Lecture 13: Meat, Wheat, and Agricultural Frontiers

what does the “global food system” imply?

a single food system, dominance of a global food system

food regime

a way of thinking about food in relation to the nation-state and political economy at large

food regime is an open ended

theory that interprets the rise and fall of nation states through the lens of food

First Food Regime dates

1870-1914

what is the First Food Regime defined by?

relocation of the British food supply to colonial territories- Britain rises to power due to IR and shifts to overseas provision of basic foodstuffs

colonies supplying food to Britain

what mad the First Food Regime possible?

steam transport, free trade, industrialization, urbanization, and empire

during the First Food Regime, food production increased where?

in the Neo-Europes (temperate zones)

what were the key pieces of legislation that helped create the conditions for the emergence of the food regime?

1834: repeal of the poor laws led to a national labor market

1846: repeal of the corn laws that placed tariffs on grain from other countries→ led to “free trade” doctrine internationally

what was the reality of the “free trade doctrine?”

supported British’s interests because the British was dominant in maritime traffic and the military

waged goods

goods that make up the necessities of wage earners

waged goods became international bulk commodities, which did what to labor in the UK?

reduced the price of labor

what are the three things the colonial frontiers did?

produced food

consumed industrial productions

absorbed surplus capital

what were the impacts of steam transportation?

expanded trade networks, reduced travel time, and facilitated the movement of goods, leading to increased agricultural and industrial efficiency

what does Marx say railroads did?

annihilation of space by time

true or false: the migration of people from the UK to the US was due to the invention of ships

false (it was due to the cheapness of transportation)

the efficiency of steam engines did what to transportation?

radically decreased transportation costs for bulk goods

environmental overdraft

refers to the depletion of soils, forests, and ecosystems to produce goods that were bound for Britain

in 1919, where was the concentration of cattle?

Argentina (colony of Britain), India, Ireland, and England

the price of wheat on the world market fell, but farmers made more money, how is this possible?

differential change in efficiency between food production and industrial production

productivity gains the rest of the economy were greater despite the increased productivity in agriculture

declining transportation costs, declining production costs, and declines in the prices of goods purchased by farmers

what is the relationship between purchasing power and efficiency for farmers today?

efficiency in agriculture is greater than industrial efficiency, meaning that farmers have less purchasing power

what was the miracle of the post-civil war boom?

western farmers received a higher real price for their wheat even as eastern consumers paid less for it

with the surplus of corn, what was the discovery that was made?

corn could be planted every year because the animals provided the manure necessary to restore fertility year after year in corn fields (first feedlot)

this led to a system where meat and crops produced to feed meat occurred far away from the consumers

for Native Americans, ______ was the centre of their food system

bison

what were the technologies used to hunt bison?

funnel fences, pushing bison off cliffs

pemmican

sown bag made of bison hide with a concentrated meat product inside

incredibly healthy (calorically rich), did not spoil, powered the British fur trade

what were the implications of pemmican?

Native Americans were pressured to produce and trade more pemmican

led to increasing hunting of bison→ contributed to the decline in the bison population

what were bison good for back east?

robes, leather (to make belts to drive machinery)

the bison met their end because their ecosystem became attached to

an urban marketplace

why did the bison population decline from 50 million to 24 in the southern herd and 10 in the northern herd? (Hornaday vs. Flores)

Hornaday says this happened because of the commodification of bison- they became part of the market

Flores says people tried to come up with other explanations because blaming the market was un-American

the decline of Native Americans was due to?

largely due to disease

also partly due to deamination of bison as a food source

why were there so many cattle in Texas during the Civil War?

the market was in New Orleans but the North blockaded the South and thus the cattle multiplied due to lack of access to markets

how did railroads affect corn and wheat trade?

elevators and silos mean grain is moved in an automated fashion

what were the effects of the telegraph on farmers?

farmers are operating in the same markets→ unification of market at a national (and international) scale

market geography connected through information and food

the Chicago Board of Trade

founded in 1848 as a private membership organization

buyers and sellers came together in a stock-market-like setting

pieces of paper represented certain kinds of crops (allowed for futures trading and speculation)

operates in parallel of corn and cattle production

meatpacking increased animal slaughter per hour and led to _____ battles

labor

what were the implications of refrigerated transport?

could slaughter animals far from where they were going to be sold/eaten

savings in efficiency meant dominant stock yards put butchers and local grocers out of business

companies in chicago built of 60-80% of dominance and colluded to set prices, which helped inspire what?

the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

what is the consequence of growing availability of affordable meat?

nutrition transition

share of a society’s diet of cereals and grains declines

people eat more meat and processed foods

Bennett’s Law

as people/countries get wealthier, their diets change and they consume more meat

cattle are only valuable if

they are of the homogenous variety that fit the homogeneity of slaughterhouses- respond well to feed, grow rapidly, produce high quality meat. etc

why did British breeds replace longhorns?

longhorns were not good at eating corn; British breeds had superior meat quality, faster growth rates, and better adaptability to feed systems.