Food and the international division of labour

Juan Grigera

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

There have always been many vital reasons for a significant interest in the study of food. Yet, let us recall that the question of food has been part of States' agenda since the early days of colonialism and, as we will see, a concern of the students of imperialism since the very beginning of its theorizing. A single issue (that of terms of trade, or by its acronym NBTT, net barter terms of trade) has dominated the debates of food and the international division of labor in the twentieth century. It is only recently that new perspectives and other topics have been debated at reasonable length. We will first summarize the early views on this issue in the works of Kautsky as a first critical approach to the “agrarian question”. Then we will move from this and other subsidiary remarks in the formulation of the classical theories of imperialism to its predominance in the first formulation of center/periphery in the thought of Latin American structuralism and the longstanding influence in dependencia and world-systems theory. We will present a summary of the enormously wide empirical and theoretical questions and criticism raised to the structuralist formulation. Finally, we will briefly review the renewal of the agenda on the question of food and the international division of labor such as the study of global value chains and food sovereignty.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPalgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism
EditorsSaër Maty Ba, Immanuel Ness
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages1221-1226
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)978-0-230-39277-9
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Kautsky
  • dependency theory
  • food
  • food security
  • international division of labor
  • latin american structuralism
  • net barter terms of trade

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