The discourses of food in the world system

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Scollon
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
World System ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Daily Food ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The World

This paper examines the role of discourse analysis in addressing the devastating consequences of the rapid restructuring of food production in the world system. I argue that although this is an issue far too large to encompass within discourse analysis, discourse analysis has much to contribute as part of an interdisciplinary and comprehensive analytical approach. Such an approach, a ‘nexus analysis’, consists of analyzing focal points or nexus which are mediated actions through which circulate cycles of discourse. The paper begins with an analysis of product labels and concludes by sketching the outlines of a constellation of three linked research projects: Prandial practices which examines practices of daily food consumption, Corn, tea, and intellectual property, which examines the world-wide industrialization of food production and consumption, and Mad cows, scallions, and global climate change which examines the consequences of this world food system for public and personal health.

Food security in the 21st century and in the role of biotechnology

foresight ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 399-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Pinstrup‐Andersen ◽  
Marc J. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Adequate Diet ◽  
The World ◽  
Productivity Gains ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Global Food

Although global food production has consistently kept pace with population growth, the gap between food production and demand in certain parts of the world is likely to remain. More than 800 million people in developing countries lack access to a minimally adequate diet. Continued productivity gains are essential on the supply side, because global population will increase by 73 million people a year over the next two decades. In this article we assess the current global food situation, look at the prospects through to the year 2020, and outline the policies needed to achieve food security for all. Emphasis is on the role that agricultural biotechnology might play in reaching this goal.

scholarly journals The Role of Kuzbass in the New Strategy of Socio-Economic Development of Russia in the Fourth System Cycle of Capitalist Accumulation: the World-System Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 04032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya Osokina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
System Integration ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
World System ◽  
The World ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Conceptual Foundations

The aim of the research is to develop the conceptual foundations of the strategy of socio-economic development for mining region (on the example of Kuzbass) under the conditions of the fourth systemic cycle of capitalist accumulation. The relevance of the issue is determined by the need to eliminate the growing lag of Russia behind the world economy leaders, which is impossible without a new vision of the role of resourceproducing regions in the national economic system. Integration of Russia into the capitalist world-system on the basis of the Washington Consensus has formed in it a raw-materials export model in which its natural resources serve the accelerated economic growth of the competing countries. The accumulation of individual capitals dominates the social capital accumulation, which leads to a reduction in Russia's share in world GDP and population. This article presents the conceptual foundations of the Kuzbass development strategy in accordance with the new conditions for the Russian economy performance in the fourth systemic cycle of capitalist accumulation.

scholarly journals Health and Sustainability in Public Meals—An Explorative Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Karin Höijer ◽  
Caroline Lindö ◽  
Arwa Mustafa ◽  
Maria Nyberg ◽  
Viktoria Olsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Consumption ◽  
Food Habits ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Concepts Of Health ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

The world is facing a number of challenges related to food consumption. These are, on the one hand, health effects and, on the other hand, the environmental impact of food production. Radical changes are needed to achieve a sustainable and healthy food production and consumption. Public and institutional meals play a vital role in promoting health and sustainability, since they are responsible for a significant part of food consumption, as well as their “normative influence” on peoples’ food habits. The aim of this paper is to provide an explorative review of the scientific literature, focusing on European research including both concepts of health and sustainability in studies of public meals. Of >3000 papers, 20 were found to satisfy these criteria and were thus included in the review. The results showed that schools and hospitals are the most dominant arenas where both health and sustainability have been addressed. Three different approaches in combining health and sustainability have been found, these are: “Health as embracing sustainability”, “Sustainability as embracing health” and “Health and sustainability as separate concepts”. However, a clear motivation for addressing both health and sustainability is most often missing.

scholarly journals Questioning orthodoxy

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
DAVID WALTON
Keyword(s):  
Energy Transfer ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Anthropogenic Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Original Question ◽  
The Moment

Recently hearing Fred Singer from the USA lecture on what he perceives to be the uncritical ways in which global change has been attributed to anthropogenic effects reminded me of the importance we should attach to those who question our current beliefs. For Fred it was not sufficient that the IPCC had engaged many of the best scientific brains in the world to reach the existing consensus; they might all be wrong because the original question or assumption was wrong. Fred was strongly challenged by the audience of Antarctic scientists, not least because some of his quotations were selective in order to initiate discussion. And we know that there are areas of considerable weakness amongst the several proxies used to compute the rate of temperature change, that we have only poorly quantified and modelled the role of clouds, energy transfer between the oceans and atmosphere, water vapour as a greenhouse gas and that we have yet to be certain that the Global Climate Models really do have all the most significant driving variables. So the IPCC conclusions are drawn on the best available evidence with complementary patterns derived from several different approaches and constitute the best we can do at the moment.

scholarly journals L’Amérique latine dans le système mondial, 1950-1980

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-365
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Holly
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
World System ◽  
Systematic Account ◽  
Underdeveloped Countries ◽  
General Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
International Role ◽  
Distribution Of Power

This article is about the international relations of Latin America between 1950-1980. No systematic account of such history is attempted here. Rather attention is paid above all to the main thrust of such history. In this study it is argued that most dominated countries have very little capacity to affect the general and most fundamental structures of the World System. These countries tend to be mere object of history. There foreign policies to a very large extent contribute to the reproduction of the World System. Indeed it is one of the functions they must assume as far as the development of the system is concerned. But given the fact that underdeveloped countries are also subject of history, they do not submit passively to such a general law of social system. Their foreign policies are sometimes designed to modify the International Division of Labor "or their place within it" and with it the distribution of power without however drastically changing or upsetting the inner logic of the World System. It is within such an approach that one must study the international role of dominated countries in general and of the Latin American states in particular.

From state socialism to capitalism: The role of class and the world system

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lane
Keyword(s):  
World System ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Modern World ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Transition To Capitalism ◽  
State Socialist

While theories of global capitalism have added a new dimension to our understanding of the dynamics of the modern world, a ‘globalisation’ approach to the transformation of the state socialist societies is relatively underdeveloped. This paper studies the role of international and global factors under state socialism and the world system in the pre-1989 period. The paper considers traditional Marxist approaches to the transition to capitalism and criticises the model of state capitalism as well as the world system approach. In contrast, social actors (the ‘acquisition’ and ‘administrative’ social strata and the global political elite)are identified as playing a major role in the fall of state socialism, and were a nascent capitalist class. The transformation of state socialism, it is contended, had the character of a revolution rather than a shift between different types of capitalism.

Maize remittances, smallholder livelihoods and maize consumption in Malawi

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Urban Livelihoods ◽  
National Production ◽  
Micro Level

ABSTRACTThis article explores the phenomenon of in-kind remittances of maize and its implications for rural household livelihoods and food consumption. Interviews with a sample of 391 households in eight villages in Malawi are used to substantiate the discussion. Explanations for in-kind remittances are sought in the micro-level interaction between the formal market realm, informalised exchange systems and the household. Remittances are not connected to lower commercialisation levels, suggesting that the explanation for remittances should be sought in the production and consumption patterns of the households. Remittances function as an important redistributive mechanism for food across space. The role of smallholder food production for urban livelihoods as well as the subsistence responsibilities of rural households are underestimated if agrarian household level linkages from rural to urban areas are not recognised in national production and consumption surveys and among policy makers.

Shifting and sharing adjustment burdens: the role of the industrial food importing nations

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-677
Author(s):  
Robert L. Paarlberg
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
World Food ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Stability

Too often world food problems are viewed as North-South problems, as matters to be resolved between rich and poor. In fact, most world food trade takes place entirely among the rich. The industrial nations of the European Community, Japan, and the USSR import more food today than all of the poor countries combined. These industrial food importing nations make a dubious contribution to the stability and security of the world food system. In different measure, they seek to shift adjustment burdens onto others, to enjoy something of a free ride. All have subsidized production for export in times of world surplus, and all have stepped ahead of poor countries to purchase high priced imports in times of scarcity. To these burden-shifting trade policies, the USSR in particular adds its own troublesome nonparticipation in most multilateral efforts at world food policy management. Prospects for improved burden sharing in the future are dim. Fortunately, the world food system still gains most of its stability and security from separate production decisions within nations, rather than from collective storage, trade, or aid decisions among nations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document