Food Regimes and Food Import Dependency: An Analysis of Jamaica's Food Imports, 1950-2000

This paper uses food regime theory to analyze the changes in Jamaica’s food imports in order to explain how it became so heavily dependent on imported food. It argues that food regime theory has a bias toward production and food exports; it tends to focus on the drivers of the food regimes: First World states and transnational corporations, along with the New Agricultural Countries, the few developing countries that have become major players in the global food system (e.g., Brazil, South Africa, Thailand). To correct for this bias, we need to examine how small Third World countries are connected to the global food system through consumption and food imports.  As food regimes evolve, their characteristic commodity complexes change. In turn, the types of foods imported by Third World countries also change. However, once a country becomes import dependent for a particular type of food commodity, it is very difficult to go back to self-sufficiency. Thus the evolution of food regimes creates a cumulative food import dependency for more and more kinds of food. One element of food regime theory which does focus on consumption and food imports into the Third World is the analysis of how the US PL480 “food aid” program changed Third World diets, undercut Third World agriculture, and created food import dependency. This paper expands on that analysis and uncovers additional mechanisms through which food regimes tend to create food import dependency in small Third World nations.