Reference no: EM133325561

Case: French Beans and Food Scares Culture and Commerce in an Anxious Age by Susanne Freidberg takes the reader on a deep dive through the history of Zambia and Burkina Faso and the relationship these two countries have with France and the United Kingdom. Through analyzing the culture and colonization of Zambia and Burkina Faso, Friedberg shows how foodways and markets overseas were shaped. Freidbergs analysis of the colonization of these two countries and the globalization of the green bean, that happened as a result, is a beautiful demonstration of political ecology at work. Freidberg uses her political ecology hatchet to tear apart the readers preconceived ideas about food, which many people may not think about at all, and how it even ends up on our plates. How the mistreatment and marginalization of two African countries made it possible for green beans to be consumed year-round across the world. Through showing all the different chains within the food systems and markets; Freidberg paints a beautiful picture linking all the environmental subjects together and shows how the combined efforts of many resulted in food on your plate. Although, Freidberg wields a hatchet and slashes away at the history of colonization, foodways and markets, she also wields a seed. She plants a seed that shows us alternative ways to think and operate. She shows the mistreatment of people and how that affected individuals and global markets, but she also shows how proper treatment of people was always more efficient for both parties (the distributor and supplier). This is the meaning of this book. Yes, she shows how the various French and UK cultures impacted green bean commerce throughout the world, but she also shows how friendship is a stronger force than fear. How markets that operate on trust and friendship are always more efficient and yield better results than those that operate on mistrust and intimidation.

Before beginning to talk about the green bean and the global market, it's important to analyze how the green bean came to be. French missionaries originally brought vegetables to Burkina Faso in the early 20th century. The land was rich and fertile which attracted many French colonizers. Seeds were heavily distributed and became a livelihood for many people. However, many of the locals did not wish to work for white farm owners. Burkina Faso has a very rich horticulture with deep roots in personal gardening and because of this many people would rather work for themselves. This led the French colonizers to install a peasant economy in which many farmers work for themselves and sell their crop to wholesalers that distribute the vegetables to the French market. The practice of cultivating green beans became so popular that nearly 95% of the populations was supported by it (Freidberg, 67). Marginalization and degradation of the land and people was common. Forced labor, cash cropping and forced labor migration led to a dangerous decline in food supply that led to famine in the late 1920's (Freidberg, 67). According to Paul Robbins marginalization and degradation is when "environmentally innocuous production systems undergo transition to overexploitation of natural resources on which they depend as a response to state development intervention and/or increasing integration in regional and global markets" (Robbins, 150) This is exactly what occurred within Burkina Faso. France was "so proud of its own food abundance it tolerated repeated incidents of famine in its African empire" (Freidberg, 56) Repeated draught, famine, and demands in overseas markets lead to the France markets eating at the cost of others starving. This is a very similar case to the Bolivia quinoa farmers and their struggle with famine due to increase market demands overseas.
Zambia was first found by the British in the 1850s by missionaries. David Livingstone was one of these missionaries and used the disease and insecurity in the region, similar to France, as justifications for colonization (Freidberg, 97). Both European counties promised to bring with them industry, technology, medicine and infrastructure. Over the next several years British troops and civil servants established themselves in the region. Unlike the French, the British did not successfully introduce a peasant economy. Instead, many farms were primarily white owned and relied on labor from locals. Many measures were taken in order to keep white farmers within the markets. The Maize Control Act of 1935-6 was one of these measures, which assured white farmers a better price than African farmers for their vegetables (Freidberg, 100). During periods of hardship, it was not uncommon for laborers to tolerate extreme mistreatment, but reputations of bad bosses eventually led to a labor shortage. Word of mouth is how information would travel and as a result people would boycott unfair or cruel bosses, while favoring more friendly bosses.
Throughout the book Freidberg challenges the reader to constantly question the power in the structural inequalities of our world economy. "The historical origins of these inequalities between local food markets in North and South is closely linked to the origins of the North's national foodways (Friedberg 219). To challenge the powerful structures in place and always question them. That's what it means to be a true political ecologist, to deconstruct and rebuild. This way of thinking is what has allowed the United States to look at its own structural marginalization and analyze racist redzone districts throughout all the US. Friedberg wants the reader to be aware of the injustices of uneven development that made colonization and globalization possible in the first place. The last thing Friedberg emphasizes at the end of her book is the importance of friendship. All markets throughout the world, in one way or another, are dictated by environmental actors. Whether you're someone who is producing something, moving something, selling something, there are always actors within markets. Mistrust and loss of meaningful social interactions will become the downfall of food markets if people are not reasonable. Losing the ability to intuit and be understanding "threatens to erode the social basis of trust in food trade networks, and especially in those networks spanning long distances and varied social and cultural contexts. Such a loss would not merely rob certain professions of their day-to-day pleasures; it would also set back the efforts of those now calling for standards to make transnational food trading more ethical. This project cannot proceed by the book, and especially not a book controlled by a handful of corporate retailers. If food globalization is to proceed humanely, it will depend not on codes but on knowledgeable humans who, in the face of their differences and uncertainties, can put aside anxieties and trust each other" (Freidberg 222). This is also what it means to be a political ecologist. To be understanding and open to all different ideas and cultures, because that's what political ecology is, a bunch of different ideas in one field of research.