7
E. C. Pasour, Jr.'s and Randall R. Rucker. 2005.
Plowshares and Pork Barrels: The Political Economy of Agriculture
. The Independent Institute, p. 308.
8
Robert Paarlberg. 2010.
Food Politics. What Everyone Needs to Know.
Oxford University Press, p. 86.
15
For a discussion of strategic grain reserves between the early 1970s and mid-1990s, see John Lynton-Evans. 1997.
Strategic Grain Reserves - Guidelines for their establishment, management and operation
. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletinâ126
http://www.fao.org/docrep/w4979e/w4979e00.htm
.
16
Evan D. G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas. 2010.
Empires of Food. Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.
Free Press, pp. 66â67.
17
The Food Corporation of India is a government entity charged with providing effective price support to farmers, distributing foodgrains to the public and maintaining buffer stocks of food grains to ensure food security. See its website at
http://fciweb.nic.in/
.
20
Louis Torfs. 1839.
Fastes des calamités publiques survenues dans les Pays-Bas et particulièrement en Belgique, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours.
Casterman, pp. 238â239
http://books.google.com/books?id=W1ZbAAAAQAAJ&hl=fr&source=gbs_navlinks_s
For recent historical scholarship on the effectiveness of some past European and Chinese granaries, see, among others, Olivier Zeller. 1989. “Politique frumentaire et rapports sociaux à Lyon, 1772-1776.”
Histoire, Ãconomie et Société
8 (2): 249â286
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/hes_0752-5702_1989_num_8_2_2368
; and Carol H. Shiue. 2004. “Local Granaries and Central Government Disaster Relief: Moral Hazard and Intergovernmental Finance in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century China.”
Journal of Economic History
64 (1):100â124.
28
Cormac à Gráda. 2009.
Famine. A Short History.
Princeton University Press, p. 138.
29
William Harte. 1764.
Essays on Husbandry
. W. Frederick, p. 52 (adapted to modern English by the writers)
http://books.google.com/books?id=DaI1AAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
According to the historian Peter Garnsey, Athens and Rome were the exception rather the rule in the Ancient World, at least inasmuch as the rulers of other cities did not object to food exports in good times as it brought them increased revenues. Peter Garnsey. 1988.
Famine and
Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis
. Cambridge University Press, chapter 5.
32
See, among others, Siddharta Mitra and Tim Josling. 2009.
Agricultural Export Restrictions: Welfare Implications and Trade Disciplines
. IPC Position Paper Agricultural and Rural Development Policy Series. International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council
http://www.agritrade.org/documents/ExportRestrictions_final.pdf
.
35
E-mail correspondence with Gary Blumenthal of World Perspectives, Inc., December 2011.
36
Similar schemes were also in existence for a long time in advanced economies ranging from Canada to New Zealand.
37
William O. Jones. 1987. “Food-Crop Marketing Boards in Africa.”
The Journal of Modern African Studies
25 (3): 375â402.
38
For a more detailed survey of the impact of commodity marketing boards on less developed economies, see Lee R. Martin. 1991.
A Survey of Agricultural Economics Literature, volume 4: Agriculture in Economic Development 1940sâ1990s
. University of Minnesota Press, especially pp. 44â48 .
39
Edward R. Cook, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Brendan M. Buckley, Rosanne D. D'Arrigo, Gordon C. Jacoby and William E. Wright. 2010. “Asian Monsoon Failure and Megadrought during the Last Millennium.”
Science
328 (5977): 486â489.
44
Fonterra's website can be found at
http://www.fonterra.com/wps/wcm/connect/fonterracom/fonterra.com
For assessments of the environmental impacts of agricultural trade liberalization in New Zealand, see OECD. 1996.
The Environmental Effect of Removing Agricultural Subsidies: Case Study of New Zealand.
OECD COM/AGR/CA/ENV/EPOC (96), p. 119 and Willie Smith and Hayden Montgomery. 2003. “Revolution or Evolution? New Zealand Agriculture since 1984.”
GeoJournal
59 (2): 107â118 for a somewhat more critical analysis.
45
Eutrophication is the process through which water bodies receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive plant growth.
46
See, among others, Elinor Ostrom. 1999. “Coping with Tragedies of the Commons.”
Annual Review of Political Science
2: 493-535; and Elinor Ostrom. 2000. “Private and Common Property Rights.” In Boudewijn Bouckaert and Gerrit De Geest (eds.).
Encyclopedia of Law and Economics
. Edward Elgar, pp. 332â379.
Conclusion
1
The “great grandmother” line was made most famous by Michael Pollan in his various writings, such as in his In Defense of Food
http://michaelpollan.com/books/in-defense-of-food/
While neither of us has met any of our great grandmothers, one of our grandmothers was rather fond of processed foods and the availability of fresh produce in the middle of the Canadian winter.
2
To give but one case among a multitude of others, the mongooses once brought to Hawaii to control imported rats quickly developed a taste for native
birds. Of course, sometimes events played out the other way, with a local pest discovering a particular fondness for an imported crop. A case in point is the Colorado potato beetle, an insect native to the Rocky Mountains which had previously thrived on the leaves of local wild plants.
3
Software specifically designed to help manage organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes have long been part of the food activist's toolkit while a new “locavore” iPhone application had become available as we were beginning to write this book.
4
Paul Johnson. 2007.
Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky
, HarperCollins, p. 391.