[WiSe 2025/26] SE Crop Cultures of the Anthropocene: Global Histories of Industrial Agriculture and Food Systems (1880s-1970s)

Polatsek, Omri
Weber, Heike
LV-Nr.: 3131 L 312
BA-KulT WTG 3, 4
BA-KulT FW 14, 15
MA-TGWT WTG 3, 4
MA-TGWT FW 11, 12, 14 

SE Crop Cultures of the Anthropocene: Global Histories of Industrial Agriculture and Food Systems 1880s-1970s)

Di. 16-18 Uhr

Raum: H 2051

Anmeldung über ISIS

Beginn: 14.10.2025

Our global agro-food systems lie at the heart of today’s planetary emergencies. As much as they are the first to be affected by climate change, economic shocks, and wars, they also contribute significantly to our environmental crisis through their destabilizing effects on human health, ecological systems, and planetary boundaries. In this sense, our global agro-food systems embody the paradoxical and entangled nature of the Anthropocene – a new (geological) epoch marked by unprecedented human impact on the planet.

Starting from this current situation, the course explores the history of industrialized agriculture and the globalization of food systems. The focus lies on crop cultures that have undergone dramatic transformation since the late 19th century: New transport and communication technologies, changing energy regimes, and the increasing use of agrochemicals and machinery have created a global agricultural market. At the same time, states and empires began to intervene in food production by designing national and international schemes for food production and consumption, focusing on staples such as wheat, maize, and rice.

The seminar will examine the reciprocal relations between crop cultures, technologies, and the environment, in light of both local social-ecological histories and globalizing forces, such as empire, long-distance trade, and capital investment. The period covered ranges from the late 19th century Age of Empire to the changing world orders of the interwar period and the aftermath of World War II, and on to the early onset of the ‘Green Revolution’ in the 1970s. Our historical case studies include regions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, as well as Europe and North America, and we make use of recent concepts such as “food regimes” and “commodity frontiers” to study the history of industrial agriculture and food systems.

Literatur:

Otter, Chris. Diet for a Large Planet: Industrial Britain, Food Systems, and World Ecology. Chicago 2023.

Bonneuil, Christophe, and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us. London 2016.