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The top four companies globally control more than 60% of the inputs modern farmers need: machinery, fertilisers, seeds, and pesticides. That kind of concentration, coupled with their size, gives these companies unprecedented power to set prices, often in collusion with their “competitors,” to block real competition, to stifle innovation, and to manipulate governments and policies. And while that may seem a problem of modern times, it’s actually a story that goes back to the beginning of industrial agriculture. Jennifer Clapp, Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo in Ontario undertook a deep investigation of the history and behaviour of these companies for her new book Titans of Industrial Agriculture: how a few giant corporations came to dominate the farm sector and why it matters.

Notes

1. Jennifer Clapp’s book Titans of Industrial Agriculture: how a few giant corporations came to dominate the farm sector and why it matters is published by The MIT Press.
2. This recent article by Jennifer Clapp sets out some of her views on how to address global hunger, including ideas on reining in corporate concentration.
3. Here is the transcript.

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For most of the 2000s, farmers in Peru earned a little more than one sol per kilogram of unprocessed quinoa they sold. Starting around 2007, the price began to climb as quinoa exports became a thing, averaging 9 soles per kg in 2014. The following year, the price halved, and it dropped again in 2016. It’s still around 4 soles per kg, so a lot better than it was, and quinoa production is double what it was. Nevertheless, the early promise of a sustained quinoa boom proved to be an illusion.

Emma McDonnell was in Peru for the early years of the boom and for the subsequent bust, a story she recounts in her book The Quinoa Bust.

Notes

1. Emma McDonnell has a website. Her book The Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop is published by California University Press.
2. A previous episode — It is OK to eat quinoa — looked at the impact of the boom in purely economic terms.
3. An issue of the USDA’s Choices magazine looked at several so-called functional foods, including quinoa, asking whether they were a Fad or Path to Prosperity?. Both, maybe.
4. Here is the transcript
5. The banner photo uses a picture of quinoa growing in Ollantaytambo, Peru by Hector Montero. The quinoa close up on the cover is by Flickered!

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Perhaps the only thing most people know about Jewish dietary laws is that pork is forbidden. A new book asks why the pig — rather than any of the other animals banned by the Hebrew bible — should have become so inextricably bound up with Jewish identity. Author Jordan Rosenblum points out that at the time of the Roman occupation, the pig was “simply the most commonly encountered nonkosher quadruped.” The imagined qualities of the pig and those of the Jews aligned, a link that still survives in anti-semitic propaganda.

I didn’t want to rehash the history of anti-semitism but I did want to know more about the relationship between pork and Jewish identity. I hope you will too.

Notes

1. Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig is published by New York University Press.
2. Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
3. Cover art is a reproduction from a 19th century book about customs of the Middle Ages. The banner image is from a campaign by the Debby Agency for Burger King. I am told (by ChatGPT) that the Hebrew says “And may the house be filled with the smell of turkey bacon”.
4. Here is the transcript.

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A new book takes a close look at people’s concerns about processed foods and how the processed food industry has failed to respond to them. The author, Charlotte Biltekoff, says she wanted to try and understand what was happening around her, as people in her milieu came more and more to demand real food rather than processed foods, while the makers of processed foods failed to understand the deeper reasons underpinning those demands. Industry wants consumers who, reassured on questions of safety and risk, will buy and eat its products. People want answers to questions beyond safety and risk. And never the twain shall meet.

Notes

1. Real Food, Real Facts: processed food and the politics of knowledge is available from the University of California Press.
2. Other effects notwithstanding, a primary reason to avoid UPFs is that they encourage you to eat more.
3. Here is the transcript.
4. Thanks ChatGPT for sharing your stereotypical vision of a Mom and a Female Scientist.

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St Brigid of Kildare is one of the three patron saints of Ireland and has a strong connection with food and farming. St Brigid’s day falls on 1 February and traditionally marks the beginning of spring and the start of the agricultural year.

In 2023, the Republic of Ireland designated the day a public holiday if it falls on a Friday, and failing that the first Monday of February, but the day has long been celebrated in a variety of ways. People make St Brigid’s crosses to a variety of traditional designs, using them to protect farm animals and ensure a good harvest. There are special foods too, and other ritual celebrations, some of which delve in the pagan past.

Caitríona Nic Philibin has studied the folklore surrounding St Brigid and shared some of the stories with me.

Notes

1. I am indebted to Caitríona Nic Philibin and Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire for their work on food and folklore in Ireland, and especially An exploratory study of food traditions associated with Imbolg (St. Brigid’s Day) from The Irish Schools’ Folklore Collection. They offered a summary of their work: What food is associated with St Brigid’s Day?. And Pishogues, Brídeogs And Butter Witches at The Common Table gives a great deal more detail on food and folklore in Ireland.
2. The music at the start is from St. Brigid’s Jig by Louise Mulcahy. Another fine tune from the same set is St. Brigid’s Day by Caitlín Nic Gabhann.
3. Images of St Brigid’s crosses from the National Museum of Ireland. The icon of St Brigid I lifted from The Brigidine Sisters.
4. Here is the transcript.

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