Food Crises, The Big Picture PDF

Table of Contents ================= [Table of Contents 2](#table-of-contents) [Week 1 3](#week-1) [Lecture 1 3](#lecture-1) [Lecture 2 5](#lecture-2) [Week 2 7](#week-2) [Lecture 3 7](#lecture-3) [Lecture 4 9](#lecture-4) [Week 3 11](#week-3) [Lecture 5 11](#lecture-5) [Lecture 6 13](#lect...

Table of Contents ================= [Table of Contents 2](#table-of-contents) [Week 1 3](#week-1) [Lecture 1 3](#lecture-1) [Lecture 2 5](#lecture-2) [Week 2 7](#week-2) [Lecture 3 7](#lecture-3) [Lecture 4 9](#lecture-4) [Week 3 11](#week-3) [Lecture 5 11](#lecture-5) [Lecture 6 13](#lecture-6) [Week 4 16](#week-4) [Lecture 7 16](#lecture-7) [Lecture 8 18](#lecture-8) [Week 5 21](#week-5) [Lecture 9 21](#lecture-9) [Lecture 10 22](#lecture-10) [Week 6 24](#week-6) [Lecture 11 24](#lecture-11) [Lecture 12 25](#lecture-12) Week 1 ====== Lecture 1 --------- [Literature] **Malthus's Zombie** While the population increased, the deaths caused by famines declined. Malthus had a pessimistic view on human nature and society, and tried to ground this pessimism in a law of nature: - Population increase geometrically - Food production increases arithmetically This resulted in Malthus's zombie concept; mass starvation, inevitable, gigantic famine that reduces the population to the level of food production. Even though, Malthus rewrote his paper to a less pessimistic one, the fist one was enough to let leaders think that an actual famine was a manifestation of the theoretic gigantic famine. This resulted in abandoning poor relief laws and ignoring famine in (Colonial) Britain. Malthus's concept allowed the free market as primary political goal and caused millions of famine deaths. Still is Malthus's zombie and its alimentary economic concept, where food availability determines population size, not dead (WW2, Bengal). But where famines have occurred the population did also grow, because food production is just a small part of the equation, famine is rather economical than nature-ecological. Famines are not about there not being enough food, but rather about people not having enough food, it is about entitlement (Sen). Thereby, is famine mortality increased by mass death by epidemics and diseases, but famine can occur without any increase in deaths. **Environment, development, crisis, and crusade** The environmental and developmental crises in Ukambani were largely the result of misguided colonial and post-colonial policies that failed to understand and incorporate the complexities of local knowledge, ecological conditions, and social dynamics. The external interventions, whether aimed at environmental conservation or economic development, often exacerbated the region's problems rather than solving them. By imposing top-down solutions without regard for local agency and traditional practices, both colonial and post-colonial authorities contributed to cycles of environmental degradation and economic vulnerability. It is important to consider local perspectives and environmental knowledge in addressing development and environmental challenges. During pre-colonial rule: In the late 19th century, before the imposition of British rule, the Kamba people of Ukambani primarily practiced subsistence agriculture and pastoralism. The region\'s environment was characterized by semi-arid conditions, making it prone to drought and occasional famine. However, the Kamba developed a sustainable balance between their livelihood strategies and the harsh environment, maintaining a delicate equilibrium between cultivation, livestock keeping, and resource management. With the establishment of British colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this balance was disrupted. Colonial authorities implemented policies that dramatically altered land use patterns, taxation systems, and social structures. They introduced cash crops such as cotton and emphasized agricultural intensification, which often exacerbated environmental degradation. Colonial administrators were also concerned about what they saw as a crisis of soil erosion and environmental decline in Ukambani, blaming the local population's agricultural practices for causing widespread deforestation and soil exhaustion. Colonial officials and early environmentalists claimed that Ukambani's environment was being destroyed due to overgrazing, deforestation, and poor agricultural methods practiced by the local population. These narratives of crisis led to various interventions aimed at reversing environmental degradation, including the establishment of soil conservation programs, tree-planting campaigns, and the forced resettlement of the Kamba people in concentrated settlements to reduce pressure on land. However, these interventions were often misguided, as they failed to consider the complexity of local environmental knowledge and practices. The imposition of colonial policies disrupted the Kamba's traditional strategies for coping with environmental variability, leading to further ecological stress and social dislocation. The colonial interventions were not only environmentally damaging but also economically exploitative, as they were often designed to extract resources from Ukambani for the benefit of the colonial economy. After Kenya gained independence in 1963, the new government inherited many of the colonial-era policies and environmental management approaches. Development projects in the post-colonial period continued to focus on modernizing agriculture and increasing productivity, often without sufficient attention to the region\'s ecological limitations. The government, like its colonial predecessor, promoted cash crops, irrigation schemes, and infrastructural development as solutions to Ukambani\'s economic challenges. Despite these efforts, the region remained vulnerable to droughts, food insecurity, and environmental degradation throughout the post-independence era. While colonial and post-colonial authorities sought to impose top-down solutions to Ukambani\'s perceived environmental and developmental crises, the Kamba people continuously adapted and resisted these efforts in various ways. They sought to maintain their traditional practices, modified their agricultural and pastoral systems in response to new pressures, and participated in political and social movements to challenge state policies. The Kamba people's resistance to environmental interventions, such as forced tree-planting and relocation schemes, reflected their deeper understanding of the local environment and the unsuitability of some of the imposed solutions. The article suggests that the Kamba were not passive victims of environmental degradation and development failures; rather, they were active participants in shaping their environment and livelihoods, often in ways that conflicted with state-driven initiatives. The environmental and development crises in Ukambani were largely the result of a series of misguided policies and interventions, both colonial and post-colonial, that failed to engage with the complexities of the region's ecological and social systems. The case of Ukambani also serves as a broader commentary on the links between environment, development, and crisis in African contexts. It illustrates how historical processes of environmental change are deeply intertwined with political and economic factors, and how efforts to address environmental problems must consider the agency and knowledge of local communities to be effective. [Lecture] Food security: - All people, at all times have access to sufficient, save and nutritious food - Food availability, economic and physical access to food, food utilization Food insecurity: - When people lack secure access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food - Unavailability, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution or inadequate use of food - Chronic (undernourishment) - At least one year of not enough food - Seasonal - Transitory Driver of food insecurity - Conflict - Disasters and weather - Economic shock (or health shocks) - Agricultural failure of climate change - Poverty - Social exclusion - Urbanisation Famine - Include loss of acceptable livelihood and social disruption as well as hunger and death - Socio-economic where no sustainable livelihood can be maintained - Crisis imply change of power Lecture 2 --------- [Literature] **Humanitarian Approaches to Hunger** Since mid 19^th^ century, more organized and large scale humanitarianism, accompanied by rising culture of altruism and modern technologies, which made international contact easier. Managing hunger features 1. Rather international than local 2. Admission to aid programs based on physical measurements, rather than personal relationships 3. Food is distributed in individual portions rather than communal kitchens 4. Food provided is rather technical than vernacular. 5. Less explicit regimes to change behaviour, starvation is not solved by a change in moral. In hunger food was described by its nutritional content. Shifts which have a profound character of contemporary relief: 1. Bureaucracy and rationalization 2. Greater equality and universalism 3. Growing influence of commerce and capitalism 4. The rise of science and technology **The Madness of hunger** The phenomenon hunger is the backdrop of any discussion of child death, mother love, the economy of sex and the ecology of households. Hunger was a well-kept secret, and thus under researched. When white Europeans died of hunger, research was done for the first time. In 1970s anthropologists started to research hunger, either bioecological or symbolic. In the last category, food, food taboos and hunger were shown to have influence on social relations. Turnbull studied the Ik, social relations disappeared when hunger occurred. When in acute food insecurity, even family is set aside, there is no society. But responses to famine vary among individuals and groups. In Papua New Guinea food is shared during seasonal hunger and during the Irish famine, the social institution stayed intact. Hunger makes people mad, to a point where the hunger is not felt anymore together with all emotions and sensations. [Lecture] Hunger has several physical effects - Stunting - Starvation - Vulnerability to diseases - Lasting effects (lack of learning, etc.) but also social effects. - Hunger leads to profound responses such as shame, heroism and exoticism, it can be seen as a narrative. - These responses made hunger a taboo and under studied, until white Europeans experienced hunger ( concentration camps). - Hunger can be studied - with a bio-ecological view ( stunting is an adaptation to survive on less) (hunger as part of adaptation) - Symbolic interpretation ( food as organising social relations, change in attitude) - Hunger destroyed people, and social groups. But hunger can also rather than destroy social connection, strengthen them. - Coping with hunger - Postponing marriage, childbirth - Slavery, pawing of children - Prostitution - Child abandonment (leave the weakest) - Infanticide (save elder members of family) - (Survival/murder) Cannibalism - Coping measures can result in a destabilized society - When becomes hunger a crisis - Stages in the famine process - 1\. Overcoming normal seasonal stress. 2. Increasingly irreversible strategies (selling livestock or land) 3. Dependence on external support 4. Starvation and death - Stages in response to hunger - Exploration, retrenchment, exhaustion Week 2 ====== Lecture 3 --------- [Literature] **From the classical soup kitchen to the Irish famine** Rumford's model: regular hot meals in return for labour and good behaviour. Politics were positive because it kept people of the street. The soup kitchens became a hit because of discontent with the current charitable system in the 1790s. Rumford's soup kitchens were promised to reduce scarcity and unrest. Mostly focuses on providing something that appeared to satisfy hunger, so soup was made watery and bread was stale. From 18^th^ century the soup kitchens were industrialized, for a meal no recommendation was needed but cash. The new view was focussed on teaching poor people about economics and value. Thereby, was there a decline in communal eating and organisation. There were several critics for the soups kitchen, shown in several poems and articles about the way people were treated. The shift from classical (order) to the modern human (driver), changed the view on charity. Understanding to transforming habits and traditions. **Were Indian famines natural or manmade?** The many Indian famines of the 19^th^ century are argued to be natural (Malthus), manmade in a political or colonial way (Sen), or manmade by cultural failure (Bhatia). Nevertheless did the famines not disappear when the climate changed, colonialism was abolished or culture was changed around 1915. Famines are rather influenced by trade cost and barriers to market integration and the limited power and knowledge of the Indian state. Lessons learnt by the state were, information was key (weather, agricultural), a sense of history, weather prediction as prevention, epidemic control, private insurance failed, rumours of market failure were exaggerated. **Ireland's great famine. An overview** In 19^th^ century was 1/3 of the Irish diet potato, half of the potato yield was eaten by people. Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe at that time. When potato yield declined, there was no other option for cheaper food. Workhouses and jail got loaded by starved people in no time. The famine had a hierarchy in suffering. [Lecture ] Pre-industrial system (15^th^ to 18^th^ century) - Accumulation as process of wealth creation - Gaining power via others - Grabbing power and domination in other nations - Colonization - Resource extraction - Human resources - Tax for landowners to colonial rulers - Influence on what and how resources were produced - weakened social contacts - Pre-industrial society - strong hierarchy (cast and class) - agriculture was to feed yourself and the ones higher than you - marginalized people were highly vulnerable to shocks - food crisis was part of living in (rural) colonies 19^th^ century shift - political economy - focus on nations and people shifted to focus on markets - economy is external to society - long term scarcity was regulated via free trade (limit responsibility of state for poverty) - shift in food crisis - weakening in social contract, because of less state involvement (laissez-faire, free state) - minimized damage of harvest failure to the state by free market Thomas Malthus - population grows exponentially, whereas food production grows linearly - over-generous poor relief stimulates overpopulation, resulted in famine - political interventions seen as counterproductive - reviewed his point implication of Irish famine - population decline - drop in birth rates - immigration - Irish revolution - Long term change in political and social terms - changing culture - social bonds survived - bonds of friendship and kinship - still music and movies are made about the famine - art culture as reminder Indian Great Famine - El Nino, lack of rain - South-west & central part of India affected - Highly deadly - 6-10 million dead - Taxation by colonisers - Forced produce of cash crop (cotton) instead of food crop - British hesitant to intervene - Rationing and little investment in relief - Lack of knowledge on famine (indigenous and colonial) - Diseases had a bigger effect than the famine - Did not blame state but god for lack of rain - Many more famines were to follow, what weakened the power of the British colonizer in India Ireland compared to India - Parallels - Both colonies were Britian - Poor people were the victims - Laissez-faire policy dominated (no state involvement) - Differences - Land tenure policies to cash crops instead of food crops Responses by the British empire - Liberal reforms - Free trade of grain - Temporary relief act - Provincial famine code - Soup kitchens - Early warning system - Strengthen positions of tenants - Rationing Soup kitchens - Pre-industrial - Small scale - Based on patronage - Industrial - Designed around experience of eating - Efficient, rational, impersonal - Organized around labour and work - No commune bonding Lecture 4 --------- [Literature] **The violence of Government** Famine is used as military weapon to kill people and morale. Democracy is argued to reduce famine, because of the fast spread of information and criticism. The first famine in the USSR, relief was asked from outside and offered in enormous amounts. The second famine was denied and appointed to marginalise groups and critic journalists. The third one was caused by a blockade of Leningrad. The last famine is an unknown famine created by drought and two years of low yield. The great leap forward famine is one of the worst man-made famine in history. The poor harvests resulting in a famine were due to misguided and overambitious agricultural policies. **Coping with famine in Communist China** Famine was largely a result of political and economic mismanagement. The radical policies and unrealistic targets made the state requisitioning excessive amounts of grain so the rural population was left with insufficient amounts of food. The Mao regime had a hard response by repressing, denying and refusing to acknowledge the famine. The human cost of rigid authoritarian governance were political priorities and ideology overshadowed the well-being of the people, turning a manageable crisis into a massive humanitarian disaster. [Lecture] Food availability decline (FAD) - FAD 1: Objective lack of food - No feasible division of the available food which can prevent famine - FAD 2: Lack of distribution of food availability due to political reasons Wartime famines - WW1 famine - Controlling access to food as weapon of war - Greek famine - Devastations of war - German occupation - Allied blockade - Siege of Leningrad - Encircled by German and Finnish army - German hunger plan - Dutch hunger winter - Until 44 food rationing worked well - Strike was launched and transport stopped - Mild famine in west of the Netherlands Political famines Ukrainian Holodomor - Disruption due to revolution - Two stages: - Draconian collectivisation - Punishment for rebellious kozakh's Great leap forward (58-61) - Communist takeover and land reform - Erosion of coping capacities - Industrialization efforts hampered by slow increase in farm output - Attempts at speeding up agricultural growth through cooperative farms - Last resort measures as elites or religious institutions were destroyed same as livelihood strategies as labour migration and urban work - Fear to be class enemy (private entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies) - Focus on communal farms, kitchens and forced grain contributions - 5-year plan for a great leap forward - Grain needed to feed workers in new industries and as export to pay for Russian machinery - Formation of people's communes to boost farm output / urban bias - Death toll= 15-30 million Comparison China and Holodomor - Misrepresentation by politics - Lack of knowledge - Show good face to higher hierarchy (system failure) - Its suggested that people are enthusiastic to follow communistic leaders Week 3 ====== Lecture 5 --------- [Literature] **The 1974 and 1984 floods in Bangladesh** While floods in Bangladesh create loss of agricultural crops and there were signs of stress, such as selling livestock, prices did not skyrocket and production was not significantly low. The floods occur as a problem for livelihoods (entitlement). Why did there occur a famine in 1974 and not in 1984. Firstly, institution building in the management of food systems was done, such as an early warning system. Also, was an accurate system for monitoring the food grain production integrated. Third, the government is committed to minimize price fluctuations, but also to help poor, so work for food houses were introduced, and is used as an flexible intervention applied in the areas where it is most needed. Also was there an improvement made in the ability of storage. Not only were in 1984 the food and disaster policies improved in contrast of 1974, but overall were the circumstances of live improved in 1984. **Were Indian famines Natural or Manmade** The many Indian famines of the 19^th^ century are argued to be natural (Malthus), manmade in a political or colonial way (Sen), or manmade by cultural failure (Bhatia). Nevertheless did the famines not disappear when the climate changed, colonialism was abolished or culture was changed around 1915. Famines are rather influenced by trade cost and barriers to market integration and the limited power and knowledge of the Indian state. Lessons learnt by the state were, information was key (weather, agricultural), a sense of history, weather prediction as prevention, epidemic control, private insurance failed, rumours of market failure were exaggerated **The causation and prevention of famines: critique on Sen** Sen's aim is to change policies, his key approach is the word entitlements, famine affects different socio-economic groups in different ways. Sen argues that production growth policies are less important than policies about redistributing food, income and wealth. Critique say that entitlements is an approach and not a theory. Because the word entitlement is not defined it cannot by studied. Sen has critiques previous famine policies as only focussing on food production, while this is not true. Sen analysis food availability world wise, while poor countries won't have the needs to import the needed foods. Sen praises communist countries and how they would distribute their food evenly over the population, nowadays we know one of the most impactful famine occurred during communist leadership in China. When looking at food supply and the growing population, it rather is that poor countries can only begin to worry less about food output once they successfully raised their incomes, than that food output does not matter. Important to prevent famine is to monitor the food output, when in decline, food should be arranged for the areas in need, instead of transported. As democracy, did help in the decline in famines, because poor and starving people were given a voice, the increase in fertilizers and machinery, international transport and trade since 1950 did also play a role in the famine decline. The increase in agricultural output, makes it also easier to build up stock. Nowadays, when an famine is impending, information can be provided by free markets and press. Transport does not only make it easier to get food in places where it is needed, but also makes it easier to migrate out of famine areas. As Sen does not mention warfare, is this also one of the important influences for famine. [Lecture] Food availability decline (FAD) - Approach that assumes that famines are caused by a sudden, sharp reduction of per capita food supply in a geographic locale - Triggered by natural disasters, wars and epidemics - Price goes up, insufficient consumation - Fixation on food supplies and the inability to get food (Malthus' too many people, too little food) Entitlement failure - There is no particular one reason for famine - Reflects widespread failure of entitlements for part of the population - Entitlement = fact of having a right to something (deserving) - Food insecurity occurs when people cannot access food or tools for food - There is no technical reason for markets to meet subsistence needs, and no moral or legal reason Entitlement approach - Types of entitlement - Production based - Trade based - Own-labour (work for food) - Inheritance and transfer (given by others) - Entitlement decline of failure types - Direct = loss of food crop - Trade = rising prices, failing wages, wars - Characteristics - Shift from large groups to individual entitlements - Famine is a decline in entitlements for a group of people - Focuses on starvation, distinct from famine mortality - Critiques - Lack of empirical factors to understand the context of famine - Are democratic institutions necessary to prevent famine - Is food only available through legal means Bengal Famine (1943-44) - Causes - Natural hazard (cyclone) - Rice shortage as Japan occupied Burma - Foreign dominance - Feudalism, shifted problem to marginalized - Prioritization of urban areas - Sen's arguments - Trade entitlement failure - Victims of rural areas - Wartime obligations Ethiopian famine (1973-74) - Causes - Drought - Food production decrease - Lack of transportation infrastructure - Two droughts - Sen' arguments - Direct entitlement failure - Food availability was higher, food prices within limits - Infrastructure not only to blame, because 2 highways - Mismanagement and denial - Direct destitution Bangladesh famine (1974) - Causes - Flooding - Government mismanagement as denial - Internal instability - US tilt toward Pakistan, economic crisis Lecture 6 --------- [Literature] **The humanitarian International** The term humanitarian international reflects on the international network of national and multilateral prominent agencies and NGOs and the law and legal remedies (trials of perpetrators of atrocities). Main critics is that international aid is driven by the needs of the hungry but by the political demands of its donors. Official humanitarian assistance increased sufficiently since the 70s. The growth of humanitarianism was mostly driven by the international politics of giving aid rather than an increase in the numbers of people needing aid. Not only substantial aid is enough, political involvement is also important to relief famine. During the years humanitarian aid professionalized in its goals and political attention. Humanitarian aid cannot address the causes of famine, but only act at scale when its politically able to. Calling for armed intervention crosses a threshold with unintended consequences for humanitarians. Law and prosecution of famine or genocide is hard to follow up because it is hard to prove a famine was intended and there are many causes of a famine. In the international law is starvation seen as a part of an inhumane act, this is why starvation fades to the background or was neglected during (war) trials. After 1977 starvation was explicitly named in the international law but no tribunals followed. When trying to prosecute for a famine human right law, or law of crimes against humanity or ecocide can be used. **The new Atrocity Famines** Complex emergencies are a combination of natural and human adversity, such is the case in hunger causes. To oversee to mainly political view, the term, humanitarian crisis was introduced. It can be scaled on magnitude (number of deaths) and severity (IPC scale). Seven famines are described: Darfur: - Political famine, defeat rebellions - Early relief programme, which worked out perfectly Northern Uganda: - International governments took sides with the Ugandan government - Many abductees displaced and dead Somalia: - Drought in combination with inflation because of us measures and the global food crisis - Us counter terror legislation prohibited relief activities Yemen: - Overseen crisis - War and blockades - Inflation in agricultural goods Syria: - Starvation by dislocated food and war - Collapse of economy - Decline of agricultural production South Sudan: - War and decrease of oil production - High increase in poverty - Displaced people by ethnic war - Sudanese government hard to deal with as international agency Northern Nigeria - Corruption and mismanagement resulted in poverty - Boko haram insurgency - Lack of military involvement Counter humanitarianism is an array of political and ideological practices that deny the value system of humanitarianism as such, human lives are valued as lower of nothing. [Lecture] 4 phases of food crises 1. European Colonialism 2. World wars 3. Post-Colonial totalitarianism 4. Humanitarian crises After ww2 international independent relief organisations become more prominent, such as: - FAO - Aimed at long term and structural issues - Ideas for regulating food markets Post war responses - Universal declaration of human rights - Freedom of want, including food - Geneva convention / international humanitarian law - Forbids requisitioning of food in occupied territories - Supply food and allow food aid by relief agencies - Not able to bring this law to court (no intervention is allowed) - Un resolution 2417 (2018) - Starvation is not allowed - Responsibility to protect (R2P) gives the possibility to follow up on the law Conflict and food crises are interlinked - Food or food aid as weapon of war - Food insecurity due to violence (consequence) - Cycles of underproduction - Food shortages mobilizes people to protest, take up arms, join rebellions (identity driven) - Famines as collateral to war Functions of food in war - Political - Control, depopulation, displacement - Economic - Raiding (plunderen), protect/exploit resources, controlling land/pasture - Military - Civilians as protection shield, sustaining soldiers Categories of attacks on food - Acts of omission - Failure of government to manage food reserves and emergency measures - Failure to allow aid and call crisis, denying rebels and blocking commercial flows - Act of commission - Attacks on the means of producing and procuring food - Attacks on relief convoys, asset stripping due to displacement, confiscation of resources, scorched earth tactics - Act of provision - Differential provisioning (only feeding/supporting a certain group) - Political preferences, food aid only to army Aid and food - Everyone instrumentalises food aid - Need for relief is not the only motivator for food aid (preventing collapse, winning hearts and minds) Role of food aid in conflict - Save people from starvation - Unintended consequences - Manipulation - Prolongs so aid needs to mitigate - Compromises for humanitarian principles and access - Accountability, reputation and aid Week 4 ====== Lecture 7 --------- [Literature] **The long green revolution** The Green Revolution is a period of agricultural development that is traditionally understood to have occurred from the early 1940s to 1970. However, Patel challenges this standard periodization, arguing that the processes associated with the Green Revolution, such as state reconfiguration, capitalist accumulation, and agricultural innovation, both predate and postdate the commonly accepted timeline. Patel draws on the work of British Marxist historians and Fernand Braudel to propose a longue durée analysis of agricultural change under capitalism, suggesting that the Green Revolution is better understood as a decades-long complex of discourse, technology, state power, class politics, and ecological change. He emphasizes the importance of class in agrarian studies and the structures through which international value relations have consolidated and reconsolidated. The article discusses the role of the Rockefeller Foundation in the Green Revolution, particularly in Mexico and India, where the Foundation focused on developing agricultural knowledge and embedding it in government policy. This knowledge was beneficial to commercial rather than subsistence farmers, and the Foundation trained a cadre of Indian agronomists to propagate its approach. Patel also critiques the philanthropic narrative of the Green Revolution, which often misremembers the Foundation\'s initial interests and erases its anti-communist, pro-US-state thinking. He points out that the Green Revolution was not solely aimed at eradicating hunger but was also a strategy to manage class tensions and urban hunger through increased food supply. The article touches on the call for a second or \"New Green Revolution,\" which is presented as a continuation of the first, with an emphasis on sustainability and the involvement of smallholder farmers. However, Patel questions whether the lessons of the first Green Revolution have truly been learned and whether the new approach is genuinely sustainable and farmer-guided. In conclusion, Patel argues for more research on the Green Revolution to better understand its history and the role of the state in international agricultural development. He suggests that the world needs more histories of the Green Revolution to address the issues raised by the first and to inform the future of food globally. Critique on the green revolution: 1\. The Myth of Success: The Green Revolution did increase yields in some areas, but it did not necessarily address the root causes of hunger, such as inequality in land ownership and access to resources. It benefited large landowners and agribusinesses while marginalizing small farmers and rural communities. 2\. Environmental Degradation: The reliance on chemical inputs like pesticides and fertilizers led to soil degradation, water scarcity, and the loss of biodiversity. These ecological harms are long-lasting and continue to affect farming communities today. 3\. The Long Revolution: Patel argues that the Green Revolution was not a single event but an ongoing process that continues to shape global agriculture through neoliberal policies, corporate control of seeds and inputs, and the push for genetically modified crops. He sees this as part of a \"long revolution\" that is still unfolding, with many of the same inequities and environmental issues. 4\. Alternative Approaches: Patel advocates for agroecology and food sovereignty as alternatives to the Green Revolution model. These approaches emphasize sustainable farming practices, local control of food systems, and the rights of small farmers and indigenous communities. [Lecture] The wizard - Norman Borlaug - Creates food, to improve security - Use of new kind of wheat and chemicals - Green revolution - 1940 with US support and Rockefeller Foundation - Replacement of old plant varieties to new high yielding varieties - Food production doubled - Worldwide network created - But decrease in agriculture biodiversity and increase of nitrogen use - Was it a success? - Risk for smaller farmer to adopt new varieties - Farmers and consumers became dependent - Traditional and resistant crops were lost - One size fits all - Nitrogen increase - Loss agricultural biodiversity The prophet - Vandana Shiva - Mechanization and output, resulted in social inequality segregation - Environment and unsustainability, depleting natural resources and loss of indigenous varieties - More water needed, because of use of chemicals - Geopolitical and neo-colonial push - Production by masses (white revolution) - Land ownership, poor farmers and landless were excluded - Unstable and environmentally detrimental Raj Patel - Biopolitics - Green revolution used by governments to control population - Legitimize role of state to direct and sustain life - Marxist analysis to explain food regimes - Legitimize role of neo-colonial states - Fear of revolution - Green vs red revolution - US influence across the world, with for example grants (GR is status quo) - Modern science can resolve the rice problem - Modernity through infrastructure - Gender issues - Impacts are detrimental to woman - Only male were part of revolution Lecture 8 --------- [Literature] **Low Modernism after Biafra** There is a paradox of humanitarian aid, where aid agencies ended up creating even greater suffering. During the Biafra war technical guidelines were developed, which became nutritional systems that lasts to this day, and exist of 2 crucial elements; Anthropometric measuring tools and Fortified blended food. When aid agencies grew, commerce saw their change for selling food in bulk. After Biafra, sales in dried milk fortified foods and starvation treatments boomed. Fortified foods were brought on the market by the food commerce but worries were expressed by food and medic professionals. The growing market was assisted by the narrative of a worldwide protein gap. Businesses found inventive ways to profit, and used cheap left over products to make their high protein products. These high modernism schemes had two core problems, first expense, than acceptance. Expenses needed to be as low as possible. When produced it was a challenge to advert the protein to the population, it was through advertisement made less obvious, the food was a by-product. For many high protein products, the issues of complexity, cost and acceptance remained. CSM was introduced to maintain the surpluses in agricultural US and open markets overseas. It was advertised as a food for peace program. Through the years were agricultural surpluses used to make different forms of mixes which hold much protein. This system enables overproduction, because the US government bought the surplus for a fixed price. Corn and soya are crops which dominate the agricultural system, they are combined processed and enriched for a particular kind of costumer. This was made a commercial business. As malnutrition generated commerce, commerce also generated malnutrition. High modernism is focussed on science and technology, it opposes mass production and commercialism. Low modernism is not revolutionary but marketable, it made money. **Food aid, domestic policy and food security** Food aid is a major source of cereal availability in peak food aid years. Domestic food production is the major source of food supply in poorer countries, and fluctuations in production are a cause of food insecurity. When receiving food aid, attention to local agriculture should be given. First, political will and donor support for long-term investments is needed. Secondly, should the food aid be a small percentage of the total consumed food, so market is not influenced. Third, food aid inflows were channelled through a public distribution system. Well-designed safety nets can effectively target transfers to poor households after a crisis, to help enhance food security. Food for work programs work better than ration programs. To provide food security for the poor on a sustained basis, increases in real income of the poor is needed. Countries had three main approaches to address shortages in availability; distribution from large-scale national food stocks, public sector commercial imports, and promotion of private sector imports. Governments rely heavily on public employment schemes and food transfers when access to food is in crisis. The recipient country government policies, particularly those related to agricultural production, food markets, safety nets and emergency response, are generally more important determinants of food security outcomes than are food aid policies, in both the short and long run. [Lecture] Food power - Political influence through the manipulation of food production or distribution - Food aid is the most common form of humanitarian aid - Everyone instrumentalises food aid - Need for relief is not only motivator for food aid - (food) aid can be subject to conditionality (human rights/ good governance) Different types of food aid - Programme aid - Donation/selling of surpluses to development countries and locally sell it on the market - Governmental, conditional, political and industrial - Food is brought from another place to a place in crisis, makes it a business - Aid farmers in rich countries, not helping the poor - Changed to food bought in the same country and with local shipment - Cash or voucher, when food is available but money is the problem6 - Project aid - Earmarked food for specific purposes - Provided to governments - Used in development projects - Food for work, food for asset - Can be monetized (difficult to distinguish from project aid) - Relief emergency - Food rations and selective feeding programs - Crises and emergencies (how is a crises defined, grey area) - Response to immediate need - Grey area: how is emergency defined - Tied aid, is food aid a by-product to aid farmers in rich countries Innovative forms of food assistance - Tsunami 2004 as game changer - Need for rapid large-scale assistance - People that mainly eat rice - Commercial food distribution systems intact - No dependency on existing food aid channels - Resulted in local and regional purchase - WFP - Not only delivering food, it delivers hunger solutions - Food assistance refers to the set of interventions designed to provide access to food to vulnerable and food insecure populations. Included in the definition are instruments, such as in-kind food, voucher or cash transfers, to assure access to food of a given quantity, quality or value. - Innovative food assistance is - Faster and cheaper - More appropriate for diet - Less disturbing for markets - Support local agriculture, increase food quality and safety net - Dependent on - Functioning markets, otherwise driving markets up - Quality and safety of food variable and may be concern when LRP - Specialised foods may not be available - Unrestricted vouchers and cash for non-food items may lead to inappropriate use - Risk of diversion of scarce funds from life-saving act to support net producers Dilemmas - How to ensure that food aid does not destroy local markets - How to avoid dependency on food aid - How to coordinate between different forms of food aid supplies - How to ensure that food aid contributes to food security in the long run Consequences of food aid - Positive dependency - Helping individuals, communities and organisations to meet basic needs - Negative dependency - Meeting current needs comes at the cost of reducing recipients' capacity to meet their own basic needs in future - Intended consequences on micro-level - Save lives - Difficult to get good figures - Unintended consequences on micro-level - Household labour disincentives (discourage to work) - Production disincentives - Changed consumption patterns - Natural resource over-exploitation - Intended Consequences meso-level - Market development - Unintended consequences meso-level - Price effects - Community-level moral hazard - Erosion of community remittances and social safety nets Food aid and government Policies - Political will and public investments - Transparent government policies for private sector import - Reliable upkeep of large public stocks - Proportion of food aid relatively small - Reduce proportion of food aid, rather than crisis management strategies - Effective management of public distribution systems - Safety nets Week 5 ====== Lecture 9 --------- [Literature ] **Pastoral community coping and adaptation strategies** When in food crises, people use coping (for time being) and adaptation (permanent) strategies, where coping mechanisms can shift to adaptation measures. Coping strategies are; buying food by using income from various sources, selling off cattle, harvesting food prematurely, searching for alternative sources of water. Adaptation strategies are; diversifying livelihoods, changing agricultural practices (crop system changes, indigenous and adopted technologies, changed practices with respect to livestock, transformational practices) and investing in alternative water sources. **One leg or two?** Nomadic pastoralists are seen as destructive for the environment, unproductive and undiversified. In northern Mali are the main economic activities nomadic pastoralism, gathering, agriculture, labour, mitigation, crafts, trade and development aid. In Northen Mali islemen gained power, in combination with an increase in rebellion groups. In times of drought it can be seen that the nomadic population had a lower rate of malnutrition. When the herd is lost due to climate, there are two options, independently acquire new capital to buy animals, such as labour migration or agriculture. The other option is to migrate out of the area. Cooperation between various households and coping strategies is proven to be the most effective. [Lecture] Food security - Physical availability of food - Economic and physical access to food - Food utilization - Stability Food insecurity - Originates in combustible mix of political, economic and social factors, often worsened by climate and conflict Seasonal food insecurity - Between chronic and transitory food insecurity - Similar to chronic food insecurity as it is usually predictable and follows a sequence of known events - Occurs when there is a cyclical pattern of inadequate availability and access caused by climate, cropping patterns and diseases - Important to look at level of households Coping and adaptation - Coping -\> developed in response to shocks, prompted by lack of alternatives, short-term and based on available means - Adaptation -\> permanent adjustment, shift in strategy in response to changing reality - Coping strategies can become adaptive strategies Collective and private response to food insecurity - Short term coping - Non-production based food access - Selling of cattle - Harvesting food crops prematurely - Searching alternative source of water - Hunger period not necessarily considered problematic - Long term adaptations - Livelihood diversification - Planting at different times or different crops - Fighting degradation through famine techniques - Communal or private storage - Shift to food aid Pastoralism - Imaged as - Backward, anti-modern, aggressive - Colonial legacy - Unsuitable in times of climate change - Alternative view - Effective way to exist on marginal land - Risk or romanticizing - Chronic food insecurity - Dry-land not suitable for agriculture - Pastoral livelihoods under pressure to settle - Mobility of livestock is part of the system - Lives and livelihoods are caught up in conflicts Embracing uncertainty and change - Multiple households from one production unit - Spreading risks by having different types of animals - Mobility as key strategy - Using agriculture to restock herds - Lecture 10 ---------- [Literature] **Food security in the Island Pacific** Several causes to a decrease in food security for the smaller Pacific Islands such as, high national cost of food imports, the potential for under nutrition, a related health transition towards non-communicable diseases and the social costs of some transitions. Inadequate food security stems from a decline in availability of local produced food and lack of income and infrastructure. Food dependency or dietary colonialism, is caused by the dependency on imported food such as rice and tinned produce, this resulted in a shift in diet, taste, convenience, variety, affordability and necessity. Followed was an agricultural decline, which had effect on the population and the biodiversity (land degradation). The safety net of agriculture has weakened. The same happened in the fishing practices, they were outcompeted by bigger fishing companies. The change in dietary resulted in a deficit of nutrition, and an increase in diabetes (cheap fat food was imported). **Public eating, private pain** The article explores the role of community feasts in Vanuatu as a coping mechanism for children facing food insecurity. It highlights how children's participation in public feasts reveals private struggles within their families. Women, responsible for serving food, notice the increasing presence of hungry children, prompting discussions about food shortages. The ethnographic study demonstrates how these public-private dynamics around food insecurity shape cultural identities and contribute to understanding societal issues in Vanuatu. [Lecture] Pacific experiences an increase in undernourishment - Undernutrition - Obesity - Cheap and fat meat - Change in lifestyle and culture - Cheap health care Food insecurity increase - From food to cash crops - Absorption into the global food system (Dietary Colonialism) - Agricultural decline - Shortage of land - Loss of knowledge - Urbanization - Dislike for agriculture work and remoteness - High costs and no economies on scale - Pressure on Fishing - Coral bleaching, rising water temperature - Land conflicts - Overexploitation (illegal foreign fishing) - Habitat destruction - Lack of market access - Disappearance of conservation practices - Cash poverty and urbanisation Pacific responses - Revitalizing subsistence agricultural systems - Response to decline in cash incomes - Return migration to rural areas - Slow food and 'kastom' garden movements - Private food sharing - Everyday circulation of food - Everyday moving between households (adults) - Sending children to live with relatives - Feasting - Feast foods, focussed on traditional food - Gifts of food - Women choose to ignore gossip and feed hungry children even not from own community Feasibility of responses - Climate change - Predicted yield decline - Staple food are negatively affected by wetter and hotter climate - Avoiding giving - Rise of individualism - Initiatives to save money - Capitalist accumulation within sharing economy - Decrease of nutritious foods at feasts - Foreign attitudes - Stop exporting not consumable food - Saying no to food aid can have bigger consequences Week 6 ====== Lecture 11 ---------- [Literature] **How the urban poor define and measure food security in Cambodia and Nepal** Now most of the people live in cities there is a change in food security because urbanisation means buying food rather than growing your own food. Poverty for poor urban communities is defined based on the amount of income is spend on food, the higher this percentage the higher the poverty. So financial insecurity results in food insecurity. In Nepal there are 3 types of poverty categories, households which eat 1, 2 or 3 meals a day. those urban poor household are more vulnerable to stresses and changes in price of food. Often in these household makes the women sure the family can eat, and often skips meals to be able to give the food to her family. In Cambodia is the food insecurity fluctuating, one day there could be a nutritious meal and the other day not. Not only are the high cost a struggle but also the quality of the food and the use of chemicals on the food, also is their a lack of safety nets, for health care and food. Poor urban households loan money to be able to pay for their food but it will take lifetimes to repay these depts. By borrowing and sharing do the poor communities maintain themselves. **Growing cities, new challenges** When urbanization is growing, poverty in urban areas is too. Food insecurity and malnutrition is linked to poverty. In cities more and diverse food is available in supermarkets, but poorer residents tend to buy their food from street vendors. Because, urban poor, especially women, are dependent on purchased food and employment in the informal sector they are more vulnerable to income and price shocks. As result urban poor make use of. Safety nets, nevertheless often fail those safety nets to protect the poorest of the urban poor. There is a limited access to healthcare, safe water and sanitation in cities to severe health and nutrition inequalities for the urban poor. [Lecture] Population bomb - Did not occur because mitigated - Education, empowerment of women, reduction in fertility, lifestyle and investment in quality of life, urbanisation Urbanisation - 1950 to 2018, urban population six-folded - Multiple dimensions of urban poverty - Housing (increase in slums) - Access to affordable and nutritious food - Only informal infrastructure - Rural biases for food security in urban areas - Production driven mindset, instead of focussing on production based interventions such ass urban agriculture - Focus on individual to preoccupation with livelihoods - Remedies on household level instead more structural or wider measures Pillars to food security in Urban areas - Availability - Linkage between rural production and urban areas - Over processed food is easier available - Access - In the city food is purchased - Household sacrifices, other expenses due to living in a city - Utilization - Lack of refrigeration and storage (no bulk, more expensive, poverty punishment) - Unhygienic circumstances - Changing preferences and household roles (women work, so less time to cook and revert to processed food) - High costs of energy and water (changes cooking habbits) - Resort to available fast food - Nutrition transition -- obesity - Food safety - Stability - Price spikes, food price fluctuations - Less possibility to resort to own produce, or social networks - Uncertainty of informal sector employment Lecture 12 ---------- Causes of famine - Agriculture - Droughts How to resolve a famine - Interventions How to prevent a famine - Sustainable agriculture - Aid - Structure - Democracy - Infrastructure Message of de Waal - Broadening the definition of famine - See them as political, being done to people - Imagine them as atrocities and crimes Message of Sen - No technical reason for markets to meet subsitence needs - Shift from large groups to individual entitlements to commodity bundles - There is no particular one reason to famine - Only reflects widespread failure - Focuses on starvation