The Anthropology of Corn Thursdays 12-2 Pm, Classes Begin January 12 and End April 5, 2012

ANT 480H1S The Anthropology of Corn Thursdays 12-2 pm, Classes begin January 12 and end April 5, 2012

Instructor: Lauren Classen

Class Location: Sidney Smith 2101

Office Hours: Thursdays 2-3:30pm

Drop Box for late papers: 19 Russell, Located outside the administrative offices (in the corner to the right of the elevator and stairs)

Course Description: Corn is one of the most important grains in the world. It is in everything from pop, granola bars, pasta sauces, yogurt, and brandy, to toothpaste, concrete, wallboard and bio-fuels. Domesticated an estimated 6,000 – 10,000 years ago in Central America, corn is the staple food in much of Latin America and Africa today. Tracing a single food from production to consumption is a common method used in anthropology of food to explore cultural, political, economic and environmental factors related to food culture and health. See for example Mintz (1985) on sugar, Smith (1994) on the tomato, Willard (2001) on saffron, and Jenkins (2000) on bananas. Due to its global significance and increasing demands for its use (from food to fuel for example), corn provides a valuable tool for examining anthropological perspectives on the history, political economy, identity politics, globalization, nutrition and cultures of food. This course draws on socio-cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, the anthropology of food, the anthropology of gender, and the anthropology of development and examines contemporary patterns of globalization, food cultures, food trade, and health and nutrition implications of international food policies.

Approach: This course is structured in seminar format. It is based on intensive weekly discussions and student presentation of reading materials. Participation by all is critical to the success of the course.

Evaluation: The evaluation for this course is made up of the following elements:

Participation: Classroom participation and weekly written comments, questions and quizzes….. 25%

Analysis of reading materials for selected week: (Week to be determined in first class): ………………………………...……...... 20%

Assignment 1: Anthropological analysis of a contemporary issue related to maize (Short paper 4-5 pages based on analysis of newspaper article, podcast, 1 photograph, advertisement, etc.)………………………………………...... 20% (Due in class at 12pm, Thursday, February 16, 2012)

Assignment 2: Final essay on anthropology of corn.…………………………….……………..….35% (Due in class at 12pm, Thursday, April 5, 2012)

Details on evaluation: Participation: Due weekly: 25% As a seminar, this course hinges on the active participation of all students. Students are expected to have read all assigned materials prior to class and to come prepared for meaningful dialogue and debate. Students may be asked to comment on specific readings.

Classroom participation is a major component of the grade, but given that this is a large seminar, there will be different ways to contribute. First and foremost, you will be graded on your involvement in the weekly seminar on an individual basis. As part of your participation assessment, I will frequently give the class 10 minutes at the start of class or after a film or class discussion to write a critical commentary that incorporates key points from the readings and class discussions. In 3/12 classes I will ask you to answer a very short pop quiz on the readings. While I will not give a specific grade to either of these and the latter you will grade yourself as we go over the answers in class (the precise grade will not be recorded as part of your overall assessment), these will be collected and assessed with respect to your overall participation grade. These, thus, are intended to provide another opportunity, besides oral participation, to demonstrate that you are actively engaging with the material in the course (often appreciated by shy students!). In addition you can participate by contributing orally in class, engaging with any discussion boards we open on the course website, doing mini-assignments indicated for various weeks in the syllabus, etc. Collectively, every effort will be made to create an atmosphere in which everyone feels confident participating in discussions.

Analysis of reading materials for selected week: Due (assigned in the first week of class): 20% During the first week of class we will divide into pairs (or groups of 3, depending on numbers) and each pair will be assigned one week (wks 3-12 [wk 10 excluded]) to read the assigned articles and prepare an introduction to the topic and key terms, theories and definitions in the readings in a 20-30 minute critical commentary on the week‟s readings. This critical commentary should conclude with a couple of key questions to start the class discussion. This is not intended to be a summary of the readings, since everyone is required to have completed all of the assigned readings prior to each class. Rather, this is intended for you to demonstrate your critical thinking skills and ability to link anthropological perspectives and theory to the theme of your assigned week and to launch the class discussion. Some summary, of course, will be necessary to make a coherent presentation. The presentation (including the introduction to the topic and key definitions and the critical commentary) should not exceed 30 minutes. Presenters should also read at least one of the optional readings and incorporate it into their presentation.

Assignment 1: Critical analysis of contemporary discourse, media or issue related to maize (4-5 double-spaced pages – 20% - 2% off per day late, including weekends. Times New Roman 12 point font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced). Due: Thursday, February 17, 2012 at 12pm in class.

This assignment is intended to encourage you to apply an anthropological lens to looking at a key issue in the media on maize. Choose a newspaper article, website, photograph, advertisement, film, documentary, or pod cast somehow related to maize and explore it using an anthropological lens. Please append a copy of the article, summary of the film/doc, or a link to the ad to your paper.

Assignment 2: Final Essay on the Anthropology of Corn (10 - 12 pages + bibliography – 35% - 2% off per day late, including weekends. Times New Roman 12 point font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced). Due: Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 12pm in class

This is your opportunity either to explore the issue you took up in assignment one in more detail, to explore another topic of interest related to maize from an anthropological perspective, or to draw on the approaches employed in this class to explore the agro-ecological, cultural, political economical, nutritional and/or development-related aspects of another food. You may choose to draw on literature from the anthropology of development, nutritional anthropology, medical anthropology (bio-cultural, political ecology, ethnonutrition, etc.), socio-cultural anthropology, political economy, or other fields to examine your topic of choice. A minimum of 2 articles assigned in this course and a minimum of 8 bibliographic references are required.

University Policy on Plagiarism The University of Toronto treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously. Academic integrity is a fundamental value of learning and scholarship at the UofT. Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in this academic community ensures that the UofT degree that you earn will be valued and respected as a true signifier of your individual academic achievement. The University of Toronto's Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters (http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm) outlines the behaviours that constitute academic misconduct, the processes for addressing academic offences, and the penalties that may be imposed. You are expected to be familiar with the contents of this document. Potential offences include, but are not limited to: In papers and assignments: . Using someone else's ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement. . Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the instructor. . Making up sources or facts. . Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment (this includes working in groups on assignments that are supposed to be individual work).

On tests and exams: . Using or possessing any unauthorized aid, including a cell phone. . Looking at someone else's answers. . Letting someone else look at your answers. . Misrepresenting your identity. . Submitting an altered test for re-grading.

Misrepresentation: . Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including (but not limited to) doctor's notes. Falsifying institutional documents or grades. All suspected cases of

3 academic dishonesty will be investigated following the procedures outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have any questions about what is or is not permitted in this course, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you have questions about appropriate research and citation methods, you are expected to seek out additional information from me or other available campus resources like the College Writing Centers the Academic Success Centre, or the U of T Writing Website.

Course Schedule and Required Readings:

Week 1: Thursday, January 12, 2012: Introduction to an Anthropology of Corn: history and agro-ecology The first class will serve as an introduction to the course, the anthropology of food, health and development and the usefulness of examining these issues as they relate to corn. Goals and expectations of the class will be reviewed.

Week 2: Thursday, January 19, 2012: A World Built on Corn: If we are what we eat, we are corn!

Part 1: Michael Pollan‟s book, “The Omnivore‟s Dilemma” and the CBC podcast on staple crops, will frame the importance of maize as an anthropological topic and provide our first look at the relationship between food history, policy and cultural significance. Pollan traces corn from traditional Mayan „milpas’ and Mayan cultural heritage as the “people of maize” to its equally prominent but more obscured role in political, environmental and social life of Americans today.

Note: Future classes will take up topics mentioned by Pollan and explore them with an anthropological lens, looking more closely at what corn teaches us about gender and class identity constructions, global trade, nutrition and international development. For instance we will look at the Green Revolution and the development of hybrid maize varieties mentioned by Pollan and look at their impact on the environment, social relations, hunger and nutrition in various contexts. We will also explore the impacts of corn subsidies in the US when paired with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on biodiversity and nutrition in Mexico and the effects of globalization, transnational corporatization, industrialization and gender, race and class issues embodied in the production and consumption of the maize-based alcohol and the tortilla. Two case studies, one of the US and one of Malawi will take the examination of corn further to look at linkages between the political economy of maize production, nutrition and disease. Further we will critically examine contemporary development programmes aimed at addressing nutritional inadequacies and hunger associated with hybrid maize production. The course will culminate with the debate on the use of corn to fuel the appetite for motor vehicle and the global impacts of production of maize-ethanol.

Readings: Pollan, Michael. 2006. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: The Penguin Press. Chapters 1-7: pp 15-119.

CBC. 2008. Diet for a Hungry Planet – Few Staples. Podcast available at: http://cbcpodcasts.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/episode-1-few-staples/

Mini-assignment 1: Choose one well-stocked cupboard in your home, a section of a grocery store (ie: frozen food section), or your own weekly grocery purchases and go through the ingredient lists to determine how many of the foods and cosmetics contain corn-based ingredients. In addition, do a bit of research and educated guessing to try to calculate to what extent the food and cosmetic packaging, advertisements, shelves on which they are stocked and even the walls of your home and supermarket are actually corn! Remember, „corn‟ can be disguised in ingredient lists as dextrose, dextrin, glucose, fructose, invert sugar, margarine, ascorbic acid etc. See http://cornfree.ca/list.htm, http://www.ontariocorn.org/classroom/products.html, http://www.cornallergysymptoms.com/corn-derivitives.aspx for a more complete list of corn derivatives.

Mini-assignment 2: Bring one newspaper or magazine article, advertisement or other media piece you encountered this week to class and be prepared to explain why you chose it.

Documentary

During the second half of this class we will watch a short documentary on the agro-ecology and cultural history of corn. The origin of domesticated corn is thought to be teosinte, a wild relative of corn. Hybridized through cultivation an estimated 6,000 – 10,000 years ago, corn continues to play a significant role in cultural life among the indigenous peoples of Central and North America.

Documentary: The Gift, Directed by Gary Farmer, National Film Board of Canada (40 minutes)

Description: “Ever since it was first nurtured from a grass by the Maya, corn has held a sacred place in the lives of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Before colonization, corn was widely used as a beverage, a food staple, an oil and a ceremonial object. It was respected and revered as a critical part of creation. The Gift explores the powerful bond and spiritual relationship that continues to exist between people and corn. The video begins in North America on the traditional lands of the Six Nations Confederacy (in southern Ontario and northern New York state) where we witness the planting of the corn and all the work and humour that accompany the community harvest. Next we travel to southern Mexico, from San Cristobal to the lowlands of the rain forests for the green corn and seed corn harvests. Mayan culture is inconceivable without corn--and NAFTA's threat to the the Maya's right to grow maize became a central issue in the Zapatista uprisings. Through interviews, dance and song, The Gift is a beautiful exploration of the intertwined lives of people and corn, capturing the traditional, spiritual, economic and political importance of this sacred plant” (National Film Board of Canada, http://onf- nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=33574, access date December 20, 2011)

Week 3: Thursday, January 26, 2012: The Anthropology of a World Built on Corn: Political Economy, Nutritional Anthropology and the Commodification of Culture

Tracing a single food from production to consumption is a common method used in anthropology of food to explore cultural, political, economic and environmental factors related to food culture and health. See for example Mintz (1985) on sugar, Smith (1994) on the tomato, Willard (2001) on saffron, Jenkins (2000) on bananas, Charsley (1992) on wedding cakes, and Bestor (2001) on sushi tuna. This week we will look at a few of these, starting with Mintz‟s (1985) study of sugar, anthropology‟s first and most important example of a study focusing on a single food commodity. Looking at the domestication, commodification, and globalization of sugar, Mintz demonstrates its importance in Western industrialization and the intimate relations between food meaning and power. Examining Bestor‟s (2001) article on „Supply-side sushi‟ and book reviews on the banana, wedding cakes and saffron shows how Mintz‟s approach has been applied and broadened in the case of other foods.

GUEST LECTURE: ARCHEOLOGY OF CORN! In the second half of this we will have a guest speaker introduce us to the Archeology of Corn in Meso and North America! Please welcome Guy Duke. Guy is a second year PhD student studying archaeology. His research focuses on the cuisine of the Moche culture on the north

5 coast of Peru and how food, identity, and power were inextricably intertwined in the daily lives of Moche people.

Readings:

Mintz, Sidney W. 1997 (reprinted 2007). Time, Sugar and Sweetness. In Food and Culture: A Reader. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (eds). Routledge: New York. Pp. 357-369.

Bestor, Theodore C. 2001. Supply-side Sushi: Commodity, Market, and the Global City. American Anthropologist. 103(1): 76-95.

Look up book reviews in U of T‟s online articles on: “Wedding Cakes and Cultural History” by Charsley, “Bananas: An American History,” by Jenkins, and “Secrets of Saffron,” by Willard.

Optional:

Mintz, Sidney W. 2011. Devouring Objects of Study: Food and Fieldwork. Open Anthropology Cooperative Press. Available at: www.openanthcoop.net/press

**Bring your lap top computers to class if you have them as we will break into groups to discuss the circulation of other food or item and explore why it would be an interesting pick as part of the discussion this week.

Week 4: Thursday, February 2, 2012: The Green Revolution’s Black eye: Industrialization and Hyrbid Corn Varieties and its limited applicability to the world’s poorest corn farmers

This week we will get right back into corn! The Green Revolution refers to a period in the 1960‟s and the 1970‟s, during which scientific research focused on technology-transfer and the development of high yielding varieties (HYVs) which significantly increased the production (yields) of staple crops. We will look at debates about the Green Revolution (GR), the scientific development of HYVs and the expectations and failures for corn farmers worldwide. While Harwood (2009) gives some of the reasons that the GR failed to meet the needs of small farmers in Mexico, Eicher (1995) counters similar critiques for farmers in Zimbabwe, arguing that HYV‟s and the chemical inputs they require are the solution to food insecurity in African contexts. Finally, Snapp et al (2010) call, rather, for a „greener‟ GR, arguing that biodiversity and food sovereignty are more sustainable approaches to meeting the food needs or corn farmers in African contexts, than high-input HYVs.

Readings: Harwood, Jonathan. 2009. Peasant Friendly Plant Breeding and the Early Years of the Green Revolution in Mexico. The Agricultural History Society. Summer: 384-410. Eicher, Carl, K. 1995. Zimbabwe‟s Maize-Based Green Revolution: Preconditions for Replication. World Development: 23(5): 805-817.

Snapp, Seiglinde S., Malcolm J. Blackie, Robert A. Gilbert, Rachel Bezner-Kerr, and George Y. Kanyama-Phiri. 2010. Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa. PNAS. 107(48).

Optional: Ferguson, James. 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development” and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. The Ecologist. 24(5): 176-181.

Harwood, Jonathan. 2009. Why have Green Revolutions so often failed to help peasant- farmers? Paper prepared for the colloquium of the Agrarian Studies Program, Yale University.

Smale, Melinda nad T.S. Jayne. Breeding an ”Amaizing” Crop: Improved maize in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. CYMMIT.

Mini-assignment 1: Do a quick search on the internet on “Anti-politics Machine” by James Ferguson. This theory has been employed in many ways in many short articles and public pieces online. Think about how this theory/argument can be employed with respect to the Green Revolution. Does the call to a “Greener” Green Revolution overcome the anti-politics machine, or is it part of it?

Mini-assignment 2: Also look into what has happened politically in Zimbabwe in the past 3 years and think about this with respect to Eicher‟s article and proposition.

Week 5: Thursday, February 9, 2012: Free Trade, Subsidies, Monsanto, and Farmers’ rights to their own seeds Maize is unique in that it cross pollinates naturally by wind-blown pollen. The liberalization of markets has allowed highly subsidized corn from the US to be dumped on the Mexican markets at prices that make it impossible for Mexican farmers to compete. Reliant on high chemical inputs and diminishing returns (requiring farmers to buy new seed each year rather than being able to store part of their own harvest for next year‟s seed), this has devastating effects on Mexican maize farmers. In this class we will use a case study of the effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NFATA) 1994, and the 1970 Farm Bill in the US on maize biodiversity and livelihood security Latin America (Wise 2011, Isakson 2009). While there is evidence that biodiversity of maize is threatened, Isakson (2009) gives several reasons that, despite plummeting prices of maize, Guatemalan corn farmers‟ motivations are not driven exclusively by the market – many continue to farm diverse varieties despite its low, low returns. The article by Sitko (2008) shows how corn agriculture is linked to identity in a very different way in Zambia (namely to modernity and social prosperity), but with similar outcomes for small-scale maize agriculture.

Readings: Wise, Timothy A. 2011. Mexico: The Cost of U.S. Dumping. Tracking the Economy: 47- 49.

Isakson, Ryan S. 2009. Ho hay ganancia en la milpa: The agrarian question, food sovereignty, and the on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity in the Guatemalan highlands. Journal of Peasant Studies. 36(4): 725-759.

Sitko, Nicholas. 2007. Maize, food insecurity, and the field of performance in southern Zambia. Agriculture and Human Values. 25: 3-11.

Optional: 7 Organic Consumer‟s Association. March 26, 2011. NAFTA: Truth and consequences on Corn dumping. http://www.organicconsumers.org/chiapas/nafta040504.cfm

Hellin, Jon, Alder Keleman and Mauricio Bellon. 2010. Maize Diversity and gender: Research from Mexico. Gender and Development. 18(3): 427-437.

Dumping without Borders: How US agricultural policies are destroying the livelihoods of Mexican corn farmers. Oxfam Briefing Paper 50.

Week 6: Thursday, February 16, 2012: Gender, Labour and the Industrialized Tortilla

**FIRST ASSIGNMENT DUE AT 12:00PM**

This week we will look at the implications of corn industrialization and NAFTA on gendered labour. Lind and Barham (2004) apply the political economy approach to maize by tracing the tortilla from traditional ejido agricultural systems in Mexico to fast food in the US, illuminating the linkages between political economy and shifting significance of maize-based tortillas in the contemporary era of „globalization‟. Munoz (2004) shows how globalization, transnational corporatization and the industrialization of the tortilla reinforce old and generate new class, race and gendered identities and inequalities.

Readings: Munoz, Carolina Bank. 2008. The Political Economy of Corn and Tortillas. In Transnational Tortillas: Race Gender and Shop-floor Politics in Mexico and the United States. Cornell University, USA: 25 – 37.

Lind, David, and Elizabeth Barham. 2004. The Social Life of the Tortilla: Food, Cultural Politics and Contested commodification. Agriculture and Human Values. 21: 47-60.

Munoz, Carolina Bank. 2004. Mobile Capital, Immobile Labour: Inequality and Opportunity in the Tortilla Industry. Social Justice. 31(3): 21-39.

Optional: Suggs, David N. 1996. The Construction of Gender and the Consumption of Alcohol in Botswana. American Ethnologist. 23(3): 597-610. (Note: Alcohol is frequently fermented from corn. This article thus provides another example of the gendered patterns of labour and consumption of corn).

READING WEEK FEBRUARY 20TH – 25TH!!!

Week 7: Thursday, March 2nd, 2012: GMO debates and implications for identities, markets and livelihoods of corn farmers

An even greater concern than with the hybrids of the Green Revolution is that maize that travels in the pockets of Mexican migrants from the US to Mexican farms is often bio-engineered, transgenic (GMO) maize and as it crosses with local landraces it may permanently affect the genetic make-up of Mexican maize. This week we will examine broader debates on market liberalization and GMO verses GM „no‟ maize in the US, Europe, Latin American and Africa.

8 The articles show the relevancy of GM debates for anthropology (Stone 2010), how the political controversies play out in African politics and the lives of African maize farmers (Brenton 2011 and Zerbe 2004), and how anti-GM groups have reified the identity/category of the peasant maize farmer in Mexico (Fitting 2012).

Readings: Stone, Glenn Davis. 2010. The Anthropology of Genetically Modified Crops. Annu. Rev. Anthropology. 39: 381-400.

Fitting, Elizabeth. 2012. The Political Uses of Culture: Maize Production and the GM Corn Debates in Mexico. In Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World.

Zerbe, Noah. 2004. Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO debate in Southern Africa. Food Policy. 29: 593-608.

Brenton, Barrett. 2011. Contested Strategies for Defining and Confronting Food Insecurity and HIV/AIDS in Zambia: Rejection of GM Food Aid During the 2002-03 Food Crisis. Annals of Anthropological Practice. 33: 187-203.

Optional: Fitting, Elizabeth. 2006. Importing corn, exporting labour: The neoliberal corn regime, GMOs, and the erosion of Mexican biodiversity. Agriculture and Human Values. 23: 15-26.

Freidberg, Elizabeth and Leah Horwitz. 2004. Converging Networks and Clashing Stories: South Africa‟s Agricultural Biotechnology Debate. Africa Today. 51(1): 3-25.

Week 8: Thursday, March 8, 2012: Cooking and consuming: Examining the biocultural links between food preparation, nutrition and disease

This week we will begin to examine corn and nutrition from a biocultural perspective to understand how disease is related to cultural food preparation and consumption (Brenton 2000, 2004). Himmelgreen‟s (2002) article provides an overview of how nutritional anthropologists use anthropological methods to link food culture and politics to the study of biology and health. We will also employ Farmer‟s (2004) use of „structural violence‟ over the next three weeks to think about the effects of policy and globalization on nutrition and health.

Readings:

A. Anthropology of Health Himmelgreen D. 2002. "You are what you eat and you eat what you are." The role of nutritional anthropology in public health nutrition and nutrition education. Nutritional Anthropology 25(1): 2-12.

B. An Anthropology of structural violence

Farmer, Paul. 2004. An Anthropology of Structural Violence. Current Anthropology 45(3):305-325. 9

C. Biocultural perspective on nutrition

Check this site out first, paying close attention to „nixtamalization‟, what it is and where it comes from. While several anthropologists have expanded „nixtamalization‟ to look at „alkali processing‟, to broaden the definition to beyond the traditional uses that were evolved among Indian populations to those who preceded the Mayans and possibly earlier…. „nixtamalization‟ provides an example of one such alkali processing mechanism. The following article will then discuss what happened when corn left the Americas in the absence of the rich cultural history of corn processing… http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/03/09/mesoamerican-miracle-megapost-tortillas-and- nixtamalization/

Brenton, Barrett P. 2004. Piki, Polenta, and Pellagra: Maize, Nutrition and Nurturing the Natural. In Nurture: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2003. Ed. Richard Hosking: 36-50.

Optional:

Brenton, Barrett P. 2000. Pellagra, Sex and Gender: Biocultural Perspectives on Differential Diets and Health.

Week 9: Thursday, March 15, 2012: “Coca-colonialization”: Political economy of maize, diets and nutrition This week we will explore how macro and meso processes of change (e.g. food policies, global movements and marketing) intersect with the commoditization of food, diets and nutrition. Leatherman and Goodman (2005) argue that in Yucatan, as the “plague of cheap corn” is dumped on Mexican markets erodes agricultural livelihoods, Mexicans are turning to tourism for work – a move that has a significant negative effect on local diets and health. In African contexts, colonial, post-colonial and transnational policies including those associated with IMF stipulated structural adjustment have led to white corn production at the expense of other grains and vegetables. While Tavuyanango et al (2010) argues that the shift away from traditional crops, Sorghum and tubers to maize has resulted in a highly precarious farming systems characterized by maize mono-cropping and high rates of vitamin deficiencies, Packard (1985) shows how the political economy of maize impacts malaria epidemics in Swaziland. Taking these as a jumping point, we will discuss how easily treatable diseases like pellagra, and increased risk of HIV/AIDS are related to poverty but also „pro-development capitalism‟ that mandates the production and consumption of maize in African contexts (Tavuanago et al 2010; Bezner-Kerr et al 2007).

Hunger and malnutrition inspire numerous targeted health interventions. Despite the evidence of links between global policy and under-nutrition, development approaches to hunger and malnutrition tend to be technical in nature, not political. Key approaches can be divided into agronomic approaches aimed at increasing staple crop yields and recent efforts at bio- fortification of stable crops, agro-ecological approaches including efforts to increase crop biodiversity and nutrition supplementation. In the case of famine, nutrition supplementation and emergency food aid may be combined. In class we will also examine each of these in turn to discuss the efficacy, appropriateness and unanticipated effects of different interventions (Bezner- Kerr et al 2007, Rice 2010). 10

Tavuyanago, Baxter, Nicholas Mutami, and Kudakwashe Mbenene. 2010. Traditional Grain Crops in Pre-Colonial and Colonial Zimbabwe: A Factor for Food Security and Social Cohesion Among the Shona People.

Leatherman, Thomas L., and Alan Goodman. 2005. Coca-colonialization of diets in the Yucatan. Social Science and Medicine. 61: 833-846.

Packard, Randall M. 1984. Maize, Cattle and Mosquitoes: The Political Economy of Malaria Epidemics in Colonial Swaziland. Journal of African History. 25(2): 189-212.

Choose one of the readings below on solutions to the problems of mono-cropped malnutrition in African contexts to read before class:

Bezner-Kerr, Rachel, Sieglinde Snapp, Marko Chriwa, Lizzie Shumba, and Rodgers Msachi. 2007. Participatory Research on Legume Diversification with Malawian Smallholder Farmers for Improved Human Nutrition and Soil Fertility. Experimental Agriculture. 43: 437-453.

Rice, Andrew. 2010. The Peanut Solution. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/magazine/05Plumpy-t.html

Optional: Since 2006 Malawi has been applauded for its rejection of IMF stipulated structural adjustment policies which highly limited subsidies (for chemical inputs necessary to grow the high-yielding varieties associated with the Green Revolution) to smallholder farmers. Rather, the current president, Bingu wa Mutharika, has implemented a fertilizer subsidy programme which has been heralded for decreasing food insecurity among the majority rural population. Look for two articles in popular press in Canada or Malawi on these subsidies and hunger and nutrition in Malawi. Think critically about the implications of this programme for environmental, social and biological health in Malawi.

Short clip on Campbell‟s Nourish innovation to show in class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wfCOxWGIHU

Short clip by Anderson Cooper on „plumpy nut‟ to show in class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvAm9iRvIwQ

Week 10: Thursday, March 22, 2012: The History of Corn Production and Consumption in the US

There are no readings this week. In class we will watch the documentary “King Corn,” directed by Aaron Woolf in preparation for the readings and discussion next week.

11 King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115/

Week 11: Thursday, March 29, 2012: Political Economy of Corn and Disease: Corn, under- nutrition and the medicalization of obesity in the US

This week the US will be used as case studies to examine the links between agro-economic policies, corn production and food marketing, high-fructose corn syrup, under-nutrition and chronic disease. In the US, agricultural policies enabling high production of corn which in turn leads to high consumption of processed foods laden with corn, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup which leads to high rates of obesity-related diseases, especially in low-income populations. The „medicalization of obesity‟ Moffat (2010) will be used to illuminate how structural and social factors leading to corn production patterns and disease are obscured by individualizing discourses on responsibility and health.

Readings: A. Anthropological perspectives: medicalization of obesity

Moffat, Tina. 2010. The “Childhood Obesity Epidemic”: Health Crisis or Social Construction? Medical Anthropological Quarterly. 24(1): 1-21.

B. Political and socio-economic contexts of corn, diets, nutrition and disease in the US (selected readings from those below)

Crooks, Deborah L. 2003. Trading Nutrition for Education: Nutritional Status and the Sale of Snack Foods in an Eastern Kentucky School. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 17(2): 182-199.

Dillard, Amy. 2008. Sloppy Joe, Slop, Sloppy Joe: How USDA Commodities Dumping Ruined the National School Lunch Program. Oregon Law Review. 87: 221-257.

Wharton, Christopher M, and Jeffery S. Hampl. 2004. Beverage Consumption and Risk of Obesity among Native Americans in Arizona. Nutrition Reviews, 62(4): 153-159.

Mini-assignment: Select a processed lunch option at your grocery store and record the ingredients (e.g. an Oscar Mayer „Lunchable‟ is a good choice). Do some research to try to determine how much of that lunch is made of corn (or at least how many of the ingredients in the lunch are corn or corn derivatives). Bring the ingredient list (either photographed, written out, or the whole packaged lunch) and your assessment to the class.

Optional: White, John S., John P. Foreyt, Kathleen J. Melanson, and Theodore J. Angelopoulos. High- Fructose Corn Syrup: Controversies and Common Sense. 2010. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. http://ajl.sagepub.com/content/4/6/515

Week 12: Monday, April 5, 2012: Food and bio-fuel

**Final papers due at the beginning of class today!

In this class we will have a debate on bio-fuels. A recent article in The Economist (February 26/2011), stated that nearly 40% of all maize produced in the US is being used for ethanol production. While ethanol production supports American and Canadian farmers, creates jobs, and has numerous environmental benefits over petroleum-based fuel, new inequalities and vulnerabilities are already visible impacts of American policies promoting ethanol production from maize. Cheap maize dumped on Latin American markets has contributed to rapid urbanization and expansion of labour, particularly by women from rural areas, in maquiladoras and a reduction in maize production. Recently, however, the price of imported maize has skyrocketed as subsidized maize in the US is converted to ethanol instead of dumped on developing country markets and countries are facing severe shortages in the staple food. Please read the articles found at the links provided below and familiarize yourself with the different sides of the debate. You will be placed into two groups (pro and con) for the debate and given 20 minutes at the beginning of class to prepare your arguments as a group. Your participation in the debate will constitute an important part of your participation grade for this week.

Readings: 1) Brown, Lester. 2006. How Food and Fuel Compete for Land. The Globalist, February 01.

2) http://www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/the_fuel/ (read the articles in this link)

3) Do additional research on biofuels and come prepared for the debate!