I'm chiming in a bit later than I hoped, (personal circumstances just now) but special thanks to Gail for her thoughts and support for this article. I'm not an economist, but I have found the historical approach of Geoff Cunfer (On the Great Plains) very useful for US farming and I will refer to his work in more detail in Part 2. For more general background,(I have not used it specifically in this article), but again from an historical 'systems' approach, I appreciated Bunker and Ciccantell's 2005 Globalization and the Race for Resources.
Good wishes for your studies.
Phil

Did not expect to get a reply from the author himself! Kindly appreciated and looking forward to part 2.