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Hunger and Plenty:

Fragmented Integration in

the Global Food System 1

Mustafa Koc

INTRODUCTION of the earlier primitive communal societies.
In these societies, sharing was an essential
Many sociologists of agriculture and food adaptive survival strategy. A simple division
argue for a systemic approach to examine the of labour based on gender and age rather than
complex social, economic and political rela- on social class distinctions, identified commu-
tions involved in different stages of produc- nally defined roles in everyday activities such
tion, distribution and consumption of food in as hunting and gathering. Conflicts arising
modern societies. The food system refers to a from demographic pressures or inter-tribal
web of social relations, processes, structures rivalry for hunting grounds were not infre-
and institutional arrangements that cover quent, but their consequences were highly
human interaction with nature and with other detrimental to their social existence.
humans in their attempt to reproduce their The agricultural revolution in the Neolithic
livelihoods (Fonte, 2002; Friedmann, 2000; era made it possible to produce a surplus
Koc and Dahlberg, 1999). beyond everyday needs. Agricultural activity
The existence of human societies has necessitated increased collective action and
depended on their collective ability to inter- complex social relations, thus creating a
act with their environment, and to respond to potential for conflict in an increasingly
the social and ecological challenges they stratified society around gender and class
faced (Diamond, 2005; Harris, 1978). The lines. In agrarian societies, access to basic
survival of individual members and societies necessities of life, such as food, access to
required collective action. Anthropological means of production, distribution of surplus,
studies looking at the few remaining foraging ownership rights, entitlement and rituals of
societies, leftovers of the pre-Neolithic eating often reflected differences in the
world, argue that cooperation and egalitarian social hierarchy. Conflict and cooperation
social relations were crucial for the survival became two contradictory tendencies shaped