COVID-19, Obesity and the Neoliberal Diet: How Modern Agriculture Increases our Health Risks
ZoomGerard Otero (Simon Fraser University, Canada) There was plenty of evidence that energy dense diets that have come to prevail since the 1990s was associated with excess weight and obesity. Then the COVID-19 pandemic confirmed the worse: that comorbidities associated to obesity increased the risk of a severe COVID-19 illness or death. This presentation discusses…
Egypt’s Agricultural Transformation: Farming without farmers
ZoomRay Bush (University of Leeds) Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/445521927077 This presentation traces agricultural transformation in Egypt. It does so by focussing on two recurrent themes: the politicisation of land and the failure of the state to engage with small scale farmers, other than to facilitate their dispossession and marginalisation. The state remains committed to agricultural modernisation…
Ocean and land grabbing in Ghana’s offshore petroleum industry: From the agrarian question to the question of industrialization
ZoomJasper Abembia Ayelazuno (University for Development Studies, Ghana) and Jesse Salah Ovadia (University of Windsor, Canada)
The Expansion of Ultra-Processed Food and Social Reproduction in Africa: Emerging Questions
ZoomSara Stevano (SOAS University of London)
Conceptualising ‘Bondedness’ and ‘(Un)freedom’: The case of Dalit Women Agricultural Labourers in Western Uttar Pradesh
ZoomKomal Chauhan (IIT Kanpur, India)
Spinning dirt into gold: Transforming farmland into a financial asset class
ZoomMadeleine Fairbairn (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Threatening Dystopias: Development, Agrarian Change, and Adaptation in Bangladesh
Room RB01, SOAS Main Building SOAS University of London, London, United KingdomKasia Paprocki (London School of Economics & Political Science) Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/development-agrarian-change-and-adaptation-in-bangladesh-tickets-503933718317 In the global imaginary of climate change, Bangladesh holds a prominent position. Frequently described as the ‘world’s most vulnerable country to climate change’, the spectre of Bangladesh underwater, wiped off the map by rising seas, has given birth to a crisis narrative that obscures…
Farmers, Plants, and Poison: Ambivalences over Pesticide Use in Argentina
ZoomPablo Lapegna (University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia, USA) & Johana Kunin (CONICET & UNSAM, Argentina) Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/farmers-plants-and-poison-ambivalences-over-pesticide-use-in-argentina-tickets-518717436817 Drawing from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival research, our project tackles pesticide use in Argentina. Our goal is to address two main research questions. First, we examine the unintended and undesirable consequences of economic prosperity.…
Food and Agrarian Changes: What drives change to food and diets? New agendas for agrarian studies
ZoomWebinar by Sergio Schneider (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre) Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/food-and-agrarian-changes-what-drives-change-to-food-and-diets-tickets-528367179457 Abstract The food system is one of the main drivers of some of the threats that humanity is facing. Climate change is considered by many as the “mother of all the crises” affecting the planet, and food systems…
Caste from Field to Factory: 100 years of accumulation, exploitation and caste oppression in rural Uttar Pradesh, India
Room RB01, SOAS Main Building SOAS University of London, London, United KingdomFace-to-face seminar at SOAS and online Zoom webinar by Jens Lerche (SOAS) Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/accumulation-exploitation-and-caste-oppression-in-rural-uttar-pradesh-tickets-564180849107 Abstract This presentation focuses on the relations of exploitation and accumulation, and of oppression and discrimination in two villages in the state of Uttar Pradesh in North India, between the landowning dominant caste and the main Dalit caste from 1992…