4/2 Kate Raworth, et al., Trading Away Our Rights: Women Working in Global Supply Chains. Oxfam, 2004 (focus on pp. 4-29): http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/rights.pdf and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “The current situation of Brazilian women”: http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0210e/x0210e02.htm **Review Planet of Slums pp. 158-163 and 186-198.
Of interest, related to class 3/31– A current news piece on the outskirting of the poor within our country. “Hollywood gets its wish; homeless trek north”: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-homeless-people-relocating-20150327-story.html
4/7 Philip McMichael, “The World Food Crisis in Historical Perspective” from Agriculture and Food in Crisis (PDF) and Kara Newman, “How Does Commodities Trading Work?” from The Secret Financial Life of Food (PDF)
4/9 **YOU ONLY HAVE 4 CLASSES LEFT TO WRITE READING RESPONSES** GRAIN, “The New Farm Owners: Corporate Investors and the Control of Overseas Farmland” and Michael Altieri, “Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty” from Agriculture and Food in Crisis (2 PDFs)
If you missed class on 4/9, please view “The Luckiest Nut in the World” (8 minute version)
If you are interested in the extended (23 minute) version of “The Luckiest Nut”, check it out here!
4/14 Lawrence Busch and Carmen Bain, “New! Improved? The Transformation of the Global Agrifood System” (PDF) and Steve Stecklow and Erin White, “At Some Retailers, ‘Fair Trade’ Carries a Very High Cost” (PDF)
4/16 Eric Schlosser, “Why Being a Foodie Isn’t ‘Elitist’”: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-being-a-foodie-isnt-elitist/2011/04/27/AFeWsnFF_story.html and Tom Laskawy, “Nestle wants you to be scared of organic food”: http://grist.org/organic-food/2011-08-30-nestles-chairman-wants-you-to-be-scared-of-organic-food/ and Stephanie Storm, “Has ‘Organic’ Been Oversized?”: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/organic-food-purists-worry-about-big-companies-influence.html?pagewanted=all
This just in (well, just last week): “Monsanto Creates First Genetically Modified Strain of Marijuana” (bonus article, not to be used as the basis for a response paper, but can be used in conjunction with other articles)
4/21 Josee Johnston and Michelle Szabo, “Reflexivity and the Whole Foods Market Consumer: The Lived Experience of Shopping for Change” (PDF) and Juliet Schor, “The New Politics of Consumption”: http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/juliet-b-schor-new-politics-consumption **CHANGE TO SYLLABUS: Instead of the Schor article, read Allison Lakomski, “Urban Markets and the Virtual Rural” (PDF)
Note, regarding my comment on Whole Foods’ salary cap for its executives: “No one at the company can have a salary more than nineteen times what the average team member makes. (On average, an S. & P. 500 C.E.O. makes three hundred and nineteen times what a production worker does.) Last year [2008], the highest salary went to Walter Robb, the co-president and chief operating officer, who made just over four hundred thousand dollars (supplemented by a bonus and stock options). The average hourly wage was sixteen dollars and fifty cents [or $34,320 a year for a full time employee]” (Source: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/04/food-fighter)