Prof. Caraher’s Recommended Reading

This document outlines recommended readings selected by Prof. Caraher, divided into two key areas:

Foundational knowledge of financial systems
An exploration of their implications for nutrition and public health

Key Readings on Financial Systems and Power in the Food System

This section provides readings that offer insights into the workings of financial systems and their increasing influence within the global food system.

Akçay, Ü & Güngen, A.R. 2022, “Dependent financialisation and its crisis: the case of Turkey”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 293–316.
Chang, H. 2022, Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World, Allen Lane, Great Britian.
Freitas Jr, G. 2015, One Company Is Making a Killing on Brazil’s Sinking Real, Bloomberg.com, https://archive.ph/zidDi#selection-3011.0-3011.56.
Hodgkinson, L. 2023, “The role of financial markets in promoting food security” in Handbook of Food Security and Society, eds. M. Caraher, J. Coveney & M. Chopra, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 215–230.
Hunter, A. 2022, Commodity Traders Thrust Into the Spotlight as War Exposes Risks, April 26 edn, Financial Post, https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/commodity-trading-thrust-into-the-spotlight-as-war-exposes-risks.
Kingsman, J. 2019, The New Merchants of Grain: Out of the Shadows, Jonathan Kingsman, Great Britain.
Kingsman, J. 2017, Commodity Conversations: An Introduction to Trading In Agricultural Commodities, Jonathan Kingsman, Great Britain.
Newman, K. 2013, The Secret Financial Life of Food: From Commodities markets to supermarkets, Columbia University Press, New York.
Schatz, E. & Silvey, R. (eds) 2025, Seeing China’s Belt and Road, Oxford University Press, Canada.
Veloso, T. & Hirtzer, M. 2022, Crop Trading Giant ADM Sees Years of Tight Markets Fueled by War, April 26th edn, Yahoo! Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crop-trading-giant-adm-sees-144310441.html.

Key Readings on the Implications for Nutrition, Food Systems and Public Health

This section explores the consequences of financialization and other structural factors within the food system for nutrition and public health outcomes.

Caraher, M., Santini, C. & Cavicchi, A. 2023, “‘Growing’ Insecurity in Agricultural Food Chains: An Editorial Commentary”, Agriculture, vol. 13, no. 2.
Caraher, M. 2023, “Global philanthropy and welfare capitalism: private-sector approaches to food insecurity” in Handbook of Food Security and Society, eds. M. Caraher, J. Coveney & M. Chopra, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 231–241.
Clapp 2018, “Mega-Mergers on the Menu: Corporate Concentration and the Politics of Sustainability in the Global Food System”, Global environmental politics, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 12–33.
Clapp, J. & Scott, C. 2018, “The Global Environmental Politics of Food”, Global environmental politics, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 1–11.
Clapp, J. 2021, “The problem with growing corporate concentration and power in the global food system”, Nature food, vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 404–408.
Clapp, J. 2020, Food, 3rd edn, Policy, Cambridge.
Clapp, J. 2018, “Financialization, distance and global food politics”, The Journal of peasant studies, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 797–814.
Clapp, J. 2017, “Food self-sufficiency: Making sense of it, and when it makes sense”, Food Policy, vol. 66, pp. 88–96.
Clapp, J. 2012a, Hunger in the Balance: The new Politics of International Food Aid, Cornell Univeristy Press, Ithaca.
Clapp, J. 2012b, Hunger in the Balance: The New Politices of International Food Aid, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Clapp, J., Desmarais, A. & Margulis, M. 2015, “Financialization in the food system”, Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, vol. 2, pp. 256.
Clapp, J. & Isakson, S.R. 2018, “Risky Returns: The Implications of Financialization in the Food System”, Development and change, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 437–460.
Clapp & Scrinis 2017, “Big Food, Nutritionism, and Corporate Power”, Globalizations, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 578–595.
Isakson, S.R., Clapp, J. & Stephens, S. 2023, “The financialization of agricultural commodities: implications for food security” in Handbook of Food Security and Society, eds. M. Caraher, J. Coveney & M. Chopra, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 202–214.
Keenan, L., Monteath, T. & Wójcik, D. 2023, “Hungry for power: financialization and the concentration of corporate control in the global food system”, Geoforum, vol. 147, pp. 103909.
Lau, M. 2022, China can’t count on global markets for food security, Xi Jinping says, 7th March edn, South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3169467/china-cant-count-global-markets-food-security-xi-jinping-says.
McMichael, P. 2020, “Does China’s ‘going out’ strategy prefigure a new food regime?”, The Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 116–154.
Oxfam. 2022, OXFAM MEDIA BRIEFING PROFITING FROM PAIN, Oxfam, https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-05/Oxfam%20Media%20Brief%20-%20EN%20-%20Profiting%20From%20Pain%2C%20Davos%202022%20Part%202.pdf.
Parasecoli, F. & Varga, M. 2023, “War in the Ukrainian fields: The weaponization of international wheat trade”, Economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 4–12.