Summary

Agriculture in the New Global Economy examines the extent to which the political economy of agriculture and the food chain is being transformed by globalisation.

This book highlights the important changes that have taken place in the agriculture and food system with the spread of globalisation to this traditionally local sector. Structural change and emerging technologies have contributed to this transformation, which has extended to the political environment in which agriculture operates. The authors identify four paradigms that have characterised the governance of agriculture: a traditional dependent-agriculture paradigm; a neo-liberal competitive paradigm; a multifunctional paradigm; and an emergent globalised-production paradigm. The tensions among these paradigms are developed with reference to evidence from the United States and Canada, the EU, Australia, Japan and the Global South. The book analyses the controversy over genetic modification of foodcrops, developments in agricultural trade policy at the multilateral and regional levels, changing national food policy systems, and emerging global governance arrangements for the sector.

Illustrating contemporary policy debates using both theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence, this book will appeal to academics, researchers and students specialising in political science, environmental studies, agricultural economics, management and food policy. The book will also be of interest to government practitioners in agriculture and environment departments as well as international organisations such as the EU, FAO and WTO.

Choice Review

The thrust of this global, multidisciplinary study of agriculture by Canadian, UK, and US scholars is political and structural, probably because globalization is essentially political. The authors survey changes in agriculture, but agricultural integration is not among them. Such integration is difficult largely because of agriculture's unique relations to culture, technology, politics, and powerful, protective, national and international vested interests. Changes have been primarily structural and organizational, favoring corporate, commercial, and large-scale marketing. Globalization of agriculture has met with resistance, partly because of the difficulty of integrating unique products in different environments and partly because of variations in levels of technology, application of science, and inability of developing countries to compete on the international market. Hence subsidies continue in developed countries, and resistance to globalization in developing countries. This survey is rich in detail of the role of new organizations and government ministries, and of attempts to make agriculture more like any other industry. However, there is little analysis, especially of the economics of agriculture due to globalization, e.g., impact on prices, production, productivity, food security, and nutrition. Nevertheless, this volume should be a strong impetus for complementary analytical and empirical research of the process and effects of globalization on agriculture. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. E. H. Tuma emeritus, University of California, Davis