Globalization And Bread: A Comparative Analysis

In turn, it is evident that in order for raw cereal products to be useful on a regular basis, the system of operations necessary to yield bread products was carried out daily, leaving room to account for the specific food needs and available time of each day. This statement lends evidence to Heine’s assertion that historically, it was possible to find an oven for the purpose of domestic bread production within the homes of most families throughout the country (Heine 2004). Moreover, the work necessary for producing bread highlights the division of labor throughout the region; the women who are responsible for production were required to allocate their time in a way that allowed for sufficient production, while completing their additional tasks

According to David Lind and Elizabeth Barham (2004), in recent years, the literature regarding the political and economic aspects of agriculture has focused on methods of production and consumption, placing them at the center of debates regarding the implications of globalization. In that context, Phillip McMichael, professor of sociology at Cornell University, has suggested that the power and significance of food is a result of its material and elemental functions (Lind and Barham 2004:48). While the componential purpose of food has been widely investigated, McMichael’s statement suggests that in order to fully understand the consequences of an expanding global food system, the relationship between the composition of food and its material importance must be addressed. Beginning with the writings of Marx and Engels in the mid-1800s, the notion of commodity fetishism has constituted a central concept of sociological inquiry regarding food systems and agricultural processes (Ibid). For Marx, the fetishism of particular foodstuffs reflected the way in which the construction of global markets resulted in the development of heightened power dynamics. Moreover, inherently controlled by underlying market forces, the global exchange of regional products became a way for dominant economies to adopt those products as their own, seemingly eradicating any sense of history and nationality associated with the original goods. The preceding discussion initially appears to suggest that the general diversification and commodification of bread products detracts from the ability of a particular region to claim ownership over, and identity through, a specific food. In effect, with large-scale production seemingly comes the loss of origin and cultural importance;