AGRICULTURE AND FOOD IN THE GLOBALIZATION AGE

he objective of this article is to reflect on three basic questions concerning globalization and its effects on agriculture and food: 1) what are the major characteristics of globalization; 2) who are its major actors and 3) what are the future trends? oduction Globalization continues to be a disputed concept despite the immense literature dedicated to it. I will focus on features of the current globalization process that can be employed to better understand the direction and reach of changes, particularly in agriculture and food.1 It is not my goal to produce original contributions about the theoretical relevance and accuracy of globalization or about its scale and scope. I will use a theoretical framework based on a political economy perspective focusing on the global agents, their logic and dynamics. However, this must be tempered by calling attention to the agencies and contingencies involved in the process. In fact, political economy insights suggesting global lines of evolution are not contradictory but rather complementary to actor-oriented, actor-network theory and social constructivist approaches, which acknowledge the social agencies and the complex articulations of the different spaces involved in agro-food production and consumption (Llambí et al. 1999, Goodman and Watts 1997). The second section deals with the major characteristics of globalization. Since this is a subject that has bee