Sydney Ideas

Lives versus Livelihoods? fumigants, farmworkers, and biopolitics in California’s strawberry industry 23 November, 2015 There’s been great debate over the years about pesticide use in the production of our fruit and veggies. California’s lucrative strawberry industry has been a clear example of where there have been regulatory battles over the use of chemical fumigants - two, in particular, methyl iodide and chloropicrin. One side of the argument, from the activists, is that they would harm the body while industry focused on how no pesticide use would affect its trade. Professor Julie Guthman will discuss these debates and note how farmworkers were notably marginalised. Drawing on her recent research, she will discuss the distinction between lives and livelihood. Professor Julie Guthman is a geographer and professor of social sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her publications include two multi-award winning books: Agrarian Dreams: the Paradox of Organic Farming in California, and Wei