HLTH 235 Cumulative

Ended module 9

Land colonial perspective

a fixed geographical and physical space that includes earth, rocks, and water ways. A resource to be conquered, exploited, mined, turned into a commodity for profit. Humans at the top of the hierarchy of animate creatures, plants, and inanimate landscapes feature.

Land Indigenous perspectives

Unique entity that is the combined living spirit of plants, animals, air, water, humans, histories, and events. Land is sacred. Animals are like siblings.

Food

Material and symbolic

Biological, social, psychological, cultural, religious

basic human right = essential for life

food systems (settler perspective)

set of vast, complex, interlinked institutions and processes that transform sunlight, water, and soil into meaning-laden foods

Productions, distributions, consumption, waste

Biological systems - requires a healthy biosphere

reflect and reproduce intersecting social inequalities (gender, class, radicalization)

4 key words (food systems)

power, control, risks, benefits

food systems (human actors)

primary producers = farmers, growers, fishers, herders, gatherers

input suppliers = energy, machinery, seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, traders

processors and manufactures

distributors, wholesalers, retailers

caterers - restaurants, purveyor of prepared foods

eaters, consumers, citizens

governments, policy makers, lobbyist’s

waste disposal, recycling, composting

Non-human actors

animals

bees and insects

soil

sunlight

Capitalism

An economic system in which private companies control trade and industry in the pursuit of profit.

The goal of capitalism is it accumulate the greatest profit in the least time

Opponents - capitalism in inhumane, environmentally destructive and unsustainable, anti-democratic, exploitative; produced income inequality, poverty, lack of choice, suffering, violence, social alimentation, and social inequalities

socialism and social democracy

An economic system in which companies/industries are controlled collectively. Assumes people are naturally cooperative, not competitive

Goal = an egalitarian society run for the collective good

Critics = slows economic growth, stifles individual rights and freedoms, rewards worker laziness

social democracy = a capitalist economy that is regulated

1. extends democratic principles to society and the economy; puts public good over private enrichment of people and corporations

2. citizens must have access to the material basics of life, for dignity and justice

Neoliberalism

Is a political and economic ideology that emphasizes free-market capitalism, minimal government intervention, and the privatization of public services.

“An economic philosophy and a political system devoted to enforcing economic competition, protecting the power of businesses, and celebrating the “free market” as the wisest and best judge of people, institutions, and ideas”

Globalization

Interdependence and integration of economics, markets, societies and cultures

Economic power and control are the global level, not local, regional or country level

“Free trade”

Sociological Imagination

Connects personal experiences to the political, cultural, social and historic

Structure - agency

Individual - collective agency

Social systems and individuals

As we participate in social systems, our lives are shaped by socializing and paths of least resistance

We make social systems happen

Industrial food systems

characterized by mass production of standardized food items, driven by the profit motive with adverse impacts of human and non-human animals, the environmental and social justice

Political economy

A branch of political studies and economies that analyzes how the economy impacts society, culture and social relations, with a focus on power, property distributions and government

political ecology

a feed of research that analyzes human-environment relations, combining political economy, environmental science and human ecology

commodity fetishism

the tendency in a capitalist economy for social and environmental relationships involved in production, plus externalized costs, to be hidden and largest incomprehensible

monopoly

a market condition in which there is a single seller, who has the ability to charge inflated prices

oligopoly

a market condition in which there are a small number of firms, such that they have a significant control over market prices and outputs, which can result in limited competition, potential collusion to fix prices, and possible disruption to supply chain

US anti-trust laws prevent unlawful mergers, protect competition for the benefit of consumers (in Canada, the competition act regulated trade and commerce)

Industrial revolution in agriculture

European colonialism —> created global trade flows

1. spices, sugar, coffee, tea, cocoa

2. grain and livestock

Capitalism —> competition, growth, accumulation —> economies of scale

Fossil fuels are the most invisible reason for economies of scale —> machines, factories, transportations, fertilizers

Other characteristics

1. separation of livestock from integrated farms

2. standardization of animals and crops —> loss of biodiversity

3. increased size and rate of growth —> increased yields

Agriculture as a “closed-loop system”

Organic waste returned to the land

Biodiversity of soil microorganisms enhances nutrient break-down and recycling

Biological approaches to limiting soil erosion and enhancing moisture retention

Pests controlled naturally

Energy comes from the sun, through photosynthesis

Agriculture poses problems for capitalism

Need access to fertile land and water

farming is seasonal

Needs a lot of workers

Transportations and storage is expensive

Unpredictable natural forces

Capitalists- making profit

Ignores human health

Long term environmental factors

CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation)

overcrowded barns

use of antibiotic

massive waste

animal concentration camps

Biophysical overrides

Pharmaceuticals and mutilations

Irrigation and increased water use

Inorganic fertilizer

Chemical pesticides

Soil mining

soil dehydration— depletion of materials

inorganic fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium

Adding animal waste, compost

monoculture

the biological simplification of a farm or landscape to focus on the production of a single crop, involves genetic diversity of that crop

Pesticide treadmill

The cycle of dependence in which monocultures exacerbate pest problems, more or new pesticide are needed as natural predators and control are eliminated, pest and disease resistance developed overtime, and localized ecological knowledge and the ability to use non-chemical responses are lost

Food miles

1. the distance that food travels from “land to mouth” or “field to fork"

2. industrialization is associated with smaller number of farms, further away from consumers -> cheap & abundant oil, preservatives & stabilizers in food, innovations in transportation make this possible

3. the concept helps make visible how the food system is connected to the climate crisis

Accelerating instabilities in industrial agriculture

1. Peak oil

   1. Unconventional oil sources

   2. Use of land to grow agrofuels/biofuels

2. Decline of availability of high quality phosphorus

3. Soil crisis

4. Climate crisis - including floods and droughts

5. Financialization of commodities

6. War

Climate crisis and agriculture

1. Industrialized agriculture is a major contributor to the climate crisis, though only recently recognized at COP climate conference

2. Food systems are extremely vulnerable to the climate crisis

   1. Hotter temperature -- increased evaporation, decreased soil moisture

   2. Increased hot waves -- heat stress for plants and human and non-human animals

   3. More variation in rain -- droughts, wildfires, floods

   4. Less freshwater

   5. More intense and extreme weather events

   6. Easier for pests and pathogens to reproduce and move

climate change mitigation

1. Urgent need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sequestration capacity

2. Direct challenge to the core foundations of industrial agriculture

Main differences between CND and US agriculture

1. Different regulatory systems

2. Not as mint mega farms in Canada; more mid-sized farms

3. Supply management

supply management for eggs, milk, poultry

1. Demand - supply coordination -- marketing boards tells farmers how much they can produce and sale prices considering the cost of production

2. Ensures farmers costs of production are covered

3. Included 270% tariff on imported dairy products

4. In the cross hairs of the US administration

supply management myths

1. S.M hinders the free market

   1. US taxpayers subsidize farmers; canadine taxpayers do not

   2. American farmers often produce more milk than they can sell boom and bust cycles leads to consolidation in the industry

2. S.M makes some farmers rash

   1. Its hard to make a living farming; small farmers do not get rash

   2. S.M gives farmers a stable income

   3. Farming is different than other commodities because of unpredictability

3. CND consumers will pay less if no supply management

   1. On average, Canadians pay less than Americans for dairy and prices are less volatile

   2. Consumer price for dairy is not the only consideration -- consider externalized costs for industrial agriculture

Shock

an unexpected, sudden event that affects a whole system

global food crisis

 increased food insecurity and malnutrition resulting from economic shocks, climate chaos, war, forced displacement, environmental degradation

commodity markets

1. Commodity = raw materials that go into making the good we consume

2. Agricultural commodities = wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, barley, oats, canola, sunflower seeds, peanuts, coffee, cocoa, sugar

3. Commodity market = buyers and sellers exchange goods based on current or future prices

4. Future markets = allows traders to buy and sell contract for the delivery of a commodity at a future date

factors influencing agriculture commodity prices

1. Supply and demand

2. Weather conditions, including droughts, floods, hurricanes

3. Geopolitical events = political instability, trade policies, war and other conflicts

4. Current fluctuations = commodities are usually prices in major currencies. Changes in rates can affect the cost of commodities

5. Tariffs

6. Technological advances = can increase productivity 

Financializing in the food system

1. financial markets, financial actors and financial institutions

2. profit making in the economy

3. Financial speculation— market volatility

4. Food and finance much— Pension funds, private equity firms, hedge funder, sovereign wealth funds

5. Financial actors (banks, investment brokers) sell financial products to investors.

6. non-food commodities and traded on stock markets volatility in food rice's

7. biofuels (ethanol) corn, soy, palm oil, rapeseed and sugar used to produce fuel for transportation— diversion of crops impacts food prices and land unavailable for food crops

Worldwide food crisis (1971-1975)

1. Food prices soared - wheat, corn, soy commodity prices tripled

2. Caused by

   1. Drought in several parts of the world

   2. US, Canada and Australia paid farmers to not grow grain, to drive up prices

   3. The US devalued its currency bought up a huge quantities of US wheat because domestic production dropped with severe drought and scaled back satori of grains

3. 1973-1974 oil crisis

4. Resulted in rising levels of global hunger and death of 2 million people

Global food crisis (2007-2012)

1. Caused by

   1. Major global financial crisis

   2. Soaring oil prices

   3. Increased use of biofuels in early 2000s - diverts grains, especially corn into ethanol -- reduces grains available for livestock and humans

2. Staples such as wheat, rice, corn, and soy doubled price in the 1st half of 2008

3. Financial speculators flood commodity markets, driving prices up and making them more volatile

4. Investors rush to buy farmland, pushing small producers off the land

5. Drought 2010-2012

Food crisis (2007-2008)

1. Food riot - civil unrest in response to the unavailability of basic food staples after food prices increase, leading to violence and casualties

2. 74 low income and 71 middle income countries significantly affected

3. Riots in at least 14 countries in Africa

4. Associated with higher rates of poverty, restricted access and availability of food, oppressive governments

Food crisis (2020)

1. Ealy 202 - covid 19 shut down global supply chains

   1. Drives food prices to record highs

   2. Speculators invest in commodity markets

2. February 2022 - Russia invades Ukraine

   1. Interrupts exports of wheat, corn, oilseeds

   2. Prices soar

   3. Speculators rush into grain markets creating volatility

   4. Many wheat exporting countries restrict exports

3. Heat wave in India reduces wheat yields 16-25%

4. Process start to fall when investors left the sector and deal to allow Ukraine exports

5. Global food prices still high and volatile

At the level of the farm field (food crisis)

1. production of a limited variety of staple crops; disruption in production has outsized impacts on global food insecurity

   1. wheat, corn, rice -> half of human calories

   2. wheat, corn, rice, soy -> 2/3rds of human calories

   3. produced in monocultures, industrial agriculture, dependent on fossil Fuels

2. production systems are large, “rigid & locked in” - very difficult to change quickly in the face of shocks

At country level (food crisis)

1. just FIVE countries account for > 72% of global production of wheat, maize, rice & soy crops

   1. 90% of the world wheat produced by 7 countries + EU

   2. 80% of corn (maize) produced by 4 countries

2. produces cheap food but countries that import & depend on these grains are vulnerable to market shocks; not easy for importing countries to shift their agricultural production-> price increases, food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition, deaths -> political instability

At the global food market (food crisis)

1. shocks lead to food price volatility -> speculators flood in & contribute to the volatility

2. profits surge for global grain trading firms, asset management firms & hedge funds

3. farm input firms also see profit increases

4. food prices surge

How did we get to where we are

1. monoculture production of cereal crops

2. new discoveries about soil nutrients -> chemical fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) allowed farmers to plant more intensively

3. chemical pesticide development

4. seed improvements to maximize yield

5. technologies reinforced each other

6. Canadian prairies -> difficult to grow & harvest crops before frost with family labour; machinery sped up planting and harvesting

7. railways & steamships facilitated trade of agricultural surpluses

8. a few countries produce & export large surpluses of grain; other countries become dependent on imports (sometimes via food aid)

9. small but powerful group of firms dominate grain trade, controlling ~70%

10. a few large films also dominate fertilizer, equipment, pesticides, seeds

NFU and its members

1. Advocate for support local and regional scale processing, story and distribution to bolster local economies and domestic markets

2. Practice soil building farming techniques and work to reduce the on farm carbon footprint

3. Defend the rights of agricultural works to fair wages and safe working conditions

4. Support migrant workers rights

5. Affirm indigenous rights and sovereignty

6. Defend supply management

Farmer income crisis

1. 95% of what farmers earn goes to input suppliers and banks

2. Farm debt has nearly doubled since 2001 and most family farmers rely on off farm income

3. High output, high input agriculture is the primary cause of both the gram and income crisis an increased GHG emissions from agriculture

CSA (community supported agriculture)

1. Member commitment regular share of the harvest shared risk and reward

2. For farmers = early season funding, market certainty, community connection

3. For members = fresh seasonal food, transparency and connection, food system participation

4. For community = supporting local economies, reducing environmental impact, food system resilience 

Industrialized agriculture:

1. Earth as resource – extractives - humans dominate

2.  main priority - profit

3. short-time horizon

4. large scale; monocropping

5. science based on dominance & control

6. many costs (e.g., environmental, health) externalized

7. pests, weeds, bacteria as “enemies” "declare ”war”

8. “profound taking,” greed, scarcity mode

stewardship agriculture

1.  Earth as sacred; Earth as mother

2. “all my relations”

3. main priority – ensuring life now & for the future

4. infinite time horizon, past and future

5. small scale; biodiverse

6. science based on deep observation & attention; land as teacher

7. relationships, responsibility, respect, reciprocity, gratitude, sharing

La Vie Campesina

1. founded in Belgium in 1993 by representatives from 4 continents

2. now comprised of about 180 local and national organizations in 81 countries, including the National Farmers Union (NFU) (Canada)

3. supports food sovereignty and “small- scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity”

4. promotes farmer-to-farmer educational processes

5. resists industrialized agriculture & free trade, promotes agroecology & empowerment of small-scale farmers & eaters

food security

People are considered food secure when they have availability to adequate access at all times to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life

food sovereignty

Is the fundamental right of all peoples, nations, and states to control food and agriculture systems and policies, ensuring everyone has adequate, affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. This requires the right to define and control our methods of production, transformation, distribution both at the local and international levels

Seven pillars of food sovereignty

1. Focuses on food for people

2. Builds knowledge and skills

3. Works with nature

4. Values food providers

5. Localizes food system

6. Decision making is local

7. Recognizing food a sacred gift (added by indigenous peoples)

Food in Indigenous culture

Sky women = seeds and turtle island

1. Food as medicine

2. Food as teacher

3. Food as relative

4. Anishinaabe

   1. A group of culturally related indigenous peoples

   2. Hunters, fishers, gatherers

   3. Beings made out of nothing

5. Haudenosaunee

   1. People of the longhouse

   2. Six nations (Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk, Tuscarora

   3. Horticulturalists

Food as weapon of colonialism

1. settler colonialism

   1. displaced Indigenous peoples from their lands -> declining access to food

   2. destroyed Indigenous food sources, e.g., bison

2. food used to discipline Indigenous peoples, destroy cultural identities & promote assimilation -> genocide

3. reserve system – constrained ability of Indigenous peoples to feed themselves with traditional foods

4. rations – used strategically to force Indigenous people into the labour market, to convince parents to send children to residential schools

5. Residential schools, malnutrition, nutrition experiments

Threats to indigenous food security

1. loss of access to and control of land

2. loss of traditional ecological knowledge & skills

3. climate chaos

   1.  changes in animal migration; increased parasites; changes in freezing/ice affecting transportation; changes to/extinction of species density

4. poverty – lack of money to buy supplies for hunting & fishing

5. industrial food system - > poorer diet quality; changes in taste; expensive, especially in remote areas

6. Pollution

7. lack of time due to employment

8. barriers to processing & distribution, marketing & sales of traditional foods

Indigenous food sovereignty

1. shifts from rights to duties and responsibilities

2. protection of traditional ecological knowledge; revitalization of traditional foods; the restoration of Indigenous decision-making; integration of cultural protocols into food systems

3. includes rematriation of seeds; the decolonization of food systems; and governance over land, water, and food

4. essential to political sovereignty & self-determination

5. A culturally centred, sustainable approach to imploring a communities food system and community health

6. Potential to reduce percussive diet related health inequalities

7. Central to preservation of traditional ecological knowledge, language and cultural revitalisation and resurgence

Plant breeding

1. goal = produce crops with improved characteristics by changing their genetic make-up

2. a key aspect of improving agricultural productivity for thousands of years

3. primary goal of agriculture = abundance of nutritious, easy to harvest products for human consumption - vs wild plants –> compete with each other for light, water, nutrients; defend themselves from being eaten; seed dispersal over long distances

Conventional plant breeding

Crossing plat verities that have relevant characteristics and selecting the offspring that have the desired combination of characteristics, as a result of particular combinations of genes inherited from the two parents

Open pollinated

1. Pollination by birds, insects, wind, humans

2. Greater genetic diversity

3. Offspring are similar to the parents

heirloom

1. Open pollinated, with history of being passed down within a family or community, usually more than 50 years old

2. Know for good taste and flavor

3. Heirloom seeds must be open pollinated but not all open pollinated seeds are heirloom

seed savers

1. Protect heirloom varieties to preserve biodiversity

   1. Could help protect against pests and disease, climate change, habitat changes

   2. Better flavour, more variety - protect against "dinnertime boredom"

2. Active stewardship - if seeds aren't grown out, they eventually die and the plants become extinct

3. Seed sanctuaries, seed commons, seed banks

   1. Seed longevity can be prolonged under the right conditions (low moistures, low temperature)

Hybrid seeds

1. Scientifically produced

2. Produced by cross-pollinating two different varieties of a plant with different characteristics (disease resistant, pest resistant, size, colour, vigour)

3. Genetically unstable

4. Advantages

   1. Up to 25% greater yield of crop

   2. Disease resistance, pest resistance,

5. Disadvantages

   1. Can cost up to 5 times more

   2. Plants require optimal conditions to thrive

   3. If you seed save and grow them again, the resulting plants will be variable in physical characteristics, lower yielding and less vigorous

   4. Many varieties no longer produce seed

   5. Nutritional content and taste/flavor of the crop often worse

GMOs (genetically modified organisms)

1. Insertion of DNA from one species into another, giving it new or different characteristics

2. Commonly modified to resist herbicides, such a Roundup or glyphosate, resists disease

3. Opportunities

   1. Enhance nutritional value of foods

   2. Biopharmaceuticals

   3. Crops that can withstand environmental stressors

   4. Increase sustainable food production

concentration in the global seed market

1. Global seed market dominated by the "big four" agriculture giants Bayer, DowDuPont, ChemChina, BAFS (they control over 60% of the global seed market)

2. 1980s the market share of the 10 biggest seed companies (15%)

3. 2018 market shar of the 10 biggest seed companies (73%)

4. Tow seed companies (Bayer and ChemChina) control over half the European seed market for some vegetables 

oligopoly in the seed market

1. development of a limited variety of seeds and development only of seeds that require the company’s other inputs

   1. threatens biodiversity & food security

   2. ill suited to the small scale agriculture that feeds most of the world, especially in developing countries

   3. locks farmers into industrialized agricultural production

2. erodes farmers’ right to decide what, how & for whom to grow

3. exacerbates social & environmental problems & existing power imbalances

4. makes innovation and the shift to sustainable agriculture more difficult and less likely

From seeds: the untold story

1. Biodiversity loss 94% of vegetable seed diversity is gone — imperils food security by reducing resilience

2. Corporate control over seeds

   1. Seeds transformed from the “common goods” that no one could own to a commodity

   2. Disconnected from place, culture, heritage, local growing conditions

   3. Integration with industrial agriculture

3. Industrial agriculture

   1. Pesticides — super weeds, health effects, ecological impacts

   2. GMOs — genetic pollution

   3. Green revolution— export of industrial agriculture to lower income countries

GMO labelling

1. GMOs have been approved for consumption in Canada since 1995

2. No mandatory labelling of GM food in Canada

3. Main GM foods are corn, canola, soy, white sugar beet

4. There are no GM foods on the market with consumer benefits

   1. Not cheaper, tastier, fresher, more nutritious, or more environmentally friendly

   2. GM crops increase the use of herbicides

Problems with GMOs

1. No scientific consensus on GMO safety - diversity of scientific opinion

2. Mostly short-term studies; science on safety is inconsistent

3. There is little independent science

4. Governments rely on corporate science to access safety; no access to GM seeds

5. Very few long term tests

6. Potential health risks

   1. Toxicity, allergies, no monitoring of exposure

Colonial mindset

1. Hierarchical — some lives are more valuable than others; some ways of living and thinking more prized others — compatible with patriarchy, racism, classism, ableism, heterosexist, white supremacy, capitalism and other systems of oppression

   1. Men - women

   2. White skin - darker skin

   3. Able bodies - disabled

   4. Some animals - others

   5. Animals - plants/insects

2. Entitled, acquisitive, greedy, wasteful, conquering, murderous

3. Disrespectful of life

4. Extractive — grab what you can

5. Ends justify the means

6. Commodification of life

Ghosh

1. Settlers claim the land in the Americans based on European settler ideas of the “proper” use of land — should be divided into property and used for agriculture

2. Cows and pigs — not native species — drive away native animal on which indigenous peoples were dependent, or depleted the grazing lands

3. Between 1865-1883 American settlers killed between 10-15 million buffalo

4. “Terraforming” — deliberate alteration of the land

5. “Sacrifice zone” —a geographical area permanently impaired by environmental alteration or economic disinvestments

On the land we now call Canada

1. on the Prairies, bison were central to culture, economy, and diet. Bison was a staple food for millennia – highly nutritious – First Nations were thought to be the tallest people in the world in the 19th century

2. Canada acquired the lands in the West in 1869-70; negotiated treaties with the First Nations throughout the 1870s

3. Treaty 6 with the Plains Cree included a promise that Canada would provide humanitarian assistance in case of famine (1876)

4. bison were already in steep decline from overhunting – effectively gone by 1879

5. Sir John A. Macdonald was elected on a promise to build a railway to the Pacific as soon as possible

6. his government withheld food rations to the First Nations people until they moved to reserves hundreds of miles from the tracks & then they withheld rations while food rotted in storehouses -> humiliation & control

7. thousands died of malnutrition-related diseases

8. settlers came from Europe, enticed by promises of “Free Land for the Millions” and a “Farm for Every Man,” cleared the tall grass prairies and began farming the land

9. tall grass prairie once covered one million square km in Canada and the US; only 1% of the original prairie remains

War as a driver of food crisis

1. Negatively affects almost every aspect of the food system

   1. Production, harvesting, processing, transport, input supply, financing, marketing, Consumption

2. Reduces nations ability to adapt to climate chaos

   1. 17 out of 113 nations at high or very high risk of conflict

   2. Of the 25 nations most vulnerable to climate change, 14 are also mired in conflict 

3. Drives up greenhouse gas emissions

4. Water, soil, land contaminated, polluted, destroyed

Four logics of war impacting food security

1. Destruction of crop land and infrastructure; contamination of agriculture with land mines

2. Conflict- induced displacement and food insecurity

3. Control of food supply

4. Hunger as a deliberate weapon of war

migrant Labour

Leamington- traditional territory of the Three Fires confederacy of First Nations

Define TFWP

Temporary foreign worker program

Four streams = high wage, low age, primary ag, permanent residency

define SWAP

seasonal agriculture worker program

Workers can only stay 8 months, no eligibility for immigrant status or citizenship

No parental benefits or EI

5 key recommendations for the UN report

1. End the use of closed tied work permits

2. Offer permanent residency from the time of arrival

3. Improve oversight and accountability

4. Ensure equal access to social services, including settlement services, health care and adequate housing

5. Protect workers rights to unionize

20 injustices of Canadian SWAP

1. Tied work permits

2. Not being able to apply for status

3. Employers control housing

4. No say in the terms and conditions of employment

5. Constant threat of deportation

6. Racial injustice

7. No overtime pay; sometimes denied minimum wage

8. Dangerous work with little or no protection

9. Medical repatriation

10. No inquests into death

11. Most protections in the Ontario Employment Standards Act do not apply to farm workers

12. Employment laws and regulations are not enforced

13. Pay into EI but cant access benefits

14. Family separation

15. Unjust immigration and labour laws

16. Workers must pay to work

17. Excluded from collective bargaining rights

18. Start power imbalance between workers and employers

19. Canada has signed, ratified, or implemented the international convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families

20. Migrant farm worker grassroots organizations are not invited, not consulted or paid to keep quiet

Main health risks of working

1. Occupational exposures & hazards

   1. poor ventilation in greenhouses, heavy lifting, standing water, repetitive & awkward postures, agrochemicals, unsafe equipment, weather extremes, confined spaces, unsafe transportation

2. working 6-7 days/week, 8-12 hrs/day; inadequate breaks, health & safety training, protective equipment

3. poor living & housing conditions

4. stressful separations from families

5. cultural dislocation; lack of social support -> depression, anxiety, insomnia, & addictions are common

Visas are tied to a single employee

1. put workers at high risk of exploitation; inherently bestows power to thy employer over the worker

2. many migrant workers are not able to claim their rights and labour protections as Canadian workers

3. migrant workers are dependent on employers to have fair working conditions and to access their rights to adequate housing, health, and social security

4. workers’ labour is extracted, exploited, and disposed of at the will of the employer

5. many workers are fired & must return home if they fall sick, suffer injuries, or develop occupational illnesses – or if they complain about working conditions or abuses

protein mania

1. Antiaging fix

2. Weight loss aid

3. Muscle building

4. Cultural preoccupation

5. Protein talk - enjoy food for culture, nutrition, socialization

6. What keeps the trends alive

protein and climate

1. Protein transition

2. Climate change

3. Low carbon footprint with plant based protein 

4. Dependant on animal protein

5. Other sources of protein

6. Protein deficiency

7. Plant based  

8. Whey protein powder is top of the market

9. No notion of bad protein (unheard of no protein diet

Protein has become a multi-use ingredient

1. Appealing in anti fat enthusiasts

2. Weight management

3. Muscle loss prevention

4. Energy

5. Biochemical capacity and economic value

6. Form and obtain amino acids

7. Essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients

Too much protein

1. Digestive issues

2. Liver problems

3. Burn it as calories

4. Pee it out

5. You can only use and metabolize so much protein

6. Protein deficiency is very rare

7. Protein is in everything (lettuce, potatoes)

Nutritionist

a system in which the value of food is reduced ti its biochemical components and measured according to Eurocentric, scientized standards

Molecularization

 a fundamental shift in he ay human life, health, and illness are understood, managed, and experiences- moving from a focus on the body as an anatomical, organic whole to a view of life at the submicroscopic, molecular level

the age of fitness

when fitness became not just physical but a moral good, and the obligation of every citizen

neoliberalism and the athleticizing of health and diet

1. Health as a personal responsibility and commodity with an emphasis on lifestyle "choices" and optimization

2. Spread of neoliberalism and fitness culture go hand in hand

   1. Atheization of culture

   2. Atheization and potentization of food culture

why are we drinking milk (any type)

1. Lactose intolerance

2. Digestive issues

3. Heavily pushed for bone health

4. Plant based better

Whey (the protein supplement)

1. A surplus in cheese consumption created a surplus in whey waste

2. The dumping of whey waste killed many fish

3. Whey is a pollutant because of its Nitrogen content

4. A valuable diary stream containing a multitude of components available for exploitation in the agri-food biotechnology, medical related markets

highlights from Dr. Kings lecture

1. key terms: protein transition, protein mania

2. cultural, political, social context for protein mania & turning whey into “gold”

3. connections to Tony Weis’ concepts of “closed loop” and “flow through” agriculture & 12 Jan lecture'

more on meat

1. Increasing demand and problems with industrial meat production

2. Sustain protein and protein plurality

Eat Lancet commission report

1. What health, sustainable diets look like

2. Strategies for transformation

IPES-food

1. Connect to Jennifer Clapps article, concentration and crises

2. Three global food crisis (1970,2007-2012,2020)

3. Crop yields will fall without fertilizer

4. Farmers would normally be buying fertilizer now for next seasons planting

Dr. Kings lecture

1. Climate crisis, biodiversity loss, animal welfare concerns environmental degradation, human health concerns

   1. Suggests that we need a protein transition - move away from animal centered agriculture and diet

2. Protein mania

   1. Why has protein become a dietary obsession and cultural obsession

      1. Halo effect = protein can do no wrong

      2. No "bad" proteins diets for healthy people

      3. Can sell the same "fix" protein across the life span for multitude of health concerns

3. Protein deficiency almost never occurs in the absence of malnutrition