Political Economy

G03(a) - The Politics of Food Security in Uncertain Times

Date: May 30 | Time: 10:30am to 12:00pm | Location: Classroom - CL 420 Room ID:15708

Chair/Président/Présidente : Sarah Martin (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Kate Neville (University of Toronto)

Session Abstract: This panel seeks to illuminate the multiple and complex relations of politics and food security. For many, food is ubiquitous, mundane, and a daily chore, but for others, access to food is a matter of life and death. The politics of food insecurity shapes bodies, communities and sustainable futures. The relations that shape food (in)security politics cannot be understood through one approach. The politics of food are shaped at multiple scales from the global political economy to intimate family relations. This panel draws together scholars from IPE to political theory to highlight new approaches to food security including incorporating environmental politics, gender and trade and policy. As a result, this panel will highlight the varied social, political and economic relations that are shaping food security in uncertain times.

The Cow Says Moo: The Social and Environmental Implications of Financial Investment in Agriculture: Jennifer Clapp (University of Waterloo)
Abstract: Financial investment in the agriculture sector has grown in recent decades, including in equity index funds – which go by names such as COW, MOO, SOIL, and PBJ. These funds track the performance of a range of transnational agrifood companies at different points in the food system and account for about a third of financial investment in the sector. Despite their significance, these funds have received much less academic and policy attention than other types of financial investment, such as farmland acquisition and commodity speculation that have prompted international governance responses. This paper examines the rise of equity index funds in the agricultural sector and analyses their social and environmental implications. First, the paper outlines the motivations of investors in these funds, which include large institutional investors such as pension funds and university endowments. Second, the paper argues that investment in agrifood index funds encourages the expansion of a global industrial food system, which is associated with a range of socio-ecological problems, including loss of livelihoods for small-scale producers, declining genetic diversity, and climate change, among others. The paper concludes with a discussion of prospects for international governance efforts to address the impact of this type of agrifood investment.

Learning by Doing: Lessons From the Food Price Crisis for Multilateral Trade Negotiations : Sophia Murphy (University of British Columbia)
Abstract: Food security demands extra-territorial cooperation yet the challenges are governed in an inconsistent and sometimes incoherent fashion. The multilateral system has a small but crucial role to play in the governance of food security. Trade and investment regimes have transformed food routes and dietary habits yet there has been little discussion of the lessons learned and the new risks arising from these changes. The politics of WTO negotiations are paralyzed, locked in debates that do not reflect actual agricultural trade patterns and undermined by an overly simplistic binary of North-South politics. While there is evidence that negotiators are aware of the larger considerations that food security and nutrition deserve, there have been few initiatives to turn that awareness into trade law. In fact, the WTO faces a crisis of legitimacy, unable to provide the outputs that its mandate requires. Its ability to adapt and learn is highly constrained, as my paper exploring the effects of the international food price crisis of 2007-2008 and its aftermath demonstrates. I propose some possible paths for the multilateral regulation of agriculture, informed by the politics and economics of food security as a distinct concern within agricultural trade rules.

Food Security for Infants: An Ethics of Care Approach: Christina Doonan (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Abstract: The importance of human milk as a first food has been acknowledged in recent years by many states, which have taken measures to protect and encourage breastfeeding, in acknowledgment of the World Health Organization’s 2002 Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding. As it is mothers who produce this highly individualized food product, they typically feel the pressure to produce enough milk, good enough milk, and to share that milk with their children. However, they rarely have the necessary social, economic, and health-care based support to breastfeed with ease. The caring relationship between mother and child, and infants’ vulnerability give rise to extraordinary pressures on the mother, both societal and self-induced. While there is significant attention to the needs of the cared-for child, more attention to the importance of caring for the carer, and how meeting the needs of mothers enhances food security generally. Drawing on an ethics of care framework, interviews with mothers in Newfoundland, and auto-ethnography as a long-term nursing mother, I consider how taking care work seriously can be transformative for the food security agenda.

Food, Feed and Fuel: Shaping Environments and Gathering Publics: Sarah Martin (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Abstract: Biofuel production and intensive livestock operations (ILOs) have been separately critiqued for unsustainable and environmentally destructive practices, yet both industries continue to expand into varied global sites. In just over a decade, US biofuel corn ethanol production has reshaped agricultural landscapes by contributing to environmental degradation. Critics of biofuel production have implicated the increasing demand for biofuel feedstock with recent food crises. In turn, distillers' grains (DGs), a by-product of ethanol production, has reshaped patterns of consumption, specifically ILO animal feed. Distillers' grains have been transformed from a waste product into the second largest source of processed animal feed in the US, and a significant export commodity. Processed DGs are helping to sustain ILOs in China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Korea among others. This paper asks: How does the on-going US ethanol infrastructure reshape agricultural and livestock environments both in and outside of the US? In turn, the paper reflects on the puzzle of how publics gather (or don't) over environmental changes related to agriculture and livestock.