Abstract
From Jicama to Jackfruit presents the topic of global political economy in a way that is interesting and accessible. Weir introduces readers to this topic by pairing five foods with a particular issue each: spices with the development of international trade and currency, cocoa beans with unethical labor practices, soy with multinational corporations, tomatoes with immigration, and tuna with global environmental issues. Along the way, she also introduces readers to new foods, such as cassava, chia seeds, and lionfish.
Although she frames the topic in terms of five foods, what is particularly noteworthy about Weir’s writing is that she is able to use this framing to discuss a number of themes that run throughout the book. These include the effects of colonization, inequality between the Global North and South, free-market economics, and the increasing globalization of food production and consumption. Starting with the importation of spices to Europe, Weir uses trade in spices to introduce the reader to the concept of commodity money. She uses this foundation to explain topics that students may be less familiar with, such as market volatility and free trade agreements. In the chapter on cocoa beans, Weir introduces readers to the ideas of cash crops, tariffs, and environmental concerns in food production before turning her focus to child labor. Environmental concerns are reintroduced in the chapter on soy in a discussion of deforestation, in the tomato chapter with pesticide use, and in the tuna chapter with overfishing. Likewise, labor issues are reiterated in the chapter on tomatoes, and governmental intervention is discussed in terms of farming subsidies, quotas, and land-ownership policies.
The chapters focusing on specific foods are preceded by two introductory chapters. The first chapter focuses on the reader’s own food consumption, bringing up obesity in the United States and worldwide, as well as the issue of food availability. The second chapter serves as an introduction to political economy and introduces Weir’s main themes – colonization, global economic divisions, free-market economics, and globalization. These themes are revisited in the book’s conclusion, as are the topics of labor, food availability, health, and the environment.
When discussing controversial issues, Weir is relatively careful to present a nuanced view in which all sides of an argument receive mention. In her writing on genetically modified organisms and organic foods (in the chapters on soy and tomatoes), she offers the viewpoints of actors ranging from industry and environmental activists to family farmers in the Global South. Likewise, she presents arguments in favor of free-market economics as well as introducing readers to the movement for fair trade. This consideration of many viewpoints is likely to make the book more palatable to students, as well as creating great potential for classroom discussions, debates, and other activities. Weir is understandably less nuanced in her sections on child labor and the poor conditions of immigrant workers. Her point of view comes across particularly strongly in the conclusion, where she suggests that more people adopting a vegan diet would help resolve a number of global issues, potentially overstating the importance of individual consumption decisions. Weir is an equal-opportunity provocateur, however, in that she also suggests that genetically modified crops are better for the planet than organic and locally grown foods.
As a political scientist, Weir largely restricts her focus to institutions and structures. She provides readers with a thorough overview of various governmental and intergovernmental policies, ranging from Brazilian policies on foreign investment to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. The drawback to this, however, is that the book contains relatively little on the lived experiences of social actors enmeshed in these policies. She makes brief forays into the micro level, which include brief mentions of farmer suicides in India and Ghana, and a somewhat longer discussion of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in the United States. Adding more micro-level analysis would bring an additional layer of perspective to readers’ understanding of contentious issues and would enrich some of the policy discussions, particularly in the chapter on soy.
Weir begins her introduction by explaining how this book developed out of her teaching, and it is clearly oriented toward undergraduate classes. Each chapter contains end-of-chapter questions, although these seem more focused on having students recall information than on provoking further thinking. More useful are the ‘Recipe Boxes’ scattered throughout the book, which provide additional information or suggest activities for students, such as keeping food diaries, examining the ingredients in candy bars, and visiting relevant websites. The book is clearly written for an American; the foods Weir uses as frames are all common in the United States and the text assumes readers will be familiar with phenomena such as $4 lattes and novelty green ketchup. Overall, however, the food framing allows topics of political economy to be both intelligible and interesting, and From Jicama to Jackfruit will be useful in undergraduate courses ranging from globalization to economic sociology and the sociology of food.