Globalization and the Market Economy

Question One (300 words):

I know that I am conflicted over the way agricultural policy is being handled all over the world. When I put on something that is cotton, I am really glad that the farmers have used seeds that produce a really great cotton crop. Yet when I put a piece of corn in my mouth that I know has been genetically modified (and I am not sure to what extent), even though it may look and taste better, not so sure I want to consume it. But to the farmer, it’s all the same. Growing the best crop with the highest marginal value – that’s where it’s at.

Now what really scares me is when the large corporations get control of kinds of things in the agricultural supply chain. I walk into Whole Foods and wonder just how long it will be until Amazon will lessen Whole Foods’ standards in terms of quality of the fresh produce and fish (think that has happened already).

What can we do to insure social cohesion at the local and regional levels so that people want to continue to work together at those levels, producing the best agricultural products possible while maintaining integrity in a healthy food supply for everyone?  How would that work everywhere or just in the highly-developed countries where subsistence ended a long time ago?

Question Two (300 words):

We often hear that the population of some countries live on less than $1 or $2 dollars per day. What does that actually mean and how is it calculated? Are countries stratified in some way – within that broad category of “less than $1 or $2 dollars per day”?

Reading Material/Text For Sources is as follows:

References

Anderson, Kym. 2010. “Globalization’s Effects on World Agricultural Trade, 1960-2050.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365 (1554): 3007–21. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0131.

Chen, Shaohua, and Martin Ravallion. 2010. “The Developing World Is Poorer than We Thought, but No Less Successful in the Fight against Poverty” 125 (4). Oxford University Press: 1577–1625. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40961014.

Phillips, Peter W.B., and Don Buckingham. 2015. “Agricultural Biotechnology, The Environment and International Trade Regulation: Your Place or Mine?” Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228607600_Agricultural_Biotechnology_The_Environment_and_International_Trade_Regulation_Your_Place_or_Mine.

Richard, Anne C. 2016. “The Global Migration and Refugee Crisis.” Council on Foreign Relations

Scholte, Jan Aart. 1999. “Globalization and (In)Security.” Chapter Nine. In Globalization: A Critical Introduction, 207–33. New York: Palgrave Publishers.