The Global Asia Research Forum for Sustainable Living and Conviviality holds a workshop on global food history and socio-economic transition in the time of the Anthropocene.

Speaker: Dr. Midori HIRAGA (Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Kyoto Tachibana University)

Chair: Dr. Yoshihiro Nakano (Junior Researcher, Waseda University)

Date & Time: December 6 (Mon) 2021, 16:30-18:00 (Japan Time)

Language: English & Japanese

Eligible participant: student, faculty member, and public

*This is online workshop and please finish online registration by 30 November 2021: https://bit.ly/midorihiragabookevent

*For inquiry: sgu.event2021[at] gmail. com

Profile:
Dr. Midori HIRAGA is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Kyoto Tachibana University. She researches international political economy of food, focusing on how vegetable oils (soy, palm, rapeseed, etc.) have been disseminated in industrial mass diet. She received a Master of Science degree in Food and Nutrition Policy at City University London, UK, and a Doctoral degree in Economics at Kyoto University, Japan.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5793-7505

Abstract:
Food and agriculture are normally considered as cultural or natural issues. But majority of people today buy food, that are supplied by the combinations of companies and industries in agriculture, retail, food processing, restaurant and many other sectors. This “capitalist food system” has been deeply embedded in the history of capitalism, and the capitalism has been influenced by agriculture and food. The lecture introduces the entwined history of food and the capitalist development since the time of the industrial revolution till the current globalization and “financialization” of food and agriculture, to provide a better understanding of the current food, agriculture, and the climate crisis from the political economy approach.

[Main references in English]
(1) Holt-Giménez, E. (2017) A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat, Monthly Review Press: New York.
(2) McMichael, P. (2013) Food Regimes and Agrarian Questions, Fernwood Publishing: Halifax.