Session 2 – Patterns in the Global Food System, Pt 1

Key Terms & Concepts

• McDonaldization of Society
• Productivism
• Green Revolution

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Identify key values, beliefs, and assumptions characteristic of the modern food systems.
• Articulate the productivist paradigm and its relation to the Green Revolution of the late 20th century

Required Readings and Resources

• Ritzer G., 2013. “An Introduction to McDonaldization”. Pages 1 – 26; 186-188 in The McDonaldization of Society. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks. Access via Course Readings Folder in Canvas.
• BLOG: Critique of the Green Revolution Narrative (Dr. M. Jahi Chappell)

Productivism

Agricultural Productivism is a term that applies to the perspective that evaluates the performance of the global agri-food system through criteria such as output volume, yield, or calories over all other elements. The origins of this perspective can be traced back through 200 years of industrialization across the food system. In this time, significant changes occurred through advancements in plant and animal breeding, mechanization, chemical inputs, transportation, processing, storage, and distribution. Industrialization of agriculture allowed increased farm sizes and decreased need for human labour. The relatively inexpensive source of energy through fossil fuels meant a gain in efficiency, relative to human labour to agricultural output. Mechanization, plant breeding, synthetic inputs (such as synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides) and wide-spread irrigation allowed farmers to specialize and create large areas of monocultures (single crop species in a landscape), moving away from traditional, diverse cropping systems. This approach “lends itself to seeking technological solutions contributing to the further intensification of agriculture” (Tomlinson, 2013, p. 82). In addition, capital investment is deemed necessary to increase agricultural productivity. It is assumed that accompanied with increased efficiency in distribution and storage, food prices will naturally decrease and access and availability to basic foodstuffs will therefore improve (Lang and Heasman, 2004). Industrialization and specialization within agricultural production (and the food system) lends itself to the same value-based criteria that Ritzer (2013) identified:

• Efficiency
• Predictability
• Control
• Calculability

Proponents of the productivist perspective often state two projections that have become pillars of global food system policy development (Maye & Kirwan, 2013) – food production needs to rise by 50% by 2030; and, food production needs to double by 2050 to feed 9 billion. This narrative implies that food security is a global issue and therefore the solution lies in developing a more efficient global food system (Tomlinson, 2013). This is in line with the neoliberal trend of the modern food system, which advocates “expanding global markets and increasing output through corporate-led technological innovation, and pushing peasant producers out of agriculture to make way for more efficient ‘entrepreneurial’ farmers” (Holt Giménez & Shattuck, 2011, p. 116). Further, emerging national agriculture programs are being encouraged to specialize in a small range of commodity crops to benefit from comparative advantage within an increasing liberalized network of global markets. Despite considerable evidence of the limitations and detrimental consequences to achieving food security through this linear perspective, productivism continues to be the dominant, status quo frame for international food policy.

Green Revolution

The Green Revolution played a central role in realizing the vision of productivism and continues to be referred to as a repeatable pathway for addressing global hunger. Here are a few resources to give you a background to the Green Revolution. Be sure to read the blog entry by Dr Chappell for a critical perspective on the Green Revolution "brand".

• USDA: Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution

References

• Lang, T., & Heasman, M. (2004). Food wars: the global battle for mouths, minds and markets. Earthscan.
• Holt Giménez, E., & Shattuck, A. (2011). Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of reform or tides of transformation? Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(1), 109–144.
• Maye, D., & Kirwan, J. (2013). Food security: A fractured consensus. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 1–6.
• Ritzer G., 2013. “An Introduction to McDonaldization”. Pages 1 – 26; 186-188 in The McDonaldization of Society. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks.
• Tomlinson, I. (2013). Doubling food production to feed the 9 billion: A critical perspective on a key discourse of food security in the UK. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 81–90.

Tutorial Session

In your tutorial session, your TA will model the presentation and facilitation style that you and your group will be required to follow in LFS 250. Over the course of the year, you will have the opportunity to develop your oral communication skills through 3 presentations. The first 2 will be based on weekly readings (see assignment description and rubric) and your group will be responsible for facilitating a discussion with the entire tutorial section. The 3rd public presentation will occur through your Food Literacy Workshops in a K-12 classroom.