Thesis subject

Going round in circles 3: Big circles versus small circles in (inter) national food production and consumption

New ways of thinking about and developing our food economies are often based on some notion of circularity. The common understanding is that transporting food over large distances should be reduced and local food production and consumption stimulated. Less attention is given to the historical origins of international food production and trade. For most societies, in particular in the ‘global north’ consumption patterns are based on long-term patterns of long-distance trade in which transport of food products was closely related to transport of people, the slave trade being a prominent and cruel example.

Research question

How is global and local food production connection to (forced) labour migration and forms of agricultural specialization across the globe?

Key literature

Analysis of historical literature and (if available) archival sources of a former colonial territory, preferably in the Caribbean or South America.