Week 9 notes:
o 2005 – 2008 : political elites were surprised by a food crisis that broke out
o “Reinforced how the dominant twentieth century productionist policy paradigm is
running out of steam”
▪ Producing more food would solve social problems
o Food policies need to respond to pressures of land use, people, health and environment
o New Fundamentals : system failures and stress had to be redesigned to the food politics and
efforts of the 21st Century
Introduction
o 2007: world food commodity rocketed after gradually rising for 2 years
o The word CRISI
o 1 end: expression of irritation with petty difficulties
o Other end: meltdown and reconfiguration
o Has many different meanings to different people (it is relative)
▪ Dependent on the frame of reference and indicators
o Real advances in food include delivery & accessibility as well as affordability
o Number of undernourished people dropped in 1970s but they started to rise again in the
mid-1990s
o 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) failed to reverse this
o Trade rules and inequality within and between nations is reducing the potential to
feed people
o st
21 Century “policy need to focus on food supply chains, beyond as well as including
agriculture, because power and capital have moved off the land, controlling access to mostly
urban markets”
The Return of Shock?
o 2007: world commodity prices rocketed
o Similar to that of 1971-1974: oil prices shot up
o People look at GM (genetically modified) foods to solve the issue
o This is under the influence that the crisis is due to agriculture. Which is part of the
issue, there was a shift in all parts of the food system
▪ The relationship between people, food systems and the planet has taken on
a completely new form
o Last half-century: changes in how food is grown and how animals are reared
o New intensive systems have emerged on land
▪ hybrid plant breeding
▪ factory farms
▪ intensive livestock rearing
▪ use of pharmaceuticals to increase weight gain
o throughout the food chain measures have been put in place to speed up and
standardize production
o consumer production is shaped by “extrusion technology, fermentation, blending,
and use of cosmetic additives to disguise products and yield consistency”
o retailers: shape what and how items are gorwn
, o sourcing: shifted from local and national to continental and international
▪ global supply has removed the idea of seasonal food items (i.e. Mangos)
• due to this global supply, many farmers are opting to use cheap
labour (immigrants) to do manual tasks, therefore also changing the
labour sector in food systems
o The result of this all
o Beautiful displays of foods from all over the world, with not only a wide variety of
foods but also the same food from different suppliers (i.e. sugar from RSA,
Swaziland, Barbados, etc.) marketed by retail
▪ Due to the high competition, many fail and are withdrawn
▪ Retailers = gateway to consumers, determining technological improvements,
distribution logistics, centralization of ordering, application of computer
technology, application of batch/niche production to mass lines, and most
importantly moulding the consumers taste and market
o Agriculture is not the only contributor to the crisis!
o Timeline of humanities evolution
Settled agri. Iron Age Chemical Evolution - application of Green Revolution Modern Livestock Revolution biotech.
Mendelian genetics
- The Oil Era.5
8500 BCE 5000-6000 BCE mid-18th century 20th century 1960s onward 1980s onward now
Twenty-First Century: From Productionism to Ecological Public Health
o Over-, under- and malconsumption are all coexisting within the same country and region –
creating more of a burden to the already problematic crisis
o How it came about
▪ 1920s to 1930s: framework that proposed investment in science and farm
infrastructure could tackle the scrouge of hunger and mal-distribution
▪ Improving productivity of animals and soil
▪ Political formula, focused on agriculture, could be applied (state = key driver
of change)
• Capital + science + waste reduction = raised food output = progress
• Based on practical application of earlier scientific advances (applied
soil science to nutrition)
The Emergence of the New Fundamentals
o The ‘new fundamentals’ of 21st century food??
o Reshape how food can be grown, moved, consumed everywhere
o Independent o the terrain, country and politics (developed/developing)
o Crisis: do we address or are we restricted by these new fundamentals?
o Climate change
o Evidence has been building for decades. Pressing implications for food capacities
o Complex effects of climate change: water stress to spread of invasive pests
o Effect is dependent on longitude, latitude and topography
o Meat and meat products = largest impact on global warming (4-12%)
o Water
o Agriculture is the greatest user of water worldwide (feeding, cleaning, watering,
etc.) (70% of potable water use)
o 2005 – 2008 : political elites were surprised by a food crisis that broke out
o “Reinforced how the dominant twentieth century productionist policy paradigm is
running out of steam”
▪ Producing more food would solve social problems
o Food policies need to respond to pressures of land use, people, health and environment
o New Fundamentals : system failures and stress had to be redesigned to the food politics and
efforts of the 21st Century
Introduction
o 2007: world food commodity rocketed after gradually rising for 2 years
o The word CRISI
o 1 end: expression of irritation with petty difficulties
o Other end: meltdown and reconfiguration
o Has many different meanings to different people (it is relative)
▪ Dependent on the frame of reference and indicators
o Real advances in food include delivery & accessibility as well as affordability
o Number of undernourished people dropped in 1970s but they started to rise again in the
mid-1990s
o 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) failed to reverse this
o Trade rules and inequality within and between nations is reducing the potential to
feed people
o st
21 Century “policy need to focus on food supply chains, beyond as well as including
agriculture, because power and capital have moved off the land, controlling access to mostly
urban markets”
The Return of Shock?
o 2007: world commodity prices rocketed
o Similar to that of 1971-1974: oil prices shot up
o People look at GM (genetically modified) foods to solve the issue
o This is under the influence that the crisis is due to agriculture. Which is part of the
issue, there was a shift in all parts of the food system
▪ The relationship between people, food systems and the planet has taken on
a completely new form
o Last half-century: changes in how food is grown and how animals are reared
o New intensive systems have emerged on land
▪ hybrid plant breeding
▪ factory farms
▪ intensive livestock rearing
▪ use of pharmaceuticals to increase weight gain
o throughout the food chain measures have been put in place to speed up and
standardize production
o consumer production is shaped by “extrusion technology, fermentation, blending,
and use of cosmetic additives to disguise products and yield consistency”
o retailers: shape what and how items are gorwn
, o sourcing: shifted from local and national to continental and international
▪ global supply has removed the idea of seasonal food items (i.e. Mangos)
• due to this global supply, many farmers are opting to use cheap
labour (immigrants) to do manual tasks, therefore also changing the
labour sector in food systems
o The result of this all
o Beautiful displays of foods from all over the world, with not only a wide variety of
foods but also the same food from different suppliers (i.e. sugar from RSA,
Swaziland, Barbados, etc.) marketed by retail
▪ Due to the high competition, many fail and are withdrawn
▪ Retailers = gateway to consumers, determining technological improvements,
distribution logistics, centralization of ordering, application of computer
technology, application of batch/niche production to mass lines, and most
importantly moulding the consumers taste and market
o Agriculture is not the only contributor to the crisis!
o Timeline of humanities evolution
Settled agri. Iron Age Chemical Evolution - application of Green Revolution Modern Livestock Revolution biotech.
Mendelian genetics
- The Oil Era.5
8500 BCE 5000-6000 BCE mid-18th century 20th century 1960s onward 1980s onward now
Twenty-First Century: From Productionism to Ecological Public Health
o Over-, under- and malconsumption are all coexisting within the same country and region –
creating more of a burden to the already problematic crisis
o How it came about
▪ 1920s to 1930s: framework that proposed investment in science and farm
infrastructure could tackle the scrouge of hunger and mal-distribution
▪ Improving productivity of animals and soil
▪ Political formula, focused on agriculture, could be applied (state = key driver
of change)
• Capital + science + waste reduction = raised food output = progress
• Based on practical application of earlier scientific advances (applied
soil science to nutrition)
The Emergence of the New Fundamentals
o The ‘new fundamentals’ of 21st century food??
o Reshape how food can be grown, moved, consumed everywhere
o Independent o the terrain, country and politics (developed/developing)
o Crisis: do we address or are we restricted by these new fundamentals?
o Climate change
o Evidence has been building for decades. Pressing implications for food capacities
o Complex effects of climate change: water stress to spread of invasive pests
o Effect is dependent on longitude, latitude and topography
o Meat and meat products = largest impact on global warming (4-12%)
o Water
o Agriculture is the greatest user of water worldwide (feeding, cleaning, watering,
etc.) (70% of potable water use)
