Feeding the World?
Back in high school the overall conservativeness of a suburban Catholic college prep school was occasionally broken up in interesting ways. One of them was my junior year course in Social Justice, taught by Ms. Lenie Schaareman, who was also the moderator of the World Affairs Club. She was someone firm in her convictions, willing to stand up for them, and not afraid to go against the tide. And so it should be no surprise that snotty high school students such as myself occasionally had a laugh at her expense. Sixteen-year-olds don’t really want to hear about how the World Bank and the IMF have affected international finance and the Third World economy. And we couldn’t quite understand why she was always going on about agribusiness.
Well, I’m a little older and a little wiser now. Globalization is a major buzzword and area of contention. I’m taking a Third World history course at the moment and trying to process the ways my buying habits ripple out to affect the world. (I have to in order to keep my Dewey merit badge.) And of course agribusiness crops up frequently. (Pun intended.) So I was happy to see Neil Sinhababu round up some links on the agribusiness issue over at Ezra Klein’s blog. There’s a good discussion in the comments, so check it out.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.
Monday, November 28th 2005 at 6:53 pm |
Keep in mind, hon, your high school years were long before Bono made discussing thngs like the IMF and the World Bank cool.
Still, not enough people really care about how their purchases of toys made in China affect the global economy. It’s easy to say things like “buy American” or “hire locally” but the world is more complicated than that and few people want to hear that. It always amazes me that the people who complain the most about outsourcing and reduced trade barriers seem to care the least about where the products and foods they buy come from.
Monday, November 28th 2005 at 9:56 pm |
At least my high school years were at a point where Bono himself may still have been cool.
And I do think some of it was the presentation, and the fact that the rest of the high school curriculum didn’t focus enough on the contemporary global scene to put a lot of that information in context. But a lot of it was being a snotty teenager. The fates have had their revenge, though, since I now aim to be a high school social studies teacher myself.
And as for purchases of toys made in China – there are many Star Wars themed pieces of plastic here that keep me from throwing any stones in that direction.