Category Archives: Trade

We Feed the World Documentary Screening

In order to raise awareness about the issues surrounding the global food trade, our group chose to screen a documentary for anyone that wanted to attend. The documentary we chose to show for our even was Erwin Wagenhofer’s 2005 documentary, ​We Feed the World, which focuses on the impacts of the industrial production of food and factory farming. Furthermore, our… Read more »

Group Division of Labor: An Insight Into the Global Hunger Debate

Through our group action project, I learned that individual strengths can lead to divisions of labor that are sometimes hard to equalize. I feel this way because I realized that my shortcomings as an organizer and the limits of my time resulted in a less equal contribution than I would have normally expected of myself. I tried to make up… Read more »

Trade Wars

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I’ve always had a political and economic emphasis when it comes to how I analyze course material. With that being said, I knew that addressing trade for my group project would be useful in examining how political economy relates to food and the environment. As a result, I was excited to find a group of peers with a similar sort… Read more »

Chocolate, Cocoa, and Contemplation

Contemplative practices have been an interesting approach to understanding larger food systems. In particular, it has helped me understand food “culture” in America on a much deeper level. Food culture (and generally culture as well) in America is dominated by on the go, fast paced ideals. We want success, a beautiful body, and our good, healthy food and we want… Read more »

The Who is as Important as the Where

A large majority of people within the United States are capable of walking into a grocery store, grabbing what is needed for their dinner that evening, and leaving without consciously considering the impact that food product had on another person’s life. Thinking contemplatively about where our food comes from isn’t a common practice, and if we rarely consider where our… Read more »

From Personal Realization Comes Personal Expression

The practice of cultivating self-awareness is a challenge that exists in all facets of life. In the study of world food politics, it is a practice which is vital to understanding various problems which plague our world. In our class, we have focused on a range of contemplative practices. These specific reflections have created a space which has allowed for… Read more »

The Hoodia Rap Song

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***Click HERE to take a listen — Hoodia Rap*** Here is a rap song I wrote from the contemplative practice about industrialized food process, hunger, and its aftermath. The Hoodia plant grows naturally in the southern region of Africa. The San people traditionally consume the bitter plant as an appetite suppressant, to help survive in desert conditions where food resources… Read more »

My Bitter-Sweet Relationship with Chocolate

Our contemplative practice with chocolate in Lecture 7 left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. This may be because we were ingesting raw cocoa nibs, but it was mostly due to the new information I received from this lecture that was difficult to digest. Prior to this contemplative practice, I loved eating, or baking/cooking with chocolate. I’ve always… Read more »

To Whom do Local farmers Make Food?

When we think about hunger in the world, we imagine the lack of food. The video “Silent Killer: The Unfinished Campaign Against Hunger” tells us the other reason of world hunger. In Brazil, enough amount of food is produced to feed all people in Brazil. However many people cannot get enough food to live and are facing to hunger. The… Read more »

Food Diversity and Allergies

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Within his book, Pollan discusses how chronic diseases were “quickly acquired” by immigrants in America. This reminded me of an experience I had while living in Dubai, as it was only people from North America that were allergic to nuts. Within our expat community growing up, it became a ‘running joke’ to identify North American’s through their nut allergies. New… Read more »