WELCOME BACK

Can (or should) we improve the world through

consumption choices?
GEOG 1000 April 9, 2015

Agenda
1) Introduce Myself
2) Administrative stuff

(emails, course
schedule, remediation
plans)
3) Assignment 3
Discussion
4) Activity???

TA: Catherine Mulas (a.k.a. Cat)

MA candidate, Geography,York University
BA Honours Double Major, Geography & History,York

University
Research Assistant & Graduate Associate,York Centre for
Asian Research (YCAR)
Committee member, 2015 YCAR International Conference

VP, Graduate Association of Geography Students (GAGS)

2nd Year TA for GEOG 1000

My Research
Economic & labour geography

Why do certain people get channeled into certain occupations?

Case study: Over-representation of Filipinos in Personal
Support Work
Institutional factors
Personal circumstances

Improving wages & working conditions for PSWs

Office Hours
Mondays, 11:30am-12:30 pm (right after lecture)
Ross North 404 (Alisons previous office)
Take escalators; turn left to glass doors (enter geography

department); go left right away; turn right at corner; go past

mens bathroom & storage room; Ross North 404 is on right
hand side

Emailing me
geog1000@yorku.ca
Include in header:
Course code (GEOG 1000)
My name: Catherine or Cat
Your full name
Your student number
Your tutorial number
expect reply in 3 days, excluding weekends & holidays

Do not email past 6pm if you expect a response that day

Do not email in the 24 hour period before an assignment/quiz/exam

Email advisory Google Server

university has switched students emails to the Google server.

This means that you need to activate your Google accounts.

same York U email address, but all of the emails are now
going through the Google server
Instructions: http://gapps.info.yorku.ca/
you have until April 17th to sign up for your Google Apps at
York. Otherwise, your Google Apps at York will be created
on May 4th, 2015, but the email content in your current York
u account will not be moved automatically

Course Remediation

Revised Lecture & Tutorial Schedule

Monday, April 13th extra

office hour for Cat

(10:30am-12:30pm Ross
N 404)
Prof. Preston is away April
20th-28th
Lecture
BREAK
Lecture
Exam review

Lecture
Exam

Quiz 6
CANCELLED!
Every student will automatically get the 3% for Quiz 6

(a.k.a. Full marks)

Best 5 out of 6 quizzes still count lowest mark gets dropped

Final Exam
Wednesday, May 6 from 9:30am 11:30am in Lassonde A (our current

lecture hall). We are just waiting to confirm the time.

Exam review sheets will be ready in tutorial on April 16th
final exam will emphasize Asia, Africa & Latin America. However, some
terms/concepts that were first raised in the fall semester could show up
short answer and essay questions
If your midterm was a stronger grade than your final, both exams will be
weighted 20%/20% instead of the original 15% for the midterm and 25%
for the final
If you require accommodations for the exam on May 6th, book them ASAP
as soon as we know the time

Assessed Grades

Senate policy: http://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/files/SenateExecutiveBulliten20150326CompletionofCoursesREVISED2evm.pdf

Students with pressing needs and who are unable to write the final exam will have their grades assessed on everything up to and
including Assignment 3.
Form to apply: http://www.yorku.ca/roweb/grades/remediation/

You need to compile & scan the documentation. Include name & student #. Arianto is organizing documents/requests.You MAY
have to meet w/ him.

link & instructions posted to Moodle https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/mod/page/view.php?id=721945

Provide geog1000@yorku.ca email address

You will receive an email asking you to send supporting documentation. Send it as soon as you can after receiving request.

only students eligible for assessed grades are those who cant be on campus after midnight on April 24 th based on the following
criteria:
Visa expirations
Non-refundable travel arrangements (especially for international students)
does not qualify for individuals wanting to leave before April 24 th
booked before March 3, 2015
Commitments to study or conduct research elsewhere
Firm employment start dates
Deadlines for graduate and/or professional schools
Living arrangements, financial hardships, and family matters
May 6 exam will not be a problem for those of you who need to graduate
final grade will be calculated based on the other 75% of the course that you have completed (including Assignment 3)
Prof. Preston will review each request.You may be notified by email whether you were approved.
Questions/concerns? Let me know & email Prof. Preston at geog1000@yorku.ca . See Anto during office hours posted in
instructions.

Pass/Fail Option
if you are considering the pass/fail option, please go see an academic

advisor, because this could have a serious effect on your GPA - could
have serious consequences if you need to apply for other programs or
scholarships.
Apply through registrars website:
http://www.yorku.ca/roweb/enrol/passfail/
may be elected until the new last day to withdraw from a course

Withdrawal from course

You can withdraw from GEOG 1000 without receiving a

final grade by April 17th

Deferred Standing
For students eligible for assessed grades, but still want to take

exam & for those who are not eligible for assessed grades but need
to post-pone exam
Application needs to be approved by Professor Preston in her
office
Request form & instructions:
http://www.registrar.yorku.ca/pdf/deferred_standing_agreeme
nt.pdf
...but it is not to your advantage to postpone the exam

Questions?

Assignment 3 - Goals
make visible the invisible connections that link your life to

others in other places.You are also asked to assess the

information provided to you about the commodity chains
through which various items made their way to your
backpack, room, or kitchen.
trace the commodity chain as best as you can, given the
information that you can find, and comment on the quality
and quantity of information available for different items
3 components: a data table, a map, and a 6-700 word essay

Part 1: Data Table

Product

Information / Name

Country

GDP per
capita of
country*

GDP per
capita
ranking*

HDI ranking

Nike Inc.

USA

$ 51,700

13

China

$ 9,100

122

101

Brazil

$ 11,700

107

85

Example: Nike Shoes

a. Company

b. Production facility

c. Principal raw material

Where you found the above

information (e.g., website
address, etc.)

Leather

On the shoe itself;

http://www.nikebiz.com/contact/
http://www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/

Filling in the Data Table

For each product, fill in:
Name of product
The name of the company and its headquarters location
Where the commodity was produced
The primary raw material and where it was extracted/produced
Where you found this information (website address, or on the product itself)
For each country, you are going to fill in:
the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita
The countrys GDP per ranking
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
The countrys Human Development Indicator ranking
http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries

Keep it Simple!
composite commodities commodities that are made of
numerous separately manufactured parts (e.g cars, personal
computers)

Pick 1 part and focus on that

E.g. personal computer - keyboard & where aluminum in

the aluminum plate of the keyboard came from

Useful Sources
Websites of the company that produced the product
Call the companys public relation office
Find a toll free number or Skype
If you are using a food item, you can call up the company and tell them that you have a food
allergy, so you need to some information about where it was produced, etc.
Google search the company
Google search the primary material
CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

factbook/fields/2049.html
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/statistics/worldStatistics.html

You can find websites like these one with statistics about world mineral production

http://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/steelmaking-raw-materials.pdf
This document has information about the worlds top exporters and importers of iron ore

What is a raw material?

Natural, unprocessed material or resources that are converted
by a manufacturer into a final product (Oxford Dictionary of Environment and Conservation 2

nd

edition, 2013 http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199641666.001.0001/acref9780199641666-e-6669?rskey=up5tgn&result=1)

NOT RAW MATERIALS:

Velcro nylon, polyester
Plastic synthetic, petrochemicals, some plants
Nylon chemical process
Polyester man-made fibre
zippers

Primary Raw Material

Find the MOST LIKELY location
E.g. Cotton T-shirt produced in Bangladesh
Cotton most likely from India
China is largest cotton producer, but not exporter
U.S. & India largest cotton producers

If the primary raw material for your item was taken from more than
one country, pick the largest producer.
If you cant find anything about your product, you need to switch
products
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-19/top-five-cotton-producers-exporters-users-in-2010-2011table-.html

Part 2: Base Map

On the base map, you will record:
Places of :
Control/company headquarters
Production
Extraction or production of main raw material
Where you bought/acquired product
Links showing their connections and how they are connected to where you
live
Be creative!
Use different colours, lines, symbols & styles to make an effective map
Make sure you include a key showing what the different colours,

lines, etc. mean

Make sure it is neat & legible

Mapping Rules in Geography

Border neatly ruled, 5mm
Title in border; explains purpose
North arrow orientation
Legend ruled box; all symbols/labels

Labelling printed; horizontal (except water); size can vary for

importance; can use connecting lines

Scale e.g. map not to scale
Other rules
specific places (e.g. cities) dots
No dots for areas of land/water
http://wikis.abel.yorku.ca/bmanuel/geography/index.php/Mapping_Guidelines

Part 3: Essay
write a 600-700 word essay discussing what you have

discovered about your connections with the global economy,

and the information about your connections, by answering 3
main questions.

Essay Question 1
How are you connected to other parts of the globe through

the goods you consume? What kinds of spatial patterns can

you detect, and what can account for these? What might your
map tells us about the consumption patterns of Ontarians?
no more than 200 words
What do you see and find in the commodity chains? Where
were goods produced and why were goods produced in those
places? What does this say about the kind of global economic
processes that our consumption patterns as Ontarians rely
upon?

Commodity Chain
Economic geographers call the paths traced by an item and

everything that goes into making that item a commodity chain.

A.k.a. value chains by economists & supply chains by retailers
chain refers to how any product starts off as some raw material
(e.g. cotton), which is gradually transformed into something we
consume (e.g. a T-shirt). In that process, the raw cotton is spun
into thread, the thread woven into textiles, and the textiles dyed,
printed, and cut and sewn into a T-shirt. Each stage occurs in a
different place, being transported sometimes long distances to
take advantage of local conditions, such as the right climate for
growing cotton, access to cheap labour, etc.

World Systems Theory

A materialist description of global social structures, developed
by I. Wallerstein (1974, 1983). The core consists of the
most economically developed countries,
the periphery the less economically developed
countries, and the nations of the semi-periphery, such as
the newly industrialized countries, have aspects of
both core and peripheryactively part of the
capitalist world system but with limited authority therein.
These three economic classes are continually
changing, and nations move up and down in
the system
This theory has been criticized, in turn, for representing the
global economic system as a predominantly
capitalist phenomenon, for neglecting the
historical and cultural differences of developing
countries, and for overlooking the coreperiphery
inequalities existing within nations. (Oxford Dictionary of Geography,
4th edition 2009
http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199231805.001.00
01/acref-9780199231805-e-3702?rskey=B1mFbS&result=1)

Implications
Due to competitive pressure, enterprises gain a competitive edge by

transferring competitive pressures to the peripheral regions of the world

This manifests in low-wage labour, economic insecurity, short-term
programmes of economic development that focus on export-led growth,
debt-alleviation, structural adjustment policies
It describes a global economy that is highly dependent on geography
There is spatial inequality within the geography of commodity chains

Places of consumption and retail in the core and places of production in the global
periphery

Strongly interconnected (amongst people, places and commodities) and

interdependent amongst various actors (people, firms, states, organizations)

(Hughes & Reimer, 2004)

Why There?
Labour laws

Investment funding
Environmental rules
Shipping
Cultural desire for a product
Cultural acceptance of labour conditions
Population density
Environment

Export processing zones

Trade agreements
Institutions

Spatial Patterns of Commodity Chains

locations of raw material extraction, production facilities &

headquarters:
Global South/North
Developing/developed countries
Periphery/core regions
High/low GDP/HDI rankings
type of facilities (Sweatshops, factories)

Essay Question 2
What kind of information is available for different products, and what

is not? Was it difficult to find information about products you use? Did
the companies that claim to have traceability policies with respect to
social and environmental concerns do any better? Could you trace the
specific product in terms of who produced it and where, with what
environmental impacts and working conditions, or were you asked to
believe the companys policies and reassurances?
What information do you have about where your products come from
and the conditions there? Did the company from which you bought the
product disclose/make available all information from all stages of the
commodity chain?

What is traceability?
degree to which we can actually trace the geographical paths of an item

and the various materials that went into it. A.k.a. supply chain
transparency.
important to food items, because it is important for food safety, but
traceability is also often about convincing consumers that the retailer is
committed to making sure that its products were produced sustainably,
and under fair working conditions, even though they often do not
produce the products themselves but contract suppliers make it for
them. The idea is that if we have more information, we might be able to
make better choices about the products we consume.
pick at least 1 product that claims to have some level of traceability

How can you tell if a product is

traceable?
Does the company have a sustainability policy in which they aim to ensure

that what they sell did not degrade the environment?

Does the company have policies with respect to making sure the workers
that produced the items it sells are treated fairly (i.e. paid a decent wage,
safe working conditions, etc.)?
think about what information is provided, but also what information

is not provided that would seem relevant to these issues

Some things to consider...

What kinds of information do corporate buyers and suppliers disclose to

consumers and stages further up the commodity chain?

Does the corporate buyer (Walmart/Carrefour/Costco) investigate the

entire commodity chain of their products right up to the end/beginning?

Would they be aware of/investigate whether or not slave labour or
environmental degradation are involved in the extraction of raw materials?
What information are they able to provide consumers with in regards to
their products? (e.g. Guardian article on shrimp industry in Thailand)

How closely are corporate buyers following Fair Trade principles? How

transparent are these market-driven companies with their commodity chains? (e.g.
Nestl has been accused of pursuing exploitative business practices in Fair Trade
that exploit farmers (Raynolds 2009))

Essay Question 3
Do you think that providing more information to consumers can

improve sustainability and working conditions in other places around

the world or how much could be achieved by making the products
we consume more traceable? Does it affect your consumer decisions?
Explain your answer, and give at least one critique to traceability as a
response to problems of globalization.
Can you make changes in the world through ethical consumption
processes? Or is the consumption power in the hands of those who
already have power in the global economic system?
Simply asking you what are some of the critiques of ethical
consumption processes?

Example - Quinoa
traditional grain not actually a grain but a chenopod,

produced in the Andes in South America. It has been discovered by

foodies and the health-conscious middle class in rich countries.
Demand has risen, and because middle class consumers can afford
to pay higher prices, prices for quinoa have shot up. This might
seem great after all, we eat healthy food, Andean farmers get
more for their product. BUT it turns out its a bit more
complicated than that and major debate has sprung up as to
whether or not its good to eat quinoa. This debate has been found
in media outlets, such as the CBC and major newspapers.

Activity - Debate
1) Do not eat quinoa! Your are harming poor Andean people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.

html?_r=3&

2) Do eat quinoa its good for everyone you, the poor Andean
farmer, and for the global food system.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/quinoa-boom-offers-hard-lesson-

in-food-economics-1.1358699

3) Consumption is not a very good way of addressing Andean issues,

either way. So debate is not really relevant
Quinoa: To Buy or Not to Buy...Is this the right question?
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/9070

Quinoa Debate Summary

Critics have accused quinoa consumers of pushing up the price to the point
where many traditional consumers of quinoa people living in the Andes but
who were perhaps not quinoa farmers themselves could not longer afford to
buy the grain, and they were turning instead to nutritionally inferior foods.
But our neoliberal food geographer of U of T (Pierre Desrochers) and others
responded by arguing that consuming quinoa is good for everyone because in
effect markets know best, or more specifically, quinoa farming is a
comparative advantage for Andean famers, and they should take advantage
rather than remain poor. The final argument (the one that Prof. Vandergeest
tends to agree with) is basically that consumption politics implicit in this
debate doesnt really address the pressing issues facing Andean farmers, such
as inequitable land distribution, commercial plantations, and environment
degradation (and we are going to solve the issues of global south people
through our consumption choices?).

Critiques about Traceability

Certification reaches only a limited number of producers. Only a small proportion of

farmers, fishers, producers, growers, etc benefit.

certification processis expensive & requires a lot of labour = not accessible to all

producers.
certification process also does not address a lot of issues

Cant substitute for local action

o Are these best addressed locally through farmer unions, government NGOs/environmental
groups?
does not address issues of land rights and inequality
To what extent can fair trade and other traceable products address issues caused by

free trade and Structural Adjustment Policies?

Through certifications like fair trade, who gets the say in how the world should be? Is it a
market democracy driven by buyers (in other words, its a consumer democracy)? Who
does not have the power? What power do the producers/growers/farmers/fishers have?
Who is expressing the power in the globalized economic system? Who will benefit?
Which farmers dont get in on it and get to change?

Critiques Continued
higher price of certified products does not compensate for a lower yield
accusations that corporate buyers, e.g. Starbucks, are cutting corners and are not

maintaining close relationships with producers = undermining alternative

principles of fair trade & certification
Are corporations marketing traceable products for the benefits of the labourers
who produce the products or for the more affluent consumers? In other words, is
it a greenwashing tactic?
Green-washing advertising some small program to make it seem as if the corporation as

a whole is more sustainable than it really is. E.g. Nestle advertises Kit Kat as Fair Trade,
because the cacao is certified. But what of the palm oil, and sugar in the Kit Kat?
certifications, such as the tick-tree used by Forest Stewardship Council, produce a
distinctiveness, a product quality, a singularity that is marketable.

Third party certifiers are used to increase trust and legitimacy among customers and limit liability.

(Eden, 2009)

Critiques Continued...
Are the companies and consumers honest about local conditions at

different sites of the production process, or are they

marketing/fooling themselves based on their desire for certain
products or to help the poor and the environment?
Benson & Fischer, 2007: people make up myths about where their

food comes from

e.g. they use less pesticides in Guatemala than in California
E.g. Broccoli produced in Guatemala is romanticized as small-scale production

(nevermind that its actually multinational corporations that are involved in this
process)

Therefore, what we get is a global economy that is functioning on the

desires of consumers and producers

Questions to keep in mind

Can we make positive changes in the world through our consumption choices, for example by choosing fair
trade coffee?
What might be some of the problems or limits with trying to change the world through consumption choices?
Does our consumption actually address real issues in producing areas? Or does it just produce what Prof.
Vandergeest would call sustainability enclaves: where some producers may follow better practices while the
sector as a whole remains the same. Or does it address the problems that concern consumers, rather than the
problems identified by local people.
Should addressing these issues be up to us, or up to people living there? (or both?)
What does this imply for how we think about democracy? Ie, implies that those with more money to consume
have the power to change, and it tends to then take up the issues that concern those with money or it
reinforces global inequalities based on wealth differences.
Do you see fair trade as being about a fair and equitable relationship, or as us helping them? If the latter is
that a problem?
Are consumption-driven strategies the only way to come up with solutions for a more sustainable and just global
economy? Can we solve the problems of people in the global South through our consumption choices?
Is so-called ethical consumerism mostly just about building brand for multinationals (e.g. Walmart, Loblaws,
Converse, etc.)? I.e. Consumers think they are making choices and exerting power, but not really. Is it a good
thing that corporations increasingly want to be identified with sustainability? Why/why not?

General Instructions
typed, double spaced, with 12 point font, 1 margins
Title, name, student number, and tutorial should be at the top of the first

page.Your word count should be in bold.

penalized if your essay is more than 100 words less than the minimum or
more than the maximum.
APA format = in-text citations + works cited/reference list be extremely
clear and careful in citing all of the sources that you used for information
about particular pieces of the commodity chain. Not included in word
count
Marked for content & writing style. Re-read, proofread & revise

Essay Structure
Introduction
clear thesis
Body
arguments + evidence
Conclusion
Tie up everything your wrote and connect it back to your thesis
Your introduction and your conclusion need to be clear and easily

identifiable.
Make sure your ideas flow in a logical order where each point
built on the point before it to create an argument.
also refers to your use of quotes (placed in ways that make sense
and enhance your argument)

Thesis statement
Do not do this:
1)My paper is going to analyse the traceability of the commodity
chain of a Fair Trade cotton T-shirt and will discuss the
consumption patterns of people in Ontario.

2)The traceable commodity chain of a Fair Trade cotton T-shirt

tells us many things about the global economy.

A Good Example
Despite Ontarians desires to promote a more egalitarian
commodity chain through the consumption of Fair Trade
cotton T-shirts, persistent issues of traceability and an
inability to address all local needs in regions of production
indicate that certified products are not a complete solution to
problems of globalization.

Evidence (Quantity & Quality)

evidence supports your thesis
every piece of evidence that you use relevant, well connected to

the thesis and factually correct

provide evidence to back up each and every idea that you bring up
in your paper.Your opinions and conclusions must be supported by
evidence and examples. Otherwise, you will fall into the trap of
making generalizations.
provide enough evidence to make your arguments strong
Be careful with providing evidence without acknowledging how it
might contradict some aspects of your argument
each of your arguments has sufficient evidence

Quality of Overall Argument

how much thought you have put into the assignment. Are you

merely skimming the surface, or are you truly thinking critically?

Is your argument sophisticated, adequate and complete, or is it
simplistic?
Is your thesis based on critical reflection of the assigned questions,
or just on your own personal opinion?
Do not contradict your own arguments or reiterate the same
argument in different ways

Turnitin vs Hardcopy
Everyone has to hand in Assignment 3 because it is due well before the original exam

period which was scheduled between April 8th and 24th. The paper is due next Thursday,
April 16th in tutorial.
If you choose not to use Turnitin, then you must provide your final copy, your rough
draft, all of your notes, a list of every single source you have consulted and you must
have your paper orally examined with Professor Preston.
If you choose not to submit a hard copy of your paper, then you will receive your grade
on a marking sheet without any comments.
You do not need to upload the data table or the map to Turnitin.You must submit those
in hard copy at the beginning of tutorial. If I do not receive those in hardcopy, you will
receive a zero in those sections of the paper.
If you submit you essay on Turnitin, but forget to bring the other 3 parts of the
assignment to the tutorial, then you will start going into your grace days. If you exceed
your 3 grace days for the course, then I cant accept your assignment.

Grace Days
Weekends and statutory holidays are not included in grace days.
1 grace day : must submit your assignment to Turnitin by 11:59 pm on Friday, April 17th.
So any assignment submitted any time between the start of tutorial on Thursday
(April 16th) until 11:59 pm on Friday (April 17th) counts as 1 grace day.
2 grace days: must submit your assignment to Turnitin by 11:59 pm on Monday, April
20th. Any assignment submitted between 12:00am on Saturday April 18th to 11:59pm
on Monday April 20th counts as having used up 2 grace days

3 grace days: must submit your assignment to Turnitin by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, April 21st. Any
assignment submitted between 12:00am on Tuesday April 21st to 11:59 pm on Tuesday, April 21st
counts as having used up all 3 grace days.

I cannot accept any assignment submitted to Turnitin past 11:59pm on Tuesday, April 21st.

your responsibility to get me the hardcopy either the day of submitting your assignment to
Turnitin or the morning after. drop boxes at the North Ross elevators to submit Assignment
3. There is one box for Thursday tutorials and one box for Friday.You MUST include your
TA name (i.e. Cat or Catherine) on your assignment.

Questions?

Assignment 3 Useful Resources

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/10/why-traceability-matters-supply

chains
Huges and Reimer 2004. The Geography of Commodity Chains. Routledge.
Introduction p1-17
(available as ebook).
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/oculyork/docDetail.action?docID=10098974
Benson and Fischer 2007. Broccoli and Desire. Antipode 39(5)p800-820.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00519.x/pdf
Raynolds, Laura. 2009. Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: From Partnership to
Traceability. World Development. 37(6) p. 1083-1093
Eden, Sally. 2009. The work of environmental governance networks: Traceability,
credibility and certification by the Forest Stewardship Council. Geoforum. 40 p.
383-394

Tutorial Reflection
If you attended tutorial but did not speak and would like to

make up for your participation grades, please do the

following:

scan or take a picture of completed base map and data tables

that you brought in today and email that to me at the
geog1000@yorku.ca account by 11:59pm tonight.

Next Week
Assignment 3 is due next tutorial (Thursday April 16th, 2015)
No readings on syllabus
No lecture on Monday, April 13th, but I will have office hours

from 10:30am-12:30pm in Ross N 404

Tutorial topics:
1) critical map reading
2) distribution and organization of exam review