GMOs in Canada

Timur Khudaiberdiev's excellent 2 minute animation on GMOs in Canada's food system.

Michael Pollen's food rules

This RSA animation of a talk by Michael Pollen is an excellent, succinct reason why agriculture has to change.

Michael Pollan's Food Rules from Marija Jacimovic on Vimeo.

Marx's theory of crisis

This is, without doubt, the best short exposition of Marx's theory of crisis that I have ever heard. It is brilliant, and congratulations to Cliff Bowman of Cranfield University for being so succinct.

An excellent new short video on the food system from Oxfam International:

The secret history of your favourite hamburger

An excellent article that emphasizes the cruelty of the food system:

The secret history of your favourite hamburger - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Recent activities, spring 2012

With the end of the 2011 - 2012 academic session it was, as usual, extremely gratifying to meet graduating students one last time. They will be missed. Spring of 2012 will be busy. Following a seminar for the NGO Working Group on Food and Hunger at the United Nations, I will be returning do the second half of my graduate teaching, Development economics, on the Master's in Development Practice Program at Emory University, Atlanta, USA. I then travel to Korea, continuing my advisory work for the Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme's Gender Team. I will also commence an assignment for UN Women on engendering macropolicies. Following the annual conference of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development, I travel to New Zealand (for the first time) to deliver the Keynote Address to a symposium entitled 'Reconsidering gender in Asian studies: a Pacific perspective', organized by the Asia New Zealand Research Cluster at the University of Otago in Dunedin. Of course, my administrative responsibilities as Chair of the Department of International Development Studies will continue, particularly in light of the forthcoming program review that must be undertaken by the Department. In terms of research, I plan to finally complete my essay on contextualizing land grabbing in the developing world, for the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, and submit my manuscript, Hungry for Change? Farmers, Agrarian Questions and the Global Food Crisis, to Brunswick Books/Kumarian Press.

Reframing R+20: zero ten twenty

The media portal that seeks change, tve, has started to post a series of short films that follow the lives of 11 boys and girls born in different countries round the world in 1992 - the year of the first Rio Earth Summit, where world leaders signed up to a blueprint for a greener, fairer world – a world that would safeguard resources for future generations. ‘Zero, Ten, Twenty’ is tve's flagship, long-term project that seeks to document what it’s been like to grow up in a fast-changing, 21st century world – how globalization and the Earth Summit have impacted on their lives, and what now are their hopes, fears and ambitions for the future, on the eve of the new Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The stories of these children, from Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Latvia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, England and USA, constitute a unique diary of global change. This first entry is an overview of a series of films that will emerge. It really is something quite remarkable -- a partial transcript of our world.

Memories of the Sahel

An excellent perspective of the food crisis in the Sahel from expatriate Africans from the region living in New York. Perspective is everything.

Thanks to David Styan for showing me this.

UN food envoy decries 'shocking' conditions in Canada

A hard-hitting article on what Oliver de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has found on his mission to Canada, his first to an OECD country:

UN food envoy decries 'shocking' conditions in Canada

land matrix | land portal

 The International Land Coalition has created a new website that compiles data about large-scale land deals around the world.  It is quite a remarkable site, and worth exploring:

Land Matrix | Land Portal

resistance to land grabbing in Mali and Uganda

An excellent expose of the impact of land grabbing in Mali: Followed by an excellent expose of the impact of land grabbing in Uganda:

What does the rapid uptake of mobile money transfer in Kenya really mean for financial inclusion?

An excellent analysis of mobile money transfer that pours cold water on the way that it is perceived by the global development institutions:

What does the rapid uptake of mobile money transfer in Kenya really mean for financial inclusion?

current activities, winter 2012

This winter I will continue teaching our first year introduction to international development at Trent University, Human inequality in global perspective. I will also do my graduate teaching, Development economics, on the Master's in Development Practice Program at Emory University, Atlanta, USA. My administrative responsibilities as Chair of the Department of International Development Studies will continue, particularly in light of the academic planning exercise now being undertaken by the University. I will continue my advisory work for the Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme' Gender Team. This will see me travel to once more to Korea as well as the Middle East. I will also finish the revisions to my current paper on contextualizing land grabbing in the developing world, and return to my as-yet unfinished manuscript, Hungry for Change? Farmers, Agrarian Questions and the Global Food Crisis. It will be busy.

Kony 2012: why listen to me?

The video Kony 2012 has been a mega-hit on YouTube, with 21 million hits. It is also deeply, deeply problematic for anyone engaged in international development. You don't have to have me tell you why, though. First, here is the video:



Next, here is an excellent response from Rosebell Kagumire in Uganda.



Chris Webb has very usefully transcribed what Kagumire said: "I viewed it this morning and the first 5 minutes told me this was another effort by a good white American guy trying to save my people. In this story Ugandans are just mere watchers as Kony kills our children. In this story not much can an African do. It is the same old sensationalization of African stories and simplification of our problems to tell the western world using even his son that they should save Africa. How? by giving us money.

It’s a narrative that many of us of the continent who work in the media always look at in disbelief but such videos are easy to enter the hearts of an ignorant Western audience who do not question the narrative.

The film is void of any means like peace efforts that have gone on and it simplifies the war to Joseph Kony — a mad evil man. This war was bigger than Joseph Kony and those who will end it won’t be Americans. It’s a complex war that requires African governments of Uganda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic to work together to pacify the region. And when I heard him say that Uganda is in central Africa despite [him] having visited here I almost stopped watching.

All in all it’s a very imperialistic film trying to touch sentiments of those who can ‘save’ Africa i.e. Hollywood and the West.

I am glad for social media that we are able to watch this kind of work and we react. This kind of condescending attitude towards Africa and its problems shouldn’t be given space in the 21st century."

As I said, why listen to me?

Postscript: the arrest of Jason Russell, a co-founder of Invisible Children, on 16 March 2012 will, I hope, bring this sorry affair to a close.

water for food

An excellent short animation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that shows how so much water is embedded within our food.

A life on hold

Omar is a 17 year old Somali living in a refugee camp in Tunisia.

A short film by Nick Francis and Marc Silver.

Raj Patel: abolish the food industry

An excellent, provocative piece by Raj Patel in February's The Atlantic makes a clarion call: abolish the food industry.

Abolish the Food Industry - The Atlantic

27 February 2012 is a global day of action: occupy our food supply. Catch more at:

http://www.occupyourfoodsupply.org/

eight ways Monsanto fails at sustainable agriculture

From the Union of Concerned Scientists in the United States, an excellent introduction to the failures of industrial agriculture by way of Monsanto.

Eight Ways Monsanto Fails at Sustainable Agriculture | Union of Concerned Scientists

CPI (M) in crisis

An excellent assessment of the Draft Political Resolution of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which highlights the extent to which it will tie itself into knots in order to become electable.

CPI(M) in Crisis

the epistle of Gates and the gospel of agricultural innovation

This is an interesting analysis by Justin Sandefur of the Center for Global Development in Washington. I don't agree with all of it, but the challenge that he lays down to the Gates Foundation and their emphasis on agricultural innovation is on the mark.

The Epistle of Gates and the Gospel of Agricultural Innovation

Ghana’s advantage: an agriculture board?

Last week I gave an interview to MacLeans.ca on the prospects for cocoa in Ghana. Here is the article:

Ghana’s advantage: An agriculture board? - Econowatch - Macleans.ca