This article aims to disclose the nature and underlying causes of the recent food crises focusing on both conjunctural and structural factors; to analyze the socio-economic and geopolitical impacts of food price increases; to identify the possible strategies to minimize the trade-off between the increase of agricultural production and the sustainable use of natural resources.
This article focuses on perceptions and memories of the “Groundnut Scheme”, an enacted peanut monoculture in East Africa and one of the largest colonial agricultural development initiatives in history, trying in particular to trace the different functions that were assigned to the social and ecological landscape of Tanganyika.
Asikel tells of the journey of Tuareg men who, after a great drought, seek work in the city to support their families.
Ron Finley recounts his experiences planting vegetable gardens in unexpected places in South Central Los Angeles.
Using the Central Coast of California as a case study, this article argues that a nexus of ambitious growers and a growing state agricultural bureaucracy worked to create a “brand name” and teach cultivation approaches with increased production and expanded markets. But these same actors also made efforts to keep the long-term health of the industry and the community in mind.
This article presents and discusses the papers presented at the 5th IWHA Conference under the theme ‘Water, Food and the Economy’.
The Future of Food examines genetically engineered foods, patenting, and the corporatization of food.
After the World Bank provisions required the privatization of Bolivia’s water system in return for economic assistance, high water prices and the effective monopoly over water rights spurs residents to organize, mobilize, and combat the legislation.
The paper highlights shortcomings in GMO public consultation practices in the European Union and in one of its member countries, Finland. Specifically, they do not serve democracy, increase consensus, enable better decisions to be made, or establish trust.
Using Northern Ghana as a case study, this paper questions the usefulness of regional data for understanding food insecurity, and shows that the supposedly novel ideas of the present in fact have a strong colonial lineage.
