Notes on Globalization and Food Production
Doelstellingen (Objectives)
LPD 5: Illustrate the interaction between production and consumption on a global scale.
LPD 6: Analyze factors influencing production and consumption using examples from agriculture.
LPD 7: Illustrate the impact of globalization on spatial interaction between production and consumption.
LPD 8: Analyze spatial consequences of production and consumption.
LPD 11: Investigate how human activities and socio-economic trends exceed certain planetary boundaries.
LPD 18: Use geographic resources, including GIS viewers, to investigate spatial processes and their consequences.
LPD 19: Locate absolute and relative persons, places, patterns, and processes at relevant spatial scale levels.
De Weg van Ons Voedsel (The Path of Our Food)
Inleiding (Introduction)
Agriculture and food are central to complex global issues.
These issues require international cooperation to solve.
Examples of such problems:
Voedselzekerheid (Food security): Ensuring everyone has enough to eat.
Armoede en ongelijkheid (Poverty and inequality): Farmers struggling to survive.
Milieuvervuiling (Environmental pollution): Protecting nature from harmful agricultural practices.
Klimaatverandering (Climate change): Adapting farming to the changing climate.
Gezondheid (Health): Concerns about genetically modified crops, antibiotic-treated meat, lab-grown meat, food allergies, and disease spread through food.
Vrede en veiligheid (Peace and security): Conflicts arising from crop failures.
Migratie (Migration): Inability to farm due to conflicts or climate change, leading to refugee flows.
Key Questions:
Where does our food come from, and how is it produced?
What is the impact of globalization on production and consumption?
What pressure does food production place on the planet and society?
How can sustainable food production look for both humans and the environment?
How can consumers contribute to sustainability?
Eos Tracé:
Maps the journey of our food from cultivation, processing, transport, and consumption to waste processing.
Examines the impact on the environment, health, social aspects, and animal welfare.
Aims to distinguish facts from myths about everyday products.
Waar Komt Ons Voedsel Vandaan? (Where Does Our Food Come From?)
Van het Veld Tot Op Ons Bord? (From Field to Plate?)
All food originates from production, primarily agriculture.
Food is often processed after harvesting before reaching consumers.
Future food production may involve:
Kweekvlees (Cultured meat): Producing proteins without animals (or with only stem cells).
Micro-organismen (Microorganisms): Using bacteria, yeasts, and fungi to create alternative proteins for milk or cheese substitutes (e.g., Quorn).
These methods do not require agricultural land.
Soorten Landbouw (Types of Agriculture)
Food production methods depend on physical and socio-economic factors.
Different agricultural systems exist due to variations in these factors.
Examples include:
Extensieve commerciële veeteelt (Extensive commercial livestock farming): Raising animals on large areas for sale.
Traditionele deels zelfvoorzienende akkerbouw (Traditional partly self-sufficient arable farming): Growing crops mainly for own use with traditional methods.
Mediterrane landbouw (Mediterranean agriculture): Specific farming in Mediterranean climate areas (citrus fruits, olives).
Plantagelandbouw (Plantation agriculture): Large-scale monoculture farming for commercial purposes, common in the tropics.
Welke Factoren Beïnvloeden de Voedselproductie? (Which Factors Influence Food Production?)
The distribution of agricultural systems worldwide is not random, but influenced by physical and socio-economic factors.
Fysische factoren (Physical factors): Natural elements like climate, relief, and soil.
Socio-economische factoren (Socio-economic factors): Wealth, population density, age distribution, population growth.
Fysische Factoren (Physical Factors)
Areas are often unproductive due to:
Unsuitable climate (too dry, wet, cold, hot).
Steep or mountainous relief.
Stony or infertile soil.
Improductive areas often lead to nomadische landbouw (nomadic farming) where people move from place to place.
Technologies to overcome physical disadvantages:
Irrigatie (Irrigation) in dry areas.
Terrasbouw (Terrace farming) in relief-rich areas.
Kunstmeststoffen (Artificial fertilizers) for nutrient-poor soils.
Serres (Greenhouses) in cold regions.
These technologies require capital, making socio-economic factors more significant than physical factors in determining agricultural systems.
Socio-economische Factoren (Socio-economic Factors)
Invloed van de bevolkingsgroei op de landbouw (Influence of Population Growth on Agriculture)
Agriculture developed after the last Pleistocene ice age due to a warmer, more stable climate.
Humans transitioned from hunting and gathering to cultivating crops and raising livestock (Neolithic Revolution, around 10,000 BC).
The world population was about 1 million with a life expectancy of 10-12 years.
Improved agricultural techniques led to an increase in population.
By 8000 BC, the world population was around 5 million.
Around the birth of Christ, it was 250 million, and by 1800, it reached 1 billion.
Population growth increased the demand for food.
The US, India, China, Brazil, and Russia are major food-producing countries, accounting for 50% of global food production.
Solutions to produce more food:
Meer landbouwgrond gebruiken (Using more agricultural land):
Currently, 33% of the land is used for agriculture, compared to only 4% a thousand years ago.
This land is used for food crops, animal feed, and bio fuels.
Verticale landbouw (Vertical farming) is a solution to save agricultural land.
Landroof/Landgrabbing: Buying or renting land in foreign countries (often the global south) to grow export crops, displacing local populations.
Ontbossing (Deforestation): Clearing forests for agriculture and livestock farming, increasing climate warming and creating unusable lands due to soil exhaustion or erosion.
Intensivering van de landbouwgrond (Intensifying agricultural land):
Increasing yields per hectare through techniques like:
Irrigatie: Supplying water to crops in dry areas.
Zaadselectie: Selecting seeds with the highest yields.
Bemesting: Adding nutrients to the soil.
GGO’s (GMOs): Genetically modified organisms that are less susceptible to diseases.
Expansion of agricultural land and increased yields led to schaalvergroting (scaling up) and increased food production.
More food does not necessarily mean less hongersnood (famine), as food is not always distributed to where it is needed.
Invloed van het BBP op de landbouw (Influence of GDP on Agriculture)
The way agriculture is practiced depends on a country's wealth, measured by its Bruto Binnenlands Product (BBP) or Gross Domestic Product.
is the value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year.
In wealthy countries (high GDP), agriculture is more modern with more investment in machines and technology.
Fewer people work in agriculture, and agriculture contributes less to the country's total wealth.
Agriculture is intensive, with schaalvergroting (scaling up) and monocultuur (monoculture), focused on export (commerciële landbouw, commercial agriculture).
In less affluent countries (low GDP), agriculture is more labor-intensive with polycultuur (polyculture).
Many people work in agriculture due to smaller yields, primarily for own use (zelfvoorzienende landbouw, self-sufficient agriculture).
Polyculture provides a varied diet and greater resilience against unforeseen circumstances.
This distinction is nuanced, as small-scale family businesses can be found in Europe and large-scale monoculture on plantations in Africa.
Differences between two farms 40 km apart can be greater than between two farms on different continents.
Welke Factoren Beïnvloeden de Voedselconsumptie? (Which Factors Influence Food Consumption?)
A country's BBP largely determines what is eaten there.
In less affluent countries (low GDP), people have monotonous eating habits, consuming what they grow in self-sufficient agriculture, dependent on climate and soil conditions.
Their diet mainly consists of granen (grains), wortels (roots), and knolgewassen (tubers).
Supermarkets offer less variety.
In countries with a higher BBP, consumers expect more and better food, with an overabundance of choice in supermarkets, including tropical crops and non-seasonal vegetables.
The stijgende voedselproductie (increasing food production) worldwide is mainly aimed at consumers in the global north.
Richer countries also consume more vlees (meat), once considered a luxury product.
Due to rising wealth, meat has become part of the daily consumption pattern in the global north.
In Asian and African countries, meat is still a luxury product, but demand is increasing due to rising wealth.
This increased meat consumption influences production.
In België (Belgium), 1 in 2 farms is active in veeteelt (livestock farming), producing more meat than consumed, with most production exported.
A large portion of agricultural land is used for veevoeders (animal feed), putting pressure on schaarse landbouwgrond (scarce agricultural land).
Meat production has a significant impact on klimaatopwarming (climate warming) (methane emissions from runderen, cattle) and water scarcity.
Wat zijn de gevolgen van mondialisering op onze voeding? (What are the consequences of globalization on our food?)
Mondialisering (Globalization) means locally produced crops are no longer consumed locally or regionally.
Improved transport mogelijkheden (transport possibilities) have allowed food to be exported and imported, creating global food trade.
Since 2000, world trade in food has more than tripled.
Some regions (Asia, Middle East, North Africa) are increasingly dependent on voedselimporten (food imports).
Other regions (the US, Latin America, the EU) are important exporteurs (exporters) and play a growing role in supplying import countries with food and animal feed.
This has consequences for both farmers in export and import countries and consumers.
Gevolgen voor de consument (Consequences for the consumer)
Global trade has made consumers forget about seizoensgebonden eten (seasonal eating), what food looks like in the field, and where it comes from.
Some believe ananassen (pineapples) grow on trees, and it is normal to eat aardbeien (strawberries) year-round.
The cold climate does not prevent eating tropische gewassen (tropical crops) and rijst (rice) almost weekly.
Modern agriculture has become an industrial process.
Gevolgen voor de producent (= de boer) (Consequences for the producer (= the farmer))
Farmers need both agricultural skills and business acumen.
They compete with farmers thousands of kilometers away.
This mondialisering (globalization) makes it difficult for farmers to make ends meet, leading to protests in many European countries, including België (Belgium).
The causes are related to globalisering (globalization).
Inleiding: enkele cijfers (Introduction: some figures)
70% of all boerenland (farmland) is owned by 1% of agricultural companies.
'Three hundred farmers per day disappear in the EU'.
'The farmer who does not expand, dies'.
Vlaanderen (Flanders) has 42 million chickens and 5.7 million pigs, one of the highest veeconcentratie (livestock concentration) in Europe, yet farmers are building ever-larger stalls.
Every day, two farmers throw their riek (pitchfork) over the haag (hedge) due to strict environmental guidelines and poor prices.
Conclusie: hoe globalisering landbouwbedrijven wereldwijd verbindt (Conclusion: how globalization connects agricultural companies worldwide)
* The story starts in the BRAZILIAANSE Cerrado (savannah area), at the Condomínio Estrondo, a landgoed (estate) comprising 22 boerderijen (farms), totaling 315,000 hectares.
* These fazenda’s (farms) specalize in soja (soy) production.
* In their drang naar steeds meer (drive for more), they did (illegale) ontbossing (illegal deforestation) and landroof (land grabbing), thereby dispossessing the local population of their land.
* Slaaf op eigen grond (Slave on your own land).