Trading Morsels Conference
From QED
Trading Morsels, Growing Hunger, Decimating Nature: Linking Food and Trade to Development and the Environment
February 24-26, 2005
Princeton University
Food provides a particularly exciting, tangible and grounded research site for understanding the mechanisms governing global transactions in the 21st century. While food is intimately and fundamentally related to ecological and human well-being, food products now travel far flung trade routes to reach us. International trade in food has tripled in value and quadrupled in volume since 1960 and tracing the production, movement, transformation, and consumption of food necessitates research that situates localities within global networks and facilitates our capacity to “see the trees and the forest” by zooming from the global to the local and back to the global. In short, our need for food is a constant; how we acquire food is a variable; and the production, commercialization, and consumption of food therefore offer an invaluable window onto the globalization of the world we inhabit. Global food trade is also distinguished by the variety of governance mechanisms shaping how, where and who produces and consumes it. Thus, food provides an ideal site for answering the fundamental questions of governance of central concern to globalization debates.
In 2005, an interdisciplinary group of researchers, scientists, policy makers, and practitioners examined consumption, production, and trade in food commodities in countries in both the global south and north. At the ‘Trading Morsels’ conference, the group took a commodity- and region-based approach with in-depth and broad analyses drawing linkages between what happens within and between countries with regards to the environment and development. All the cases focused on how trade arrangements affect these dynamics, linkages, and outcomes.
Updated versions of many of the papers from the conference will appear in a special issue of Globalizations [1] in 2008. Routledge will also publish the set of papers as an edited volume in their globalization series. This collection presents recent, well-developed and interdisciplinary scholarship about the variety of mechanisms governing global food systems and their impacts on human and environmental well-being. Until these publications are out, please contact the authors for copies of their papers, or see links below to 2005 versions of selected papers.
Contents |
Keynote Address
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Welcome and Introductions:
Sara R. Curran
Introduction to ‘Trading Morsels’
Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University
Introduction to Senator George McGovern
George McGovern, UN Global Ambassador on World Hunger
Keynote address
Cases
Friday, February 25, 2005
Session 1: Aquaculture and Open Seas
Susan Cassels, Office of Population Research, Princeton
From Tuna to Spam: The “Americanization” of food and obesity epidemic in Micronesia
Rebecca Goldburg, Environmental Defense Fund
Aquaculture and World Fisheries
Louis Lebel and Po Garden, Sachiko Nakayama, Supaporn Khrutmuang, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Beyond the Pond, Beyond the State: Improving governance of the shrimp aquaculture production-consumption system
(draft (help · info))
Michael Morrissey, Oregon State University Seafood Laboratory
Global Resource and Market Impacts on Regional Fisheries in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
(draft (help · info))
Steven Andrews, Princeton University
Presentation on Fisheries and Aquaculture
Discussants:
Joshua Eagle, Law, School of Law, University of South Carolina
Rachel Schurman, Sociology, University of Minnesota. (Unable to attend)
U. Rashid Sumaila, Economics, University of British Columbia
Session 2: Coffee
Chris Bacon, Environmental Studies, UC Santa Cruz
From Coffee Crisis and Vulnerability toward Empowerment? Nicaraguan smallholders use cooperative, fair trade and organic coffee networks to sustain livelihoods and landscapes
(draft (help · info))
Thomas Dietsch and Stacy Philpott, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
Bird-Friendly and Fair Trade Certification: Linking consumers to sustainability
Jessa Lewis and David Runsten, Latin American Studies, UC San Diego
Does Fair Trade Coffee Have a Future in Mexico?: The impact of migration in a Oaxacan community
(draft (help · info))
April Linton, Sociology, UC San Diego
A Niche for Sustainability: Fair labor and environmentally sound practices in the specialty coffee industry
(draft (help · info))
Kelly Hoffman, Princeton University
Presentation on Coffee
Discussants:
Allen Blackman, Economics, Resources for the Future
Shayna Harris, Fair Trade Activist, OXFAM
Robert Schaeffer, Sociology, Kansas State University
Session 3: Meat and Grains
Judith Carney, Geography, UCLA
Damaged Environments and Lives:
The bitter harvest of rice policies in the Gambia
(draft (help · info))
Sara Curran and Abigail Cooke, Sociology, Princeton University
Feeding Europe, Deforesting Thailand
Sjur Kasa, Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway
Globalization of Unsustainable Food-consumption: Trade policies, producer lobbies and beef consumption in North East Asia
(draft (help · info))
Abigail Cooke, Princeton University
Presentation on Meats, Feeds and Grains
Discussants:
John Humphrey, Institute of Development Studies, UK
Andrew Schrank, Sociology, Yale University
Alan Townsend, Ecology, University of Colorado, Boulder
Films
- “The Goddess and the Computer”
- By J. Stephen Lansing and Andre Singer
- color, 58 minutes, rd 1988
For centuries, rice farmers on the island of Bali have taken great care not to offend Dewi Danu, the water goddess who dwells in the crater lake near the peak of Batur volcano. Toward the end of each rainy season, the farmers send representatives to Ulun Danu Batur, the temple at the top of the mountain, to offer ducks, pigs, coins and coconuts in thanks for the water that sustains their terraced fields. Outsiders have long considered the rituals of Agama Tirtha, "the religion of holy water" an interesting but impractical way to grow crops. Development companies have spent millions trying to improve on the ancient system. With the help of an ingenious computer program, anthropologist Steve Lansing and ecologist James Kremer have shown that the Balinese rice growers have been practicing state-of-the-art resource management. Besides placating the goddess, it turns out, the island's ancient rituals serve to coordinate the irrigation and planting schedules of hundreds of scattered villages. And as a new computer model makes clear, the result is one of the most stable and efficient farming systems on the planet. Andre Singer and Steve Lansing have made an innovative film about the water temples, the dams and the development of the computer program at University of Southern California. In the film we see the government officials call on the priests and recognize the importance of their role. We also see the power play as each group wants to control the use of the computer.
- “A New Prescription”
A New Prescription looks at the pathetic health status of women in India. Shot in Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, the film also takes you through the lives of women who are slowly bringing in change in the health conditions of rural India. They may use different techniques and strategies, but they have one goal: create a healthy countryside.
The slow poisoning of India is a frightening story of how India is slowly but surely being poisoned by pesticides. The country is not only one of the largest users of pesticides, but also one of the largest producers. The film takes you to Punjab, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra where indiscriminate and unregulated use of pesticides has poisoned the land, water, air, and food. This, in turn, has led to serious health complications like cancer, mental retardation, and cerebral and genetic abnormalities.
- “Water Ignites Life and Hope”
Taking a critical look at the grim water scenario in India, Water ignites life and hope documents two inspiring stories of community efforts of managing water judiciously. One of them is in Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh where the villagers, setting off a massive movement for water conservation, have greened vast areas of degraded land. The other story showcases Pani Panchayats (locally governed water councils)—the democratic approach adopted by the farmers of Mahur village in Maharashtra to manage the available water resource.
- “The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble In Paradise” (preview)
- By Christopher Horner and Gilliane Le Gallic
- color, 75 min, 2004
A detailed overview of contemporary life in the tiny South Pacific country of Tuvalu, this film documents the earth's first sovereign nation faced with total destruction due to the effects of global warming. With a population of about 11,000 living on a total landmass of only 20 square miles – less than Manhattan – spread over nine low-lying atolls 600 miles to the north of Fiji, Tuvalu has been inhabited for over four millenia. The warm-spirited and highly community-oriented people of this ex-British colony struggle to survive economically while confronting the likelihood of having to evacuate their homeland en masse within the next 50 years. As the industrial world just begins to address the threat and causes of global warming, rising seas and increasingly violent changes in climate have already left their marks on this poor island nation. The government of Tuvalu and other concerned organizations are directing their pleas for solutions to the wealthy countries whose high pollution emissions could be the central human contribution to this phenomenon. Observation, narration, and interviews with Tuvalu citizens from various walks of life flesh out a full portrait of a unique community confronting a dubious future on the front lines of a global environmental assault.
- “Where is my Dinner?”
Where is my dinner? captures the plight of rural Indian communities trapped in poverty and hunger—the largest number in the world today! But it also has islands of hope. Poor villagers in Maharashtra are running grain banks to ward off hunger. Today, this simple idea holds a candle to the rest of India.
- “Daughters of the Soil”
Think of a farmer and the image that immediately comes to you is of a man ploughing a field. But, in reality, women too form a large workforce in agriculture and often end up toiling more in the field than the men do. Yet, women have always been seen as incidental to the entire business of agriculture. They are lost behind the myopia of society that traditionally hesitates to credit them for their work or intellect. Daughters of the Soil raises a long-pending issue—women who are farmers should be seen as farmers, not agricultural labourers.
Cases and Provocations
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Session 4. Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Medicinals
Melanie DuPuis, Sociology, UC Santa Cruz
From Veils and Chains to Nets and Scales: Some notes on the strawberry commodity and the ironies of body and place
(draft (help · info))
Susanne Freidberg, Geography, Dartmouth College
Unsustainable Booms and Enduring Busts: The cultural economy of African horticulture
Jim Simon, NUANPP Program, Rutgers University
Sustainable Development: Natural products and medicinal plants sector using a science and market-driven approach
Discussants:
Jennifer Bair, Sociology, Yale University
Andrew Dobson, Ecology, Princeton University
Sutti Ortiz, Anthropology, Boston University
Session 5. Provocations
Andrew Dobson and Dave Tilman, Princeton University and University of Minnesota
Agriculture and Global Change
Catherine Dolan, Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University
Benevolent Intent?: The development encounter in Kenya's horticulture industry
John Humphrey, Sociology, Institute of Development Studies, UK
Is Commercial Agriculture becoming too Complicated for Small Farmers: The impact of public and private standards
Discussants:
Sara Curran, Sociology, Princeton University
Alice Julier, Sociology, Smith College
Jim Simon, Plant Biology, NUANPP Program, Rutgers University
