GGR 387 – Food and Globalization – Lectures

Period: Winter 2023
Instructor: Pierre Desrochers	Office: Davis Building, DV3273
Lectures: Thursday 3-5 PM	Lecture room: MN 2110 (in person)
Phone: (905) 828-5206	E-mail: pierre.desrochers@utoronto.ca

LECTURE SCHEDULE

Lecture 1 (Jan. 12): Introduction
Lecture 2 (Jan. 19): Historical Perspective I
Lecture 3 (Jan. 26): Historical Perspective II
Lecture 4 (Feb. 2): Commodities I (Deadline for written assignment 1)
Lecture 5 (Feb. 9): Commodities II
Lecture 6 (Feb. 16): Commodities III
Reading Week – No class (February 23)
Lecture 7 (March 2): Commodities IVLecture 8 (March 9): Commodities V
Lecture 9 (March 16): Agricultural Inputs, Technologies and Food Additives I
Lecture 10 (March 23): Agricultural Inputs, Technologies and Food Additives II
Lecture 11 (March 30): Policy Controversies I
Lecture 12 (April 6): Policy Controversies II (Deadline for written assignments 2 and 3)

LECTURE 1 (Jan. 12): INTRODUCTION

REQUIRED VIDEOs

The Meatrix

IFPRI Millions Fed – Proven Solutions

BBC 4. 2010. “Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes – The Joy of Stats.” (November 26).

Worldwrite. 2006. “I’m a Subsistence Farmer get me out of Here!”

Breakthrough Institute. 2016. “Precision Agriculture: Visualizing Agricultural Innovation.”

College Humor. 2018, “Buy Food Ethically, Unless It’s Too Hard.”

REQUIRED READINGS

• COVID-19 and the Food Supply Chain
Boudreaux, Donald J. 2020. “The Economy Is Not a Series of Supply Chains.” AIER (April 13).

Lusk, Jayson. 2020. “Time for Food Resilience.” City Journal (August 7).

• Overviews
Our World in Data – Topic: Food and Agriculture (Browse, the point here is to familiarize yourself with this website).

Smil, Vaclav. 2019. “Good Eats.” Inference 5 (1).

von Braun, Joachim et al. 2021. “Food Systems: seven priorities to end hunger and protect the planet.” Nature (August 30).

Bailey, Ron. 2020. “Is Farm-Free Food the Future? The end of agriculture draws nigh.” Reason (January 16).

• Critics
People’s Food Policy Project. 2011. Resetting the Table: A People’s Food Policy for Canada (Executive Summary).

Garza, Ron. 2020. “Bringing Biodiversity Back To Farming.” Vertical Farm Harvest (February 17).

Fairbank, Viviane. 2020. “Food for Thought. Eight billion mouths and counting.” Literary Review of Canada (May).

• Defenders of modern agriculture and agri-business
Jen. 2014. “Top Myths in Agriculture and Food Production with Dr. Cami Ryan.” Canola (Manitoba Canola Growers) (December 3).

Laudan, Rachel. 2015. “A Plea for Culinary Modernism.” Jacobin (May).

Laudan, Rachel. 2016. “In Praise of Artificial Food.” Aeon (January 28).

Bailey, Ron. 2020. “It’s Possible To Cut Cropland Use in Half and Produce the Same Amount of Food, Says New Study.” Reason (April 17).

Nordhaus, Ted and Alex Smith. 2021. “The Problem With Alice Waters and the “Slow Food” Movement.” Jacobin (December 3).

REQUIRED VIDEOs

LECTURE 2

“Ancient Farmers of the Amazon” Evolution Library (PBS), 2001 (video).

Video – Chimps Use Tools to Hunt Mammals – National Geographic

Duet of a Sumerian Drinking Song (Hymn to the Beer Goddess) (Background: Main, Douglas. 2014. “What Did Ancient Babylonian Songs Sound Like? Something Like This.” Newsweek (December 14).

LECTURE 3

General Electric. Date Unknown. General Electric Effects on Farm Life – 1930s Dairy Farms Cows Milk Tractors Behind the Scenes.

FreeThink. 2017. “We’re All Gonna Starve!“

Free To Choose Network | Johan Norberg’s New and Improved – Borlaug (October 26).

REQUIRED READINGS

LECTURE 2

• Insect Agriculture
“Herding Aphids: How ‘Farmer’ Ants Keep Control Of Their Food.” Science Daily, October 11, 2007.

“Termites Create Sustainable Monoculture Fungus Farming.” Science Daily, Nov. 22, 2009.

• Fire, Tools and Early Diets
Jones, Steve. 2009. “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham.” The Guardian, October 17.

Forbes, Peter. 2010. “Review of The Artificial Ape: How Technology Changed the Course of Human Evolution by Timothy Taylor.” The Guardian, September 4.

Gibbons, Ann. 2019. “Ancient Switch to Soft Food Gave Us an Overbite-and the ability to pronounce ‘f’s and ‘v’s.” Science (March 14).

Geddes, Linda. 2022. “Oldest cooked leftovers ever found suggest Neanderthals were foodies. Pancake/flatbread with a ‘nutty’ taste is first evidence of complex cooking and food culture.” The Guardian (November 23).

Kwon, Diana. 2022. “Our ancestors ate a Paleo diet. It had carbs. There is no one prehistoric meal plan. A modern hunter-gatherer group known as the Hadza has taught researchers surprising things about the highly variable menu consumed by humans past.” Knowable Magazine (September 28).

• Early Agriculture
(Note: This issue is addressed in much more detail in my course GGR329: Environment and the Roots of Globalization)

Loehrlein, Marietta. 2010. “Horticulture.” In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Earth.

Prakash, C. S. 2001. “The Genetically Modified Crop Debate in the Context of Agricultural Evolution.” Plant Physiology 126 (1): 8-15.

Wallace, Eric J. 2019. “The Moroccan Food Forest That Inspired an Agricultural Revolution. These ancient forest gardens may be more relevant than ever.” Atlas Obscura (April 1).

• Transition towards the Modern Era
Craig, Lee. A. 2009. “Creating Abundance: Biological Innovation and American Agricultural Development.” (Review of Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode, Creating Abundance: Biological Innovation and American Agricultural Development. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008) EH.Net Book Reviews.

Stuart, David. 2019. ““Truck Farming” Was the Path into Agriculture.” Soundings Journal (May 16).

White, William J. 2008 “Economic History of Tractors in the United States.” Eh.Net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History.

Moore, Sam. 2019. “International Harvester’s Red Baby Truck.” Farm Collector (July 9).

Johns Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future. Undated. “Food System Primer – Industrialization of Agriculture.”

LECTURE 3

• Modern Agriculture and the Green Revolution
– Big Picture
Goklany, Indur M. 2001. “The Pros and Cons of Modern Farming.” PERC Reports. March: 12-14.

Paarlberg, Robert. 2021 “Straight Talk About Modern Farms and Rural “Decline,” Pt. 1” Human Progress (February 25).

Paarlberg, Robert. 2021. “Straight Talk About Modern Farms and Rural “Decline,” Pt. 2” Human Progress (March 8).

Kline, Jesse. 2021. “The Capitalist Manifesto: The miracles that allowed us to feed the world (and those who would have us return to a time of famine).” Financial Post (December 23).

Energypedia. “Energy within Food and Agricultural Value Chains.”

– Specific Issues
Ades, Gary, Craig W. Henry, and Faye Feldstein. (2011/2012). “The Food Safety Challenge of the Global Food Supply Chain.” Food Safety Magazine (December/January).

Kunkel, Phillip L., Jeffrey A. Peterson, Jessica A. Mitchell. 2009. “Agricultural Production Contracts.” University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension Service.

– Green Revolution
Perkins, John. 2010. “Green Revolution” in Cutler J. Cleveland (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment.

Miller, Henry I. 2012. “The Father of the Green Revolution.” Defining Ideas (February 17).

Bloch, Sam. 2020. “Norman Borlaug is Hailed for “Feeding the World.” So why is there still so much hunger?” The Counter (April 21).

Cremer, Justin. 2020. “Norman Borlaug Saved Millions of Lives, Would his Critics Prefer he Hadn’t?” Cornell Alliance for Science (April 24).

Note: You do not need to cover the following readings and websites in your short written assignment, but you should familiarize yourself with these resources.

Our World in Data

CANADA
Canadian Encyclopedia on Agriculture
– History of agriculture
– Agriculture and food
– Agriculture and food policy
– Fisheries
– Aquaculture

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 2022. Overview of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector. (Read the abstract and the highlights.)

REQUIRED VIDEOs

LECTURE 4

Wheat
– BBC Scotland. 2012. How to Grow a Planet – Episode 3: The Challenger (Göbekli Tepe and the domestication of wheat).
– USDA. Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution

University of Queensland. 2019. “Wheat Myth Debunked.” EurekAlert (June 17).

Corn (maize)
– Iowa State University Research Foundation. 1991. The Hybrid Corn Miracle

Ryan, Cami. 2019. “Farmers Grow More with Less and That’s Good News for Everyone!” (July 27).

CIMMYT. 2016. “From Mexico to the World.” (May 20).

LECTURE 5

Rice
– Riso Amaro (1949)
– Allow Golden Rice Now. 2013. “Allow Golden Rice Now!“

Potatoes
– Hill Tribe TV. 2012. QV Foods: Growing Potatoes, from Field to Supermarket.

– 4000 Types of Potatoes in Peru – Peruvian Potatoes – Vicky The Gastronaut: Peru – Ep 06 – Mistura (Related videos here, here and here)

LECTURE 6

Soybean
-. 2007. Forgotten Genius: Percy Lavon Julian, NOVA (Video here from 1:24:19- 1:30:53)

Atlas Pro
– Geography of Fruits I
– Geography of Fruits II
– Geography of Livestock
– Geography of Spices

Fruits – General Overview
Atlas Pro. 2018. The Geography of Fruit

Tomato
– Tomato sorter

Orchards
British Pathé – Home Drive For Food – Britain’s Harvest 1947 (1947).
WPSU. 2009. Apple Grafting.

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. 2019. “Exploring the Origins of the Apple.” Frontier Science News (August 28).

Grapes and Wine
Discovery News. “What Ancient Wine Tasted Like.” (June 11, 2013).

LECTURE 7

Entomophagy
– BBC Four. 2013. “Can Eating Insects Save the World.” (March 13).

– The Economist. 2014. Why eating insects makes sense.

Livestock
British Pathé – Horse Meat Scandal (1948).

Honeybees
Wrong. 2017. What Happened to the Beepocalypse?

LECTURE 8

Fisheries
Breakthrough Institute. “Plenty of Fish on the Farm.”

Fortune. 2018. Made-in-China Caviar.

Recap
LindyBeige. 2011. “What is Wrong with this Picture?“

Cotton
PYCO – Cottonseed: The Inside Story.

REQUIRED READINGS

Canadian Food Inspection Agency

LECTURE 4

• Commodity Markets
Kearns, K. S. 2013/2006. Commodity Trading. Canadian Encyclopedia.

• Plants
-Overview
Maxham, Amanda. 2018. “Who should we thank for all those wonderful fruits and vegetables? ‘Not Mother Nature’” Genetic Literacy Project (October 2).

– Interactive Websites (browse)
CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture). Where our Food Crops Come From.

Canada Food Inspection Agency. Varieties of Crop Kinds Registered in Canada.

GRAINS
“About Good in Every Grain” (Grain Farmers of Ontario).

– Wheat
Mejia, Paul. 2018. “Found: 14,400-Year-Old Flatbread Remains That Predate Agriculture. The burned crumbs shed light on prehistoric hunter-gatherers’ diets.” Atlas Obscura (July 16).

Leech, Caleb. 2016. “Survival and Adaptation: Bonnefont’s Corne Field.” The Met (June 23).

Gary M. Paulsen and James P. Shroyer. 2008. “The Early History of Wheat Improvement in the Great Plains.” Agronomy Journal Vol. 100 No. Supplement_3, p. S-70-S-78.

Fedak, George. 2015. “Marquis Wheat.” Canadian Encyclopedia.

“Fueling the Green Revolution.” U.S. Department of Agriculture & Agricultural Research Service, October 10, 2003.

– Corn
Behrens, David. 2021. “Yields for Corn and Other Crops Show Steady Improvement.” Human Progress (February 2).

(Browse) National Corn Growers Association (USA. World of Corn).

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. “Maize.”

LECTURE 5

– Rice
UCL Rice Project. “Debating the Origins of Rice.”

Aschaiek, Sharon. 2016. “UTM Professor Discovers New Origins for Farmed Rice.” UTM News (June 22).

Ewbank, Anne. 2018. “How Killer Rice Crippled Tokyo and the Japanese Navy.” Atlas Obscura (February 22).

May, Paul. 2017. “Vitamin B1 (Thiamine). Deficiency of this causes beriberi.” Molecule of the Month.

The World Food Prize
– 1996: Beachell and Khush
– 2004: Jones and Yuan Longping

Zagado, Ronan. 2022. “Vitamin-A enhanced Golden Rice seeds distributed for planting for the first time in the Philippines.” Philippine Rice Research Institute (May 4).

PULSES
Alliance Grain Traders, “History of Pulses.”

Ewbank, Anne. 2018. “Why Beans Were an Ancient Emblem of Death.” Atlas Obscura (May 25).

ROOT & TUBER CROPS
– Potato
Foodland Ontario (Food Facts)
– Potatoes

Mann, Charles. 2011. “How the Potato Changed the World.” Smithsonian Magazine (November).

Jula, Megan. 2017. “The Ancient Andean Tradition of Eating Clay May Have Helped To Protect Health.” NPR.org (November 28).

Nunn, Nathan and Nancy Qian. 2009. “Potatoes, the fruit of the earth.” Vox (August 5).

Fine, Julia. 2019. “In India, the British Hyped Potatoes to Justify Colonialism.” Atlas Obscura (April 9).

– Sweet Potato
Fox, Alex. 2018. “Sweet Potato Migrated to Polynesia Thousands of Years before People Did. Vegetable’s travels deepen mystery about timing of first contact between people in Americas and the South Pacific.” Nature News (April 20).

ArgenPapa. 2018. “China: China and the Sweet Potato.” (November 13).

LECTURE 6

OILSEEDS
The Canadian Encyclopedia
– Oilseed crops

– Soybeans
Cloutier, Jeannine. 2017. “VISTA on the Agri-food Industry and the Farm Community. Soy Story: A Short History of Glycine max in Canada.” Statistics Canada (March 3).

Coughlin, Alison. 2020. “Why Brazil Has Grown as a Soybean Producer.” Seeking Alpha (July 28).

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. Soybean 2022World Production: 391,169 (1000 MT).

– Canola
The Canadian Encyclopedia
– Canola

FRUITS & VEGETABLES
Katinka Weinberger and Thomas A. Lumpkin. 2005. Horticulture for Poverty Alleviation. The Unfunded Revolution. AVRDC (The World Vegetable Center) Working Paper #15 – Executive Summary.

Tonie Fitzgerald. 2005. Pollination of Fruit Trees. Washington State University – Spokane County Extension.

– Cucurbits
Foodland Ontario (Food Facts)
– Greenhouse cucumbers

– Apples
Atlas Obscura. “The Last Wild Apple Forests. Granny Smiths, Fujis, and Pink Ladies can all be traced back to Kazakhstan, where apples still grow wild.”

Flaccus, Gillian. 2020. “10 Pioneer-era Apple Types Thought Extinct Found in US West.” AP News (April 15).

Wallace, Eric J. 2021. “Meet the Appalachian Apple Hunter Who Rescued 1,000 ‘Lost’ Varieties.” Atlas Obscura (June 3).

Foodland Ontario (Food Facts)
– Apples

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs – Recommended Apple Varieties for Ontario

– Bananas
Facts and Details. 2011. Bananas: Their History, Cultivation and Production.

Vézina, Anne. 2017. “The Hidden Side of Banana Diversity.” Pro Musa (October 24).

Mayyasi, Alex. 2019. “When New Yorkers Were Menaced by Banana Peels.” Atlas Obscura (July 24).

Ploetz, Randy C. 2005. “Panama Disease: An Old Nemesis Rears Its Ugly Head. Part 1. The Beginnings of the Banana Export Trades.” Plant Health Progress (August).

Thompson, Stuart. 2019. “The Quest to Save the Banana from Extinction.” The Conversation (April 18).

Admin. 2014. “Attack of the Killer Bananas? Hardly.” ACSH News (July 2).

OTHERS
– Sugar
Sugar Association – History of Sugar

Tupy, Marian L. and Gale Pooley. 2021. “Life Has Gotten Sweeter – Literally!” Human Progress (July 1).

Silcoff, Sean. 2012. “Bitter battle rages over Canada’s sugar industry.” The Globe and Mail, June 24.

– Palm Oil
Poku, Kwasi. 2002. Small-Scale Palm Oil Processing in Africa, Chapter 2: Oil Palm.

– Oaks
“The oak forest on Visingsö.” JKPG.com.

Leggett, Ben. 2015. “Understanding Oak Barrel Maturation – Part 3: Location, Location, Location.” Distillery Trail (June 30).

LECTURE 7

• Animals
Domesticated Land Animals
– Cannibalism
Jennifer Viegas. 2010. “First Cannibals Ate Each Other for Extra Nutrition.” Discovery Channel News (August 26).

– Entomophagy
BBC News. 2013. “Insect diet: Fancy Cricket Risotto or Mealworm Cake?” (August 23).

FAO. 2013. The Contribution of Insects to Food Security, Livelihoods and the Environment. (May 12).

– History
Breeds of Livestock – Oklahoma State University

Avery, Dennis. 2010. “When Sheep didn’t have Wool.” CFACT News, November 26.

Phelan, Benjamin. 2012. “The Most Spectacular Mutation in Recent Human History – How did milk help found Western civilization?” Slate (Oct.23).

Melletti, Mario. 2016. “Cattle Domestication: from Aurochs to Cow.” Fifteen Eighty-Four (February 18).

Steak School. “What’s the Difference Between Beef Taurus and Beef Indicus?“

Howard, Jacqueline. 2014. “Chickens Look Way Different Today, And Here’s The Reason Why.” Huffington Post (October 21).

Smil, Vaclav. 2019. “How Chicken Beat Beef in America. It was deemed the healthier alternative, and it was undoubtedly cheaper.” IEEE Spectrum (December 26).

– Recent Trends
Ritchie, Hannah et al. 2019. Meat and Dairy Production – Our World in Data.

Dowding, Heather. 2008. “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.” In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed). Encyclopedia of the Earth.

FAO. 2007. “Industrial livestock production threatens animal diversity – UN.” UN News (June 14).

Zielinski, Sarah. 2014. “Bees and Wasps in Britain Have Been Disappearing For More Than a Century.” Smithsonian Magazine (December 11).

Miller, Henry. 2015. “Viewpoint: The new bee crisis is just like the old one: Phony.” Genetic Literacy Project (May 13).

Nelson, Daniel. 2018. “Lab Grown Meat May Soon Be Available To General Public.” Science Trends (September 24).

LECTURE 8

Fisheries, Seafood and Aquaculture
– Overview
Ritchie, Hannah and Max Roser. 2021. Fish and Overfishing – Our World in Data.

– Fisheries
Pauly, Daniel and Dirk Zeller. 2010. “Marine Fisheries.” In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed). Encyclopedia of the Earth.

GDAE, Jonathan M. Harris and Anne-Marie Codur. 2008. “Economics of Fisheries.” In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed). Encyclopedia of the Earth.

– Aquaculture
Encyclopedia Britannica. 1911. “Pisciculture.”

Smil, Vaclav. 2021. “Farming Fish.” IEEE Spectrum (May): 20-21.

Required Videos

LECTURE 9

Video: USDA (World War II): Victory Garden (watch from 10:20 to 12:45; 13:56 to 16:50).

ACSH. 2014. Enjoy your Holiday Dinner – Chemicals and All! (November 25).

CSIRO. 2018. “Rust: The Fungi that Attacks Plants.”

British Pathé
– The Locust Battle (1930) (Palestine)
– Morocco – Locusts Invasion (1954)

DW News. 2020. “India and Pakistan face worst locust plague in 30 years.” (May 29, 2020).

LECTURE 10

Fertilizers

Johan Norberg’s New and Improved – Artificial Fertilizers. 2022. Free to Choose Network (April 27).

Human Progress. 2020. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch: The Inventors of the Haber-Bosch Process | Heroes of Progress | Ep. 2 – YouTube.

Food waste

CBC News. “Canadians get creative in solving food waste problem.” (August 29, 2018).

Intermarche. 2014. “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables.”

Required readings

LECTURE 9

• Overview
Douglas, David and Linus Blomqvist. 2016. Undated. “Is Precision Agriculture the Way to Peak Cropland? The Unsung Hero of Agricultural Innovation.” Breakthrough Institute.

Bryce, Emma. 2018. “Sustainable Intensification is no Longer an Oxymoron. It could be the future.” Anthropocene (September 7).

• Water
Cowen, Richard. Essays on Geology, History and People. (Under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press), Ch 17 (“Ancient Irrigation”).

Molden, David, Charlotte de Fraiture and Frank J. Rijsberman. 2007. “Water Scarcity: The Food Factor.” Issues in Science and Technology 23 (4) (Summer).

• Refrigeration
“Yakhchals – Ancient structures used to make and preserve ice in the deserts of Persia.” Atlas Obscura.

Mirza, Meher. 2018. “The British Couldn’t Take India’s Heat, So They Imported Ice From New England.” Atlas Obscura (September 12).

Tenner, Edward. 2014. “The Refrigerator’s Cool Century.” The American (July 3).

• Animal Reproductive Technologies
Traverso, Vittoria. 2019. “The Egyptian Egg Ovens Considered More Wondrous Than the Pyramids. A hatching system devised 2,000 years ago is still in use in rural Egypt.” Atlas Obscura (March 29).

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Animal Reproduction: Research in Assisted Reproductive Technologies.

Poultry Hub. “Incubation.”

• Veterinary Medicine
(Browse) World Organisation for Animal Health “Animal Disease Information Summaries.”

– Rinderpest
OIE (World Organization for Animal Health)
– Overvie
– Eradication
– Post-eradication
– World disease-free status
– International Collaboration
– Resources

FAO. 2017. Rinderpest Factsheet: Maintaining Global Freedom from Rinderpest

Normile, Dennis. 2010. “Deadly Cattle Disease Eradicated.” ScienceNOW, October 14.

• Seeds
Hurst, Blake. 2010. “Green Menace: To Saddle Hungry Haitians with American Romanticism about Agriculture is the Worst Kind of Imperialism.” The American (July).

Malhotra, Bharti. 2021. “Global vegetable seeds market is increasingly fragmented and diversified.” IHS Markit (November 3).

Karlsson, Ida. 2016. “Climate-Resistant Beans Could Save Millions.” ISP News (December).

• Pest Management
Unsworth, John. 2010. “History of Pesticide Use.” IUPAC.

Roser, Max. In Progress. “Pesticides.” Our World in Data.

U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2013. “Pesticide” in In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Earth.

Nelson, Douglas, and Alexander Rinkus. 2011. “The Hi-Tech Agriculture Imperative.” The American Magazine (November 8).

• Soil fumigation
USDA ARS. Soil fumigation.

Douglas Agricultural Services. Undated. Soil Fumigation: How it Works.

Soil Fumigants Website. About Soil Fumigants.

Government of Canada. Safety Measures for Soil Fumigant Products.

LECTURE 10

• Fertilizers
– General
Cornell, Joseph. D. 2010. “Fertilizer” In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Earth.

Fertilizer – The Canadian Encyclopedia.

Roser, Max and Hannah Ritchie. In progress. “Fertilizers.” Our World in Data. (Browse)

McGuire, Andrew. 2017. “Can Manure Supply Nitrogen and Phosphorus to Agriculture?” CSANR (Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources), Washington State University (September 7).

– Nitrogen
Cowen, Richard. Essays on Geology, History and People. (Under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press), Ch. 16 (“Guano,” “Nitrates”)

FitzGerald, Emmett. 2016. “Guano Mania.” 99% Invisible (December 6).

Morley, Tony. 2019. “Stuff of Progress, Pt. 1: Nitrogen.” Humanprogress.org (October 11).

– Potash
Potash – The Canadian Encyclopedia

– Phosphate
Van Kauwenbergh, Steven J. 2010. World Phosphate Rock Reserves and Resources. International Fertilizer Development Center (Executive Summary, pp. 11-12).

– Pesticides
Hurst, Blake. 2016. “So Many Regulations to Write, So Many Groups to Offend.” Agri-Pulse (June 17).

Burns, Carol J. 2019. Pesticide Facts: Farmers, Pesticides and Cancer (June 26).

Morley, Tony. 2019. “Stuff of Progress, Pt. 5: Chemical Pesticides.” Humanprogress.org (December 8).

• History of Greenhouses
Kohlstedt, Kurt. 2017. “Fruit Walls: Before Greenhouses, Walled Gardens Created Urban Micro-Climates.” 99% Invisible (October 23).

• Plasticulture
CIPA (Comité International des Plastiques en Agriculture). “Plasticulture: Definition.”

• Food Additive and Fortification
BASF. 2009. The Fortification of Food Staples.

Science Museum (UK). 2019. “Food: A Chemical History”

• Food waste
– Food waste is a serious problem
Institute of Mechanical Engineers. 2013. Global Food Waste Not, Want Not. Feeding the 9 Billion: The Tragedy of Waste.

Gustavsson, Jenny, Christel Cederberg, Ulf Sonesson, Robert van Otterdijk and Alexandre Meybeck. 2011. “Global Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention.” FAO (Executive Summary).

Committee on World Security. 2014. “Food Losses and Waste in the Context of Sustainable Food Systems.” (Read the Policy Recommendations; Full Report available here.)

Jansen, Tiffany R. 2019. “Food Sharing Apps Won’t Solve Our Massive Food Waste Problem – Apps to help consumers divert leftovers from landfills may cut down on wasted food, but fail to address the societal norms at the heart of the issue.” Undark (July 2).

Taber, Sarah. 2019. “Farms aren’t tossing perfectly good produce. You are.” Washington Post (March 8).

– Food waste is exaggerated
Fassler, Joe. 2017. “We’ve all heard the staggering statistics about food waste. A new study says they’re wrong.” The New Food Economy (June 21).

Historian Rachel Laudan on food waste
– Isn’t It Crucial to Have Some Food ‘Waste’? (March 15, 2016)
– Why I Happily ‘Waste’ Food (March 30, 2017)

Lusk, Jayson. 2013. “Economically Optimal Food Waste.”

Bellemare, Marc F. 2017. “On the Measurement of Food Waste.”

Lieber, Chavie. 2019. “A Scientist on the Myth of Ugly Produce and Food Waste. Startups Misfits Market and Imperfect Produce say they’re rescuing food that would otherwise be wasted. Sarah Taber is calling bullshit.” Vox (February 26).

– Related issues
Prior, Matthew. 2019. “The Fat of the Land: Estimating the ecological costs of overeating.” Frontier Science News (August 23).

Splitter, Jenny. 2019. “What The Ugly Produce Debate Gets Wrong And What It Gets Right.” Forbes (March 27).

Required Videos

LECTURE 11

Environment
Noack, Rick. 2014. “Watch: How Europe is Greener now than 100 Years Ago.” Washington Post (December 4).

Meat
Meat the Truth. 2007 (Full video; Trailer).

Angus TV. 2012. “I Am Angus: Dr. Jude Capper, Washington State University.”

Tony Weis. 2012. “What are the Possible Solutions to Environmental Problems posed by Industrial Livestock Production?“

LECTURE 12

Biotechnologies and Organic
Stossel. “Would you Feast on Genetically Engineered Food?” (November 19, 2010).

Breakthrough Institute. 2018. “Fixing Nitrogen.”

Mangan, Mary. 2018. “‘Well Fed’: Dutch documentary challenges rich countries’ anti-GMO views.” Medium (April 10) (2:00 – 6:00).

Only Organic 2015. New MacDonald.

Human Progress. 2020. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch: The Inventors of the Haber-Bosch Process | Heroes of Progress, episode 2.

Not covered in 2023

Locavorism and food security
Friend of the Earth Europe. 2014. Feeding Europe: food sovereignty and agro-ecology.

Hellmanns – Buy Canadian Local Food Commercial. 2012.

Marginal Revolution University. 2015. Are We Better Off If We Buy Local?

PBS Newshours. 2015. “What Cuba can teach America about organic farming.” (January 19).

UK Ministry of Information and Ministry of Agriculture. 1942. Dig for Victory.

National Film Board. 1943. “He Plants for Victory.”

Required readings

LECTURE 11

Note: Exceptionally this week, you can select either “agriculture and the environment” or “meat” to write your short assignment.

Agriculture and the Environment
– Long-term Historical Perspective
Cleveland, Cutler J. (ed). Encyclopedia of the Earth – Pidwimy, Michael. 2013. “Soil Erosion and Deposition.”

Cunfer, Geoff. 2004. “The Dust Bowl.” Eh.Net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History.

McGreevy, Nora. 2020. “Ancient Roman Mosaic Floor Unearthed Beneath Italian Vineyard. The intricate, multi-colored tiles likely date to the third century A.D.” Smithsonianmag.com (May 27).

Ellis, Erle C. 2011. “Forget Mother Nature: This is a World of our Making.” New Scientist 2816 (June 14).

Parenti, Christian. 2019. “Saving the Planet Without Self-Loathing.” Jacobin (October 3).

– Overview
Ritchie, Hannah and Max Roser. 2020. “Environmental impacts of food production.” Our World in Data.

Searchinger, Tim, Richard Waite, Craig Hanson, Janet Ranganathan and Emily. 2019. Creating a Sustainable Food Future. A Menu of Solutions to Feed Nearly 10 Billion People by 2050. World Bank, World Resources Institute, UN Environment, UN Development Programme, CIRAD and INRA. (Read the Executive Summary, pp. 1-3) (A longer Synthesis Report is also available).

Ritchie, Hannah. 2022. “After millennia of agricultural expansion, the world has passed ‘peak agricultural land.’” Our World in Data (May 30).

Perspectives and Challenges
– Optimistic
Avery, Dennis T. 2010. “Sustaining people and planet: The moral challenge of the twenty-first century.” Religion & Liberty 14 (1).

Rockefeller University Newswire. “Changes in Population Growth, Consumption and Farming begin to Return Former Farmlands to Nature.” December 21, 2012.

English, Cameron. 2022. “Despite gloomy headlines, our planet is getting greener.” Big ThinK (December 20).

– Pessimistic
Soule, Judy et al. 1990. Ecological Impact of Modern Agriculture. McGraw-Hill, pp. 165-188.

Ritchie, Hannah. 2019. “Food Production is Responsible for One-quarter of the World’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Our World in Data (November 6).

Biodiversity and Monocultures
– Biodiversity (General)
Bailey, Ron. 2010. “Invasion of the Invasive Species! Local Biodiversity is Increasing Because of Man, not Despite Him.” Reason (November).

Avery, Dennis. 2010. “Biodiversity: Losing which Species?” CFACT, November 9.

Carrington, Damian. 2017. “Earth’s sixth mass extinction event under way, scientists warn.” The Guardian (July 10).

– Pros and Cons of Monocultures
DeGregori, Thomas. 2003. “The Anti-Monoculture Mania.” Butteflies and Wheels.

Singh, Aradhana. 2011. “Diversification in agriculture.” In Cutler J. Cleveland (ed). Encyclopedia of the Earth.

McGuire, Andrew. 2015. “Monoculture vs. Polyculture Part I: “Straight up” beats “cocktails” for cover crop productivity.” CSANR (Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources – Washington State University) (June 8).

Bailey, Ronald. 2018. “High Yield Modern Farming Better for the Environment, Says Nature Study. Low yield organic farming uses up lots more land and harms biodiversity.” Reason (September 20).

Bryce, Emma. 2021. “To feed the world and protect nature, should we share agricultural land or spare wild habitat?” Anthropocene (October 15).

Meat
– Overview
Ritchie, Hannah et al. 2019. Meat and Dairy Production – Our World in Data.

Miltimore, Jon. 2022. “Destroying Food to Fight Climate Change Is Madness—and a Conceit That Could Prove Fatal.” Fee.org (May 2).

Blaustein-Rejto, Dan. 2021 et al. The Clean Cow: Cutting the Carbon Footprint of US Beef Production. Breakthrough Institute. (Read the Executive Summary).

– Human Physiology and Meat Consumption
TOI Staff. 2021. “For 2 million years, humans ate meat and little else — study. Tel Aviv University researchers says Stone Age humans were apex predators, only moved to more plant-based diet 85,000 years ago.” Times of Israel (April 4).

Ede, Georgia. 2019. “The Brain Needs Animal Fat. Why humans can’t thrive on plants alone.” Psychology Today (March 31).

Knight, Meredith. 2019. “Evolution, the human diet and the meat vs. plant conundrum.” Genetic Literacy Project (September 20).

– Meat Industry
Canadian Encyclopedia on Agriculture
– Ranching history
– Beef cattle farming

Canadian Cattlemen’s Association
– Beef production 101
– Cow-calf production
– Backgrounding and finishing
– Feedlot operation
– Feed
– Feedlot health management

Lusk, Jayson. 2021. “Beef, Chicken, and Carbon Emissions.” Jayson Lusk (blog) (June 18).

– Critics of Meat Production
Ritchie, Hannah. 2020. Less meat is nearly always better than sustainable meat, to reduce your carbon footprint – Our World in Data.

Monbiot, George. 2010. “Strong Meat.” The Guardian, September 7.

Holmes, Bob. 2022. “How much meat can we eat — sustainably?” Knowable magazine (August 18).

Monbiot, George. 2022. “The most damaging farm products? Organic, pasture-fed beef and lamb.” The Guardian (August 16).

Harari, Yuval Noah. 2015. “Industrial Farming is One of the Worst Crimes in History.” The Guardian (Sept 25).

– Defenders of Meat and Modern Production Methods
-Overview
Beef Cattle Research Council. 2019. “Isn’t Beef Canada’s Ultimate Plant Based Protein?” (April 22).

Cooper, David. 2012. “Capper: Efficiency the Key to Beef Sustainability.” Progressive Cattleman (January 23).

Hayes, Shannon. 2012. “Meat – not Grains – to Live Sustainably.” Robb Wolf (November 15).

Hurst, Blake. 2010. “In Defense of Chewers of Cud.” Today’s Farmer Online.

Avery, Dennis. 2009. “Giving Up Meat to Save the Planet?” CFACT News (August 20).

-Production technologies and challenges
“The Truth about Gestation Stalls.” Hoosier Farm Babe Tell Tails (August 8, 2012).

Chinn, Chris. 2014. “PEDV – Here’s your sign!” ChrisChinn.

-Against veganism
Wilkinson, James. 2017. “How the rise of veganism could ruin America: Study warns if every person went meat-free there would be a public health disaster.” Daily Mail (November 18) (original study).

– Meat Production and the Environment (Non-climate change)
The Breakthrough Institute
– The Meat Problem
– The Pasture Problem
– Achieving Peak Pasture

Committee on World Food Security. 2016. “Sustainable Agricultural Development for Food Security and Nutrition: What roles for livestock?” (Read the Policy Recommendations; Full Report available here.)

– Meat Production and Climate Change
Overview
FAO. 2014. Tackling Climate Change through Livestock.

Marginal Impact
Bailey, Ronald. 2019. “Why Giving Up Meat Won’t Have Much of an Effect on Climate Change. Going vegetarian would reduce a person’s greenhouse gas emissions by around 2 percent.” Reason (July 29).

Mitloehner, Frank M. 2018. “Yes, Eating Meat affects the Environment, but Cows are not Killing the Climate.” The Conversation (October 25).

Significant Impact
Tandon, Ayesha. 2022. “Rich nations could see ‘double climate dividend’ by switching to plant-based foods.” Carbon Brief (January 10).

Hart, Amalyah. 2021. “More “meat-free Mondays” needed to sustain future populations. UNSW professor warns current consumption cannot continue if we want to reduce world hunger and save the planet.” Cosmos (August 17).

Hamblin, James. 2017. “If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef. With one dietary change, the U.S. could almost meet greenhouse-gas emission goals.” The Atlantic (August 2).

Stanford. 2022. “Replacing animal agriculture and shifting to a plant-based diet could drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to new model. Science News (February 1).

Plant-based meat and other alternatives
IPES Food. 2022. REPORT: The Politics of Protein (read the Infosheet).

Bailey, Ronald. 2022. “The Slaughter-Free Future of Cultured Meats.” Reason (May 26).

Hurst, Blake. 2023. “Opinion: Are you ready to bet on lab grown meat?” Agri-Pulse (January 17).

LECTURE 12

For your short written assignment, select either the category “Biotechnologies and Organic” or “Locavorism and Food Security.”

Biotechnologies and GMOs
– Overview and Historical Context
Royal Society (UK) How does GM differ from conventional plant breeding?

WHO (World Health Organization) on
– Food, Genetically Modified
– 20 Questions on Genetically Modified (GM) Food

Genetic Literacy Project. 2014. “What would Food Look Like without Modifications?” (June 19).

Kastrinos, Amanda. 2016. “Delicious mutant foods: Mutagenesis and the genetic modification controversy.” Genetic Literacy Project (June 13).

Katiraee, Layla. 2017. “Infographic: Why single out GMOs-one of many forms of crop modification-for labeling?” Genetic Literacy Project (August 24).

Savage, Steve. 2018. “Mother Nature? More like ‘Mad Scientist Mama’-creator of chemicals good and bad for humans.” Genetic Literacy Project (October 19).

English, Cameron and Kayleen Schreiber. 2020. “Where are GMO Crops Grown? GLP infographics document the global growth of agricultural biotechnology innovation.” Genetic Literacy Project (April 28).

Ehrenberg, Rachel. 2019. “Will the Food of the Future be Genetically Engineered or Organic?” Knowable (May 9).

– Critics
Friends of the Earth. 2014. Who Benefits from GM Crops? (Executive Summary).

Trillium Asset Management. 2018. The Case against Genetically Modified Crops: An Environmental Investor’s View of the Threat oto our Global Food Systems (January).

– Supporters
Walton, Dave. 2015. “GMO Myth: Farmers “drown” crops in “dangerous” glyphosate. Fact: They use eye droppers.” Genetic Literacy Project (January 22).

Ventura, Luis. 2020. “Viewpoint: Why GMOs? 4 farmers make the case for biotech crops, challenging ‘clueless’ activists to embrace science.” Genetic Literacy Project (March 10).

Fedoroff, Nina. 2020. “Low-hanging Fruit: How the first generation of GMO crops yielded massive economic and environmental benefits.” Genetic Literacy Project (April 15).

Ridley, Matt. 2022. “The unnatural nature of food.” Science for Sustainable Agriculture (August).

– Specific Crops
De Steur, H. et al. 2015. “Status and Market Potential of Transgenic Biofortified Crops.” Nature Biotechnology 33 (1): 25-29.

Philpott, Tom. 2016. “WTF Happened to Golden Rice?” Mother Jones (February 3).

Ridley, Matt. 2020. “Viewpoint: At least 200,000 people die every year GMO Golden Rice is kept off the market.” Genetic Literacy Project (January 9).

Organic
– Definition and controversies
Overview
The Soil Association (UK)
– What is organic
* Organic Farming
* Organic Animals

Canada Organic Trade Association
– Health Benefits
– Environmental Benefits
– Organics and GMOs

FDA. 2020. Am I eating foods that come from GMO crops?

The Breakthrough. 2018. The Synthetic-Organic Debate.

Ritchie, Hannah. 2017. “Is organic really better for the environment than conventional agriculture?” Our World in Data.

Dourson, Michael and Bernard Gadagbui. 2020. “Toxicology: Is Organic Food Safer to Eat?” ACSH (April 24).

Klotins, Kim. 2005. “Antibiotic Use For Growth Improvement – Controversy And Resolution.” OMAFRA.

AFP. 2022. “Sri Lanka to pay $200m compensation for failed organic farm drive.” Al Jazeera (January 26).

– GMOs and organic foods
Charles, Dan. 2014. “Why The ‘Non-GMO’ Label Is Organic’s Frenemy.” NPR (The Salt) (February 28).

Moore, Patrick and Mischa Popoff. 2014. “Organic Activists Need GMOs Now more than Ever.” Daily Caller (April 1).

Ongu, Isaac. 2015. “Death of British journalist after eating organic peanuts highlights absurdity of GMO safety scare.” Genetic Literacy Project (March 18).

Bailey, Ronald. 2019. “E.U. Regulators Can’t Detect the Gene-Edited Crops They Banned. The difference between two identical genes-one edited and the other a natural mutation-is entirely metaphysical.” Reason (July 23).

Popoff, Mischa. 2015. “There’s no Reason Why GMOs shouldn’t be Considered Organic.” The Daily Caller (November 4).

– Supporters
Berezow, Alex B. 2014. “The Lies that Whole Foods Tells.” Real Clear Science (June 16).

Finz, Stacy. 2009. “Bill would restrict antibiotics in food animals.” San Francisco Chronicle (July 30).

Kovac, Emma. 2022. “The Environmental Case for Genetically Engineered Crops. Genetically engineered crops can help raise agricultural productivity and reduce emissions.” The Breakthrough Institute (February 10).

– Critics
– Overview
Cerier, Steven. 2021. “Part 1: The organic food industry’s rejection of modernity.” Genetic Literacy Project (November 16)

Cerier, Steven. 2021. “Part 2: The hypocrisy of opponents of genetic engineering of food.” Genetic Literacy Project (November 17)

Temple, James. 2019. “Sorry—organic farming is actually worse for climate change.” MIT Technology Review (October 22)

English, Cameron. 2021. All-Organic Agriculture? Sri Lanka Cripples Farmers and Sparks Food Shortage.” ACSH (September 9)

Porterfield, Andrew. 2020 “Organic fungicide copper sulfate poses dangers to humans, animals, insects-how does it compare to conventional pesticides?” Genetic Literacy Project (November 16).

Lusk, Jayson. 2014. “Organic Vs Conventional Crop Yields.” JaysonLusk.com (May 5).

Zaruk, David. 2017. “Viewpoint: 12 ways organic activists mislead consumers.” Genetic Literacy Project (December 6).

Porterfield, Andrew. 2017. “Vitamins, nutrients can be harder to find in organic, non-GMO foods.” Genetic Literacy Project (August 4).

Wittevrongel, Krystle. 2022. “Organic food during a famine?” Montreal Economic Institute (May 10).

Sri Lanka and Organic Food
Navdanya International. 2021. “Sri Lanka’s shift towards organic farming.” (June 16)

English, Cameron. 2021. All-Organic Agriculture? Sri Lanka Cripples Farmers and Sparks Food Shortage.” ACSH (September 9)

Torrella, Kenny. 2022. “Sri Lanka’s organic farming disaster, explained. A shift to better farming practices is possible, but Sri Lanka’s abrupt switch to organics offers a bitter lesson in how to change food systems in a sustainable way.” Vox (July 15)

De Guzman, Chad. 2022. “The Crisis in Sri Lanka Rekindles Debate Over Organic Farming.” Time (July 13)

Riddle, Mary. 2022. “How Sri Lanka Became Embroiled in an Organic Farming Crisis.” Triple Pundit (July 12)

Jason Hickel on Sri Lanka (Twitter).

This material will not be covered this semester.

Locavorism and food security
– Historical perspective
BBC News. 2012. “Groceries ‘cheaper’ now than in 1862, Grocer magazine finds.” (January 6).

– Overview of the issues
Bellemare, Marc F. 2008. “Why Africa’s Food Markets Are Thin.” The News & Observer (Raleigh). April 25.

Mosby, Ian. 2015. “Victory Gardens.” Canadian Encyclopedia.

2016. “Victory Gardens – Editorial.” Canadian Encyclopedia.

Bryce, Emma. 2020. “A Global Crop Reshuffle Could Reduce Agricultural Land by Half.” Anthropocene (April 24).

– Current debates
– Supportive
Frerick, Austin. 2021. “The Outsourcing Of America’s Food: They used to grow apples in Iowa; now the apple juice comes from China and it’s just corn and soy as far as the eye can see.” American Conservative (June 2).

Rees, William. 2019. “Why Place-based Food Systems? Food security in a chaotic world.” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 9 (1).

Ikerd, John. 2019. “Place-based Food and Farming Systems: Reconnecting people with purpose and place.” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 9 (1).

– Critical
Bailey, Ronald. 2008 “The Food Miles Mistake – Saving the Planet by Eating New Zealand Apples,” Reason, November 4.

Gray, Nathan. 2013. “Frozen Fruit and Vegetable might be more Nutritious than Fresh: Research.” Food Navigator (October 11).

Sexton, Steven, 2009. “Does Local Production Improve Environment and Health Outcomes?” ARE Updates 13 (2): 5-8.

“Balanced diet includes local and imported food, say IIED, Oxfam” IIED (Press Release), December 3rd, 2009.

Ritchie, Hannah. 2020. “You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local.” Our World in Data (January 24).

Bellmann, Christophe. 2020. “Privileging Local Food is Flawed Solution to Reduce Emissions.” Chatham House (April 23).

– Hunger and Food Security
World Food Programme. 2018. 2018 Global Report on Food Crises (Key Messages).

– Famine and Its Eradication (Historical Perspective)
Carmody, Pádraig. 2009. “Famine: A Short History.” Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review 9 (Autumn): 82-85.

Tupy, Marian L. 2018. “How Humanity Won the War on Famine.” CapX (August 16).

– Food Sovereignty or Trade Liberalization?
– Overview
Clapp, Jennifer. 2015. Food Security and International Trade. Unpacking Disputed Narratives. (Read the Executive Summary) FAO.

Philip D. Roberts. 2013. What is the Evidence of the Impact of Agricultural Trade Liberalisation on Food Security in Developing Countries? A Systematic Review. London: EPPICentre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London (Abstract and Executive Summary).

– Food Sovereignty
Food Secure Canada. What is Food Sovereignty?

Edelman, Marc. 2002. “Price of Free Trade Is Famine.” Los Angeles Time (March 22).

Patel, Raj. 2008. “Food Sovereignty: A Brief Introduction.” Food Magazine.

Patel, Raj. 2008. “A man-made famine.” The Guardian (April 15).

– Trade Liberalization and Food Security
Peron, James. 2000. “Food, Famine, and Free Trade. Ehrlich Fails to See That Incentives Change Behavior.” Fee.org (April 1).

DeCapua, Joe. 2011. “Trade Barriers Impede Food Security.” VOA (May 15).

Bryce, Emma. 202. “Supporting food security in climate stricken world requires a geographically diverse palate.” Anthropocene Magazine (July 9).

Glauber, Joseph et al. 2020. “COVID-19: Trade restrictions are worst possible response to safeguard food security.” IFPRI Blog (March 27).

Upton, William. 2020. “Make America Autarkic Again.” American Mind (March 13).

GGR 387 – Food and Globalization – Lectures

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