ATS1309 Study Guide - Final Guide: Productivism, Tsukiji Fish Market, Food Miles
6 Jun 2018
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Department
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Professor
Feeding and ‘cleaning’ the planet (8/9)
Food regime:
The imperial calorie
• 19th Century – WW1: extensive
• Rise in agriculture export and import, characterized mainly by exploitation by
colonial states of white ‘settler’ countries.
• Unprocessed, semi-processed foodstuff and materials, aided by development in
transport (ships, railways) and the introduction of refrigeration.
• Crop produced by wage labour and/or for cash (meat, wheat, sugar, tea, coffee)
• Assembling of the (local, regional, national) food economies for commercialization
The productive calorie
• Post war -1970s
• Rising intensification (eg: Green Revolution, especially in the 1960s/ 70s whereby
output rose dramatically due to improved crops, use of synthetic pesticides and
fertilizers, elaborate irrigation techniques)
• Strong state protection: era characterized by production-friendly policies (Europe’s
Common Agriculture Policy, North America’s food policy) – large scale, huge
expenditure, but also subsidized agriculture.
• Development of intensive meat/livestock complexes – aided by plentiful grain
(wheat/corn)
• ‘Protective vitamin’ – nutrition and vitamin requirements begin to play a part in
growth/heath concerns (eg: provision of milk to schoolchildren)
The empty calorie
• Post 1970s
• Food surpluses and subsidies threatening ‘trade war’ between regions (as national
programs were suffering from excessive cost of farm support)
• Growing antagonism between national regulation of agriculture (economic
nationalism) and commercial power of agro-food corporations (globalisation).
• ‘Empty calorie’: reconstitution of food (processed ‘fast’ food), affluence and
changing diets (pure, white, deadly) but lacking in ‘good nutrition’.
Regime
• Regimes not entirely discrete, and are premised on some assumptions that privilege
i) relations between independent, nation states (no informal/hidden economy)
ii) industrialization of agriculture towards modes of capital agricultural
accumulation
iii) capital formation and regulatory modes as determining the speed and character
of agriculture and food, guided by the role of the state
Document Summary
Common agriculture policy, north america"s food policy) large scale, huge expenditure, but also subsidized agriculture: development of intensive meat/livestock complexes aided by plentiful grain (wheat/corn) Protective vitamin" nutrition and vitamin requirements begin to play a part in growth/heath concerns (eg: provision of milk to schoolchildren) Empty calorie": reconstitution of food (processed fast" food), affluence and changing diets (pure, white, deadly) but lacking in good nutrition". In other words, it is not about scarcity but about distribution. However, they likely have fast food joints and convenience shops in close range. Increasing alienation of food source from city centre (growth of urban population, wearing away of arable land especially at urban fringes, depopulation of rural/agriculture sector). Increasing waste": as meat consumption rises, so does grain crop consumption (1/3 of grain crop fed to animals, 10x more wasteful to feed us through animals than directly).
