1. Food and Culture
Who Really feeds the world – Small-Scale Farmers & Seed Freedom
Erik Chevrier
November 14th, 2017

2. Exam Date Reminder!!!
For students who do not have an about the exam (SOCI 252 A) Exam Room – MB Exam Date – December 7th Exam Time – 14:00 – 17:00
ANTH 252 students have received an exam date online

3. NO CLASS – November 21st
You DO NOT have class on November 21st. This is a great time for you to meet with your groups and complete part of your assignment.

4. Fill Out Form to Reserve the Date You Bring Your Food Item
Please write your name beside one of the dates for you to prepare your food item for the class.
On the date you choose, you will:
Bring in your pre-prepared food item for the class to taste (we have about 65 students)
Find a way to serve ‘tasters’ to the class
Make sure you do not create an abundance of waste
Bring in your recipe so people can know what is in your food and how you prepared it
Make a display of some sort to entice people to come try your food item
Come on time to class

5. Group Project Check In How is everything going?
Are you meeting your expectations?
Are you abiding to your timeline?
General questions or concerns?

6. Localization Feeds the World Not Globalization (Vandana Shiva)
Two principles have shaped the evolution of food systems across the world.
Everyone must eat
Every place where human beings live produces food (there is always local food of some sort)
How do we define local?

7. Free Trade Agreements Trade liberalization:(Shiva)
Opening of boarders to allow the easy flow of goods and services
Free trade agreements (Stanford, 2008)
Promotes the deregulation of commerce
Limit governments’ ability to regulate trade and capital flows
Enforces the elimination of tariffs and other trade barriers
Prioritizes businesses over governments

8. Critique of Free Trade (Shiva)
Free trade is not based on competition, it creates monopolies:
Giants that control seed – Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Bayer, Dow.
Giants that control grain – Cargill, Archer Daniel Midland, Bunge, Glencore International, Louis Dreyfus
Giants that control food and beverage – PepsiCo, JBS, Tyson Foods, Danone, and Nestle
Giants that control retail – Walmart, Carrefour, Metro Group, Aeon, Tesco
Free Trade allows:
Food dumping
Externalizing of cost (not true cost) – pollution, public subsidies and infrastructure development, etc.
Privatization of public goods
Dumping of EU milk led to collapse of local dairy production in Jamaica
India went from a large exporter of oil to an importer after trade liberalization
Indonesia went from a major soy producer to a soy importer

9. Transition to Ethical, Just & Sustainable (Shiva)
Transition to ethical, just and sustainable food systems
Countries should prioritize their budgets to support the poorest consumers to have access to insufficient foods
Countries should prioritize domestic food production
Internal markets need to be stabilized at a reasonable level for farmers and consumers. Direct sales should be encouraged
In every country an intervention system should be put in place to stabilize market prices – taxes and tariffs. Build surplus reserves.
Land must be distributed equally through agrarian reforms and land reforms – including control over acess to water, seeds, credits, and appropriate technology.

10. Competition? Capitalism does not encourage competition:
There are large food corporations who monopolize the markets of the economy
Prices are fixed by large food corporations who receive government subsidies and who do not account for externalities – i.e. climate, ecology and people’s local needs
(Source, Stanford, 2008)
Issue
Theory of Competition
Real-World Competition
Firm size
Tiny and many
Large firms dominate
Firm size on cost
Costs increase for bigger firms
Decrease for bigger firms
Economies of scale
Limit on firm size
Diminishing returns
Threat of new firms
Relationships (firms)
Completion is anonymous
Strategic competition
Influence on market
Cannot influence prices
Strive to influence prices
Product differentiation
Products are homogeneous
R&D – Products are differentiated
Competition and profits
Do not earn ‘pure profits’
Strive to earn ‘pure profits’

11. World Systems – The State (Immanuel Wallerstein)
States
Sovereignty
Borders
Reciprocal Recognition from other States
Legitimacy
Part of an Interstate System
States assert authority in at least seven principal arenas of direct interest to them
1 – Sets rules on how capital & labour flows in and out of its border (people, capital and goods)
2 – Sets rules on property
3 – Sets rules about employment and compensation
4 – Decides which costs are internalized
5 – Decides which economic process may be monopolized and to what degree
6 - They tax
7 – They protect its own core production process internationally

12. Institutions in a Capitalist World Economy (Immanuel Wallerstein)
Market - Concrete & Virtual - Quasi-Monopoly
Firms - Main actors in the market - Cyclical rhythm and Curve (Kondratieff Cycles) - Core, periphery, semi-periphery
(degree of profitability in the production process)
State maintains quasi-monopolies by:
- Maintaining patents
- Putting restrictions on imports
- Providing subsidies and tax benefits
- Regulations

13. Discussion
What were the consequences of structural adjustment policies implemented in Kenya?
What were the consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement in Mexico?

14. Thanks!
Questions or concerns?