The Chinese gooseberry was a minor fruit until New Zealanders, tagging it with a catchier name, began an aggressive global marketing campaign. Soon, transplanted to Italy, France, Spain, Chile, and California, the fuzzy little fruit with the bright green interior was known the world round and the kiwi production war was on.

Globalization of food is not a new phenomenon. Columbus and his contemporaries helped open worldwide trade routes for the distribution of all types of goods. Yet over the last two decades, globalization has completely revolutionized the commercial production and...

For ages, farmers have domesticated plant varieties, while scientists have made nature through hybridization and other processes. This give and take mediated through negotiations, persuasion, the marketplace, and even coercion has resulted in what we call nature and has led to a homogenization of plant crops. Yet homogenization has led to new problems: genetic vulnerability, and the lack of systems to maintain plant germplasm of varieties no longer grown in the fields.This book addresses issues previously viewed as primarily technical concerning the germplasm debate: that is, how, what, and...

Food and agricultural standards have recently risen to the top of both national and international agendas. Popular concerns about the power of the World Trade Organization focus on the intertwined relationships between environmental protection, labor and human rights, and the standards used to produce and supply our food and fiber globally. In the developing world, agricultural grades and standards are an important part of the reconfiguration of roles and responsibilities between various public and private actors in market reform.

This original and informative collection of studies...

Food and agricultural standards have recently risen to the top of both national and international agendas. Popular concerns about the power of the World Trade Organization focus on the intertwined relationships between environmental protection, labor and human rights, and the standards used to produce and supply our food and fiber globally. In the developing world, agricultural grades and standards are an important part of the reconfiguration of roles and responsibilities between various public and private actors in market reform.

This original and informative collection of studies...