Worlds of Food: Place, Power, and Provenance in the Food Chain (Oxford Geographical and Environmental Studies Series)

Book Description

From farm to fork, the conventional food chain is under enormous pressure to respond to a whole series of new challenges - food scares in rich countries, food security concerns in poor countries, and a burgeoning problem of obesity in all countries. As more and more people demand to know where their food comes from, and how it is produced, issues of place, power, and provenance assume increasing significance for producers, consumers, and regulators, challenging the corporate forces that shape the 'placeless foodscape'. Far from being confined to niche products, questions about the origins of food are also surfacing in the conventional sector, where labelling has become a major political issue. Drawing on theories of multi-level governance, three leading scholars in the field explore the geo-politics of the food chain in different spatial arenas: the World Trade Organization, where free trade principles clash with fair trade concerns in the debate about agricultural reform; the European Union, where producers are under pressure from environmentalists for a more traceable and sustainable food system; and the US, where there is a striking contradiction between the rhetoric of free markets and the reality of a heavily subsidised farming sector. To understand the local impact of these global trends, the authors explore three different regional worlds of food: the traditional world of localised quality in Tuscany, the peripheral world of commodity production in Wales, and the frontier world of agri-business in California.

The Spice Trade: A Bibliographic Guide to Sources of Historical and Economic Information (Bibliographies and Indexes in World History)

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The Spice Trade: A Bibliographic Guide to Sources of Historical and Economic Information (Bibliographies and Indexes in World History)

Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313291179

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The trade in spices is one of the oldest and, at one time, one of the most important forms of commerce. While taken for granted today, spices have been coveted, plundered, fought over, and hoarded throughout history. The Age of Exploration was fueled in part by the desire to find direct routes to the spice-growing regions of Asia. Fortunes were made, battles fought, and countries conquered to satisfy the Western spice trade. This book is the first comprehensive bibliography on the economic and historical aspects of the spice trade. Arranged in broad chronological categories, the bibliography lists monographs, periodical articles, and other miscellaneous sources, including pamphlets and maps. The first chapter includes sources covering more than one time period or the entire history of the spice trade. Chapter two covers the period from Biblical times through the fall of the Roman Empire, c. 400 A.D., including ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Holy Land. The Dark Ages and Middle Ages, from c. 400 to 1500, are covered in chapter three. Chapter four covers the Age of Exploration and Colonialism, including the European voyages and the colonization of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The final chapter provides selective coverage of the post-World War II era. Sources listed in all chapters are in Western languages and available in U.S. libraries.

Agricultural Marketing and Consumer Behavior in a Changing World

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Agricultural Marketing and Consumer Behavior in a Changing World

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792398564

Book Description

As in many other sectors, in agribusiness major changes are taking place. On the demand side, consumers are changing lifestyles, eating and shopping habits, and increasingly are demanding more accommodation of these needs in the supermarket. With regard to the supply: the traditional distribution channel dominators - manufacturers of branded consumer products - are trying hard to defend their positions against retailers, who gather and use information about the consumer to streamline their enterprises and strengthen their ties with the consumer. The agricultural producers, meanwhile, face increased regulations with regard to food additives, pesticides, and herbicides. Pressures rise as their business becomes more specialized and capital-intensive than that of their predecessors. Finally, the larger political climate is not so favorable to agriculture, which now has to compete in the global market without significant government support. This title describes and interprets changes in the domain of agriculture and food. The contributors develop the theme of taking an interdisciplinary approach to coping with these changes, using concepts and methods developed in general marketing, which are adapted so as to apply to the particular characteristics of the food and agriculture sector. This book is published to honor the distinguished career of Professor Mathew T.G. Meulenberg from Wageningen Agricultural University, on the occasion of his retirement in September 1996. As a scientist, teacher, and advisor to the agribusiness and the government, Professor Meulenberg has made an important contribution to the development of marketing, inside and outside the domain of agriculture.

Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South

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Fascinating history, important analysis--read it!
Fabulous story, fabulous storytelling

Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South
Robert Rodgers Korstad
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807854549
Release Date: 2007-01-17

Book Description

Drawing on scores of interviews with black and white tobacco workers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Robert Korstad brings to life the forgotten heroes of Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO. These workers confronted a system of racial capitalism that consigned African Americans to the basest jobs in the industry, perpetuated low wages for all southerners, and shored up white supremacy.

Galvanized by the emergence of the CIO, African Americans took the lead in a campaign that saw a strong labor movement and the reenfranchisement of the southern poor as keys to reforming the South--and a reformed South as central to the survival and expansion of the New Deal. In the window of opportunity opened by World War II, they blurred the boundaries between home and work as they linked civil rights and labor rights in a bid for justice at work and in the public sphere.

But civil rights unionism foundered in the maelstrom of the Cold War. Its defeat undermined later efforts by civil rights activists to raise issues of economic equality to the moral high ground occupied by the fight against legalized segregation and, Korstad contends, constrains the prospects for justice and democracy today.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating history, important analysis--read it!.......2004-05-07

This is a terrific book--an important history that brings together a story of race, labor unions, economic change, politics, and culture, but never loses sight of the actual people involved. Very well written--not dry and academic like some history, but also very rich analytically. Buy it and read it!

Fabulous story, fabulous storytelling.......2003-06-28

In this wonderful book, African American tobacco workers tell their own story of civil rights struggle and union organizing. It is long, but so was the struggle, and I couldn't put it down. Oral interviews give us the black workers' own accounts, sending, for once, the white supremacists to the back of the bus.
Read it. You will find a South you never thought you would find.

Sustainable Land Management: Challenges, Opportunities, and Trade-Offs (Agriculture and Rural Development)

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Agricultural Sustainability

Sustainable Land Management: Challenges, Opportunities, and Trade-Offs (Agriculture and Rural Development)
World Bank
Manufacturer: World Bank Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0821365975

Book Description

Land is the integrating component of all livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water (rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global population and economy has resulted in the unintended mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. Sustainable Land Management provides strategic focus to the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) components of the World Bank's development strategies. SLM is a knowledge-based procedure that integrates land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustainaing livelihoods and the environment.

This book, aimed at policy makers, project managers, and development organization, articulates priorities for investment in SLM and natural resource management and indentifies the policy, institutional, and incentive reform options that will accelerate the adoption of SLM productivity improvements and pro-poor growth.

Customer Reviews:

Agricultural Sustainability.......2006-11-10

The book provides excellent insite on the challenges of the concept of sustainability and the balancing effect.

Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmer's Union and the New Deal

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Good look at agricultural labor during the Depression

Cry from the Cotton: The Southern Tenant Farmer's Union and the New Deal
Donald H. Grubbs
Manufacturer: University of Arkansas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Good look at agricultural labor during the Depression.......2002-01-08

Grubbs traces the plight of Southern tenant cotton farmers, both black and white, and the effort to provide tenant farmers with job security and financial stability through unionization. The book begins with the economic and agricultural fallout of the Civil War and on to the movement's initial organization, the New Deal, and efforts to join the AFL-CIO. In 1934 two young Socialists organized the Southern Tenants Farmers Union (STFU) near the town of Tyronza, Arkansas, in order to gain fair wages for tenant farmers who were kept in perpetual destitution.

Book Description

* Can ethical sourcing genuinely address the problems facing workers and producers in developing countries? * Detailed case studies explore fair and ethical trade systems in diverse countries and sectors, allowing a balanced analysis of this global phenomenon * A wealth of analysis and discussion from the foremost academics and practitioners working in ethical sourcing Ethical sourcing, both through fair trade and ethical trade, is increasingly entering the mainstream of food retailing. Large supermarkets have come under pressure to improve the returns to small producers and conditions of employment within their supply chains. But how effective is ethical sourcing? Can it genuinely address the problems facing workers and producers in developing countries? Is it a new form of northern protectionism, or can Southern initiatives be developed to advance the monitoring and verification effectiveness of ethical sourcing? How can the rights and participation of workers and small producers be enhanced, given the power and dominance of large supermarkets within the global food chain?

This book brings together a range of academics and practitioners working on issues of ethical sourcing in the global food chain. It critically explores the opportunities and challenges of ethical sourcing in the global food system by combining analysis and case studies that examine a range of approaches. It explores whether ethical sourcing is a cosmetic northern initiative, or it can genuinely help to improve the conditions of small producers and workers in developing countries.

Disarray in World Food Markets: A Quantitative Assessment (Trade and Development)

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Disarray in World Food Markets: A Quantitative Assessment (Trade and Development)
Rod Tyers , and Kym Anderson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Why have agricultural policies become more inward-looking as the world becomes increasingly interdependent economically? Disarray in World Food Markets addresses the nature and causes of this crisis in international trade policy. Its analysis of the effects of these food policies is complemented by a quantitative review of the long term trends in world food markets. The study also extensively examines the reasons why governments choose to implement distortionary policies. These issues have been widely discussed, particularly because of the interest generated by the so-called Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, held under the auspices of the GATT. Disarray in World Food Markets analyzes some of the elements of the reforms emerging from these trade negotiations and discusses what the likely benefits may be. The model on which the analysis is based has a number of features unique for its time. It incorporates thirty countries and country groups, seven food commodity groups, the dynamic properties of international food markets, the pure protection component of food and agricultural policy, as well as the insulating component of policy.

The Seed Was Planted: The Sao Paulo Roots of Brazil's Rural Labor Movement, 1924-1964

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The Seed Was Planted: The Sao Paulo Roots of Brazil's Rural Labor Movement, 1924-1964
Cliff Welch
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0271017880

Book Description

Examines the fundamental role of rural labor in the making of modern Brazil.

“The Seed Was Planted makes an outstanding contribution to a new political history of modern Brazil by challenging the notion that rural workers were less than full participants in the politics of the Vargas era.” —John D. French, Duke University

Until the 1960s, rural laborers and peasants composed the majority of Brazil's population and yet most scholars have downplayed their influence on the country's history. In contrast, The Seed Was Planted argues that rural labor has been fundamental to the making of modern Brazil.

When the Brazilian military took power in 1964, anarchy in the countryside was one of the problems the conspirators used to justify ousting the civilian government. Cliff Welch examines this claim by narrating the history of rising rural worker activism in São Paulo, Brazil's most influential state.

Between a major revolt in 1924 and the 1964 coup d'etat, São Paulo rural workers gradually gained a place in Brazilian politics by seizing opportunities from ruling class initiatives designed to reform the agricultural economy. Welch shows how laws composed to incorporate rural workers in a controlled way became platforms for unexpected protest and political mobilization culminating in the 1963 Rural Laborer Statute (ETR). The unprecedented legitimacy the law brought the rural labor movement further spurred the agrarian mobilization cut short by the 1964 coup.

Drawing on rural worker letters, court records, news accounts, landlord observations, and government studies, The Seed Was Planted offers a rich and engaging sense of how rural labor politics were structured and experienced during this crucial period of modern Brazilian history. Personal anecdotes gathered in oral interviews with rural workers and their allies add a compelling human element to the book, enlivening such historical abstractions as communism, populism, and rural unionization. This combination of detailed historical analysis and lively personal narrative makes The Seed Was Planted an excellent introduction to modern Brazilian social history.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting.......2007-07-04

Dense, detailed and often fascinating. Fluid writing despite translation from German. Those who are used to jumping to conclusions will find much to learn here regardless of the overall malfunction. Unfortunately, the promise shown initially is not fully delivered for several reasons. The author makes frequent use of his simulations, tests, and models and asks much of the reader who has only read a brief introduction to them. In the later chapters, it's more tedious to follow along with his constant references; furthermore, the book essentially becomes an argument for the use of computer-simulated research rather than a distilled analysis of failure. The last chapter feigns a comprehensive summary, but drifts away as the author ponders the process of determining the point of failure. I could take it, then, as either (i) a technical, interesting but inconclusive study of the reasons for failure which focuses on a mere handful of examples; or (ii) an outdated, abstract examination of the process for examining failure, which does not consider alternative approaches and isn't thorough enough to be worthwhile.

If you're interested in note-taking and then drawing your own conclusions, then this book should be an excellent read as it's filled with detail. For others, it delivers a few very fascinating chapters about our cognitive biases and then fails to draw them together cogently.

Meh........2007-05-27

Things are complex. Watch the behaviors of items in a system closely. Get a computer to model the cause and effect relationships. Things don't always respond like you would expect. That's the book in a nutshell... I ended up speed reading the book instead of word for word because I couldn't handle all of the excessive examples, nor the continued reference back to his computer simulation "real" models (and I *like* computers!).

good so far.......2007-01-10

This was recommended to me at work. Interesting analysis of why problem-solving approaches to social problems so often fail, and why they so often fail so miserably. Basically, there are two types of problem-solvers. Successful problem solvers make one small change, then observe the result. Unsuccessful problem solvers decide on a strategy ahead of time, implement all changes at once, and either stick to their strategy no matter how badly it is failing or scrap their strategy entirely and introduce a brand new one, without transition. Interesting case studies to illustrate the point that logic without logical use of empiricism is ineffective, and common.

A Must Read for the Serious Investigator.......2007-01-04

Dorner provides great insights into why we humans are not as smart as we think we are. He shows how our slowness in thinking, our inability to process large amounts of information at any one time, our arrogance, and short sightedness all contribute to ineffective problem solving. While he attempts to provide ways to avoid these stumbling blocks, he falls short on this mission. A much better read for how to avoid these pitfalls can be found in Apollo Root Cause Analysis.

"On S'engage Et Puis On Voit!".......2006-12-22

Napoleon said "On s'engage et puis on voit!" Loosely translated that means "One jumps into the fray, then figures out what to do next," a common human approach to planning. This discussion (page 161) takes on the adaptability of thought and cautions decision makers about the risks of overplanning in a dynamic, multivariate system. Using examples from Napoleon as well as more concrete examples such as the quotation about soccer strategy (also on page 161,) Dietrich Dörner, the brilliant German behavioral psychologist (University of Bamberg) has created a masterwork on decision making skills in complex systems; I find it to be highly complimentary to Perrow's work and also highly recommend his equally brilliant "Normal Accidents."

A strength of this work is that Dörner takes examples from so many areas including his own computer simulations which show the near-universal applicability of his concepts. One of Dörner's main themes is the failure to think in temporal configurations (page 198): in other words, humans are good at dealing with problems they currently have, but avoid dealing with and tend to ignore problems they don't have (page 189): potential outcomes of decisions are not foreseen, sometimes with tragic consequences. In one computer simulation (page 18) Dörner had a group of hypereducated academics attempt to manage farmland in Africa: they failed miserably. In this experiment Dörner made observations about the decision makers which revealed that they had: "acted without prior analysis of the situation; failed to anticipate side effects and long-term repercussions; assumed the absence of immediately negative effects meant that correct measures had been taken; and let overinvolvement in 'projects' blind them to emerging needs and changes in the situation." (How many governmental bodies the world over does this remind you of?)

I am a safety professional, and am especially interested in time-critical decision making skills. Dörner's treatment of the Chernobyl accident is the most insightful summation I have seen. He makes the point that the entire accident was due to human failings, and points out the lack of risk analysis (and managerial pressure) and fundamental lack of appreciation for the reactivity instability at low power levels (and more importantly how operators grossly underestimated the danger that changes in production levels made, page 30.) Dörner's grasp here meshes the psychology and engineering disciplines (engineers like stasis; any change in reactivity increases hazards.) Another vital point Dörner makes is that the Chernobyl operators knowingly violated safety regulations, but that violations are normally positively reinforced (i.e. you normally "get away with it," page 31.) The discussion about operating techniques on pages 33 and 34 is insightful: the operators were operating the Chernobyl Four reactor intuitively and not analytically. While there is room for experiential decision making in complex systems, analysis of future potential problems is vital.

In most complex situations the nature of the problems are intransparent (page 37): not all information we would like to see is available. Dörner's explanation of the interactions between complexity, intransparence, internal dynamics (and developmental tendencies,) and incomplete (or incorrect) understanding of the system involved shows many potential pitfalls in dynamic decision making skills. One of the most important of all decision making criteria Dörner discusses is the importance of setting well defined goals. He is especially critical of negative goal setting (intention to avoid something) and has chosen a perfect illustrative quote from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg on page 50: "Whether things will be better if they are different I do not know, but that they will have to be different if they are to become better, that I do know." A bigger problem regarding goals occurs when "we don't even know that we don't understand," a situation that is alarmingly common in upper management charged with supervising technical matters (page 60.)

Fortunately Dörner does have some practical solutions to these problems, most in chapter six, "Planning." One of the basics (page 154) is the three step model in any planning decision (condition element, action element, and result element) and how they fit into large, dynamic systems. This is extremely well formulated and should be required reading for every politician and engineer. These concepts are discussed in conjunction with "reverse planning" (page 155) in which plans are contrived backwards from the goal. I have always found this a very useful method of planning or design, but Dörner finds that is rare. Dörner argues that in extremely complex systems (Apollo 13 is a perfect example) that intermediate goals are sometimes required as decision trees are enormous. This sometimes relies on history and analogies (what has happened in similar situations before) but it may be required to stabilize a situation to enable further critical actions. This leads back to the quote that titles this review: 'adaptability of thought' (my term) is vital to actions taken in extremely complex situations. Rigid operating procedures and historical problems may not always work: a full understanding of the choices being made is vital, although no one person is likely to have this understanding; for this reason Dörner recommends there be a "redundancy of potential command" (page 161) which is to say a group of highly trained leaders able to carry out leadership tasks within their areas of specialty (again, NASA during Apollo 13) reportable in a clear leadership structure which values their input. Dörner then points out that nonexperts may hold key answers (page 168); though notes that experts should be in charge as they best understand the thought processes applicable in a given scenario (pages 190-193.) This ultimately argues for more oversight by technicians and less by politicians: I believe (and I am guessing Dörner would concur) that we need more inter- and intra-industry safety monitoring, and fewer congressional investigations and grandstanding.

This is a superb book; I recommend it highly to any safety professional as mandatory reading, and to the general public for an interesting discussion of decision making skills.

The Logic of Failure: Why Things Go Wrong and What We Can Do to Make Them Right

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The Logic of Failure: Why Things Go Wrong and What We Can Do to Make Them Right
Dietrich Dorner
Manufacturer: Henry Holt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K1FABS

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