The Transformation of Agriculture: From Mechanization to Globalization

1. Agri-Food • Intro • The Transformation of Agriculture in the 20th Century • An Abundance of Food • The Secret History of Meat • A Culinary System for a Globalized World • Conclusion

2. Learning Goals • By the end of this section of the course you should understand: • The origin of the system that makes the fast food hamburger “taste good” • Specifically, you should understand: • The origins and shape of postwar “industrial agriculture” • What the Green Revolution was and how it affected Mexico • What the postwar (mercantile-industrial) and contemporary (corporate-environmental) culinary systems worked, how they related to the agriculture of these years, and what sort of foods they produced

3. The Transformation of Agriculture Agriculture in 1990s • Machinery • Chemicals • Many off-farm inputs • Monocultures • 4 or more tons per hectare • High-tech, machine labour

4. Wheat Farming Early 20th Century Walking Plow Discing

6. II. The Transformation of Agriculture How did agriculture transform in the 20th century? Agriculture in 1900 • Animal or human muscle • Organic fertilizers • Few off-farm inputs • 1-2 tons per hectare • Low-tech, labour intensive (62% of Canadian popl’n rural in 1900)

7. The Transformation of Agriculture Mechanization • Horse-drawn threshers & reapers, 1830s • Gasoline-powered tractors, 1892 • N.Am converts to tractors, 1920 – 55 • Railways and Steamships, 1870-80s

8. The Transformation of Agriculture Plant Breeding • Hybrid maize (corn) – US, 1918 • 3-4 X increase in yields • Marquis wheat – 1909 • Dwarf wheat

9. The Transformation of Agriculture Pesticides • Nitrogen & Phosphorus • Guano, S.Am., 19th century • Superphosphate – first chemical fertilizer (1842) • Nitrogenous fertilizers (mostly post-WWII)

10. The Transformation of Agriculture The Green Revolution • Norman Borlaug • HYVs (High Yield Varieties), 1950s • CIMMYT (Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre) • Mexico: Independent in wheat by 1965

11. Norman Borlaug

12. III. An Abundance of Food How did US policy after World War II shape food in North America (and overseas)? • Collapse of global food economy in Great Depression, 1930s • Mercantile-Industrial Culinary System • Canadian Wheat Board, 1935 • US food aid (P.L. 480), 1954 • Food for Peace, late 1950s • Restricted to non-communist countries, 1964

13. III. An Abundance of Food Substitutions • Sugar • High fructose corn syrup • Beet sugar • Oil • Soya oil • Soy, maize, and wheat

14. III. An Abundance of Food Mercantile-Industrial System • US-led • wheat, soybeans, corn • Lots of fairly uniform foods • Packaged and processed foods • Green Revolution and food sovereignty in Mexico

15. IV. The Secret History of Meat How did the mercantile-industrial system shape the production and consumption of meat? • “linking field crops with intensive, scientific animal production, through giant agri-food corporations, across many national boundaries.” • can “smell Greeley, Colorado long before you see it. The smell is … a combination of live animals, manure, and dead animals being rendered into dog food” (Eric Schlosser) • ConAgra

16. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation • “There is shit in the meat.” • “Anyone who brings raw ground beef into his or her kitchen today must regard it as a potential biohazard…”

17. Meat Factory Meat • Iowa Beef Packers • 10 factories, 5.7 million cattle by 1980 • 13 packinghouses = almost all beef in US Manure • 400,000 hogs in Huron County • Health Canada, 2000 – 32% of rural ON wells above limit for fecal contamination

18. Meat Alberta • 2000 – 15,000 breeders (“calf-producers”) sell to 400 feedlot operations and then to 12 meatpacking plants • Typical operation – 15,000 cattle in outdoor corrals of 20 acres (previously support 3-4 grass-fed cows) • 1,600 acres of land grows corn and hay – dependent on irrigation • Other feed and nutrients shipped in

19. Feedlots

20. V. A Culinary System for a Globalized World Why did a new food system emerge? • Crisis of the global economy, 1970s • US gov’t encourages farmers to plant “hedgerow to hedgerow” • By end of 1970s, glut of food on world market – prices drop • US Farm Crisis, 1980s • LiveAid (1985) • Record $51 billion on farm subsidies, 1983 • Debt in developing world leads to commodity production for north

21. V. A Culinary System for a Globalized World • Corporate systems of certification and private standards • Fair Trade, Organic, ethical certification schemes, as well as “own brand” products (President’s Choice)

22. V. A Culinary System for a Globalized World • So: • Corporate-environmental system • Affluent consumers get a wider variety of foods supplied by supermarkets, luxury brands and corporate-controlled supply chains • Just in time produce, less food reserves, less margin for error • Supermarkets now the big corporate players • Meanwhile, increased pressure on farmers to produce higher quality foods for tight profit margins • Though: more room for niche foods, small farmers to supply

23. Conclusion: Agri-Food • Modern agriculture: • Energy & knowledge intensive • Complex social and economic systems, distant inputs • Dependence on maximal output • Massive prod’n of a small number of foods – wheat, rice, corn, also beef and chicken – leading to mass, uniform foods and processed foods • The system that makes FF hamburgers taste good • In last 30 years, have seen a wider variety of foods and emphasis on quality and niche tastes, also more corporate control – mass prod’n of a few commodities still the heart of the system – much pressure on farmers to produce specific, high quality foods – hard to make a profit