. Markets (prices (think Big Mac vs a car), ebay)5. Capitalists (through loan expectations, what may be

produced)6. Environment (standardized landscape, allowable

pollution)7. Standards themselves (improving precision, reducing

subjectivity)– Ask yourself: Who creates them? What is not allowed?

Would I have done the same?