I've always thought that agri-business is the place where farmers and chemists
poison their customers in the hopes of making a larger profit.
I think that encourages immorality.
Also, the trade restrictions on poor countries mean
that, even if they can export, the rich world won't take their products
and they'll, in turn, dump all the First World extra produce on poor countries,
undercutting local producers.
So, as HaJoon Chang says, we have to let poor countries operate the way
that they know how. Let small entrepreneurs thrive in those
countries and you'll see how the whole world will have food.
checkitout:
In agriculture, small is beautifulInvesting in small farmers brings a developmental double whammy, helping to put food into circulation while also boosting the income of some of the poorest people on the planet
2011 Blog Action Day on 16 October - World Food Day - is, naturally, themed around food
MDG : Food in Colombia : A Colombian fruit vendor in La Alameda market in Cali
A Colombian fruit vendor arranges strawberries at her stall in La Alameda market in Cali, Valle del Cauca department. Photograph: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images
Small farmers get a bad press: developing country governments often see them as a throwback, and hanker after the glitter of modernity that surrounds large-scale investment in biofuels or export crops. Aid agencies and donor governments with more money than staff prefer the scale the big farms can offer. But there are at least two good reasons why, when it comes to agriculture, small is still beautiful.
First, investing in small farmers brings a developmental double whammy: it helps put food into circulation and at the same time boosts the income of some of the poorest people on the planet – small farmers. It is an enduring and horrible irony that the people who grow the food are often also the ones who go hungry, because their crops are too paltry, or prices too low, for their harvest to see them through the year. Jobless agribusiness growth won't help those people; boosting small farm output will.
Second, helping small farmers get access to the kinds of things big farmers take for granted – bank loans, technical support, land rights – can have a catalytic effect on their productivity. Forget all those myths about stick-in-the-mud peasants – most small farmers are businesspeople, keen to experiment, manage risk, break into new markets and better themselves.
That goes particularly for female farmers, who in many countries grow most of the food but have least access to such support. Worldwide, providing female farmers with equal rights to land and agricultural support could feed up to 150 million additional people.
Here's one example from dozens in Oxfam's work around the world. Small-farmers supply 67% of the food consumed in Colombia's capital, Bogotá (population: 7 million), but they don't earn a decent price for their produce. Much of the produce sold in urban markets is handled by commercial intermediaries, who buy from individual producers at low prices and then sell high.
So Oxfam teamed up with local NGOs and peasant organisations and tried to find out what the problem was. Government officials told us that the peasant economy was no longer viable and that "the peasants are lazy, they support the armed groups, they take advantage of the drug mafias, and take their cut growing coca". What emerged was the need to change attitudes towards peasant farmers, both among officials and the urban public.
The timing was propitious: in 2004, the office of the mayor of Bogotá had begun to speak openly for the first time about poverty and food security. It had drawn up a draft food supply master plan, but this failed to recognise the potential of small producers. The plan was based on obtaining food supplies for the minimum possible price, but did not consider the needs of producers or the potential for reducing rural poverty. Instead of a minimum price, campaigners suggested a "fair price" principle.
The mayor's office remained sceptical of small farmers' ability to supply food efficiently, so the project organised farmers' markets in strategic locations around the city, including the main square. Officials and shoppers were duly impressed by the level of organisation and capacity on display, but also by the prices. Monitoring showed that the average net increase in prices for farmers were 64% in wholesale markets and 52% in retail, while urban consumers also benefited, paying average prices that were some 15% lower.
Supported by political lobbying and savvy media work, the farmers' markets got the message home. The mayor agreed to revise the city's plan to one based on fair prices, and backed it up with some funding to help small producers supply the city and seats for small farmers on the relevant committees.
Since then, more than 30 municipalities in the area around Bogotá have organised their own local markets; Bogotá's mayor has signed contracts with five other regional governments, pledging to increase rural investment for food production. Oxfam is now trying to replicate the initiative in Medellín and Cali, the two other big mayoral cities in Colombia.
There are hundreds of millions of small farmers who could benefit from schemes like these. When it comes to ending hunger, how food is grown and marketed (and by whom) matters at least as much as growing more of it.
[a whole new kind of turf burn]