ENVI 249
Food, Agriculture, and Globalization Spring 2020
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

This course examines the history and current politics of the international political economy of food with a focus on how agriculture and food provisioning have been transformed through imperialism and globalization. We examine the interactions of corporations, nation-states, multilateral international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and social movements in the formation of a globalized food system. Topics include the historical antecedents of our present system, plantation agriculture, the influences of war and settler colonialism on global food production, Cold War transformations in the international food system, the origins of sustainable development discourse, international anti-hunger programs, fair trade and other labeling schemes, labor migration, the antiglobalization and local food movements, and neoliberalism. We will pay particular attention to theories about how producers and consumers are connected to one other through the political economy of food. The reading assignments are drawn from the fields of environmental, food, and policy history, and we will also read works from political scientists, international relations scholars, geographers, anthropologists, and advocacy organizations.