Sep 23
One of the major arguments of industrial agriculture advocates is that the problem of world hunger can be alleviated by the higher yields of industrial farming. More food, grown cheaply and quickly on a large scale, means less hunger and wider availability. Unfortunately the inverse is often true.
Take bananas for example. A great source of vitamins, bananas are oftentimes grown on huge industrial plantations in Central and South America. According to a study by Pedro Arias of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization a mere 13% of Ecuadorian banana exports between 1998 and 2000 stayed in South America. Conversely, 61% of exports in those years went to the United States, Canada, EU, and Japan. Additionally, Arias writes that "Ecuador banana workers receive the lowest wages of all Latin American banana exporting countries." Not only do a vast majority of what they grow get sent to first-world countries, but the workers who grow these bananas are barely able to feed their families on what they are paid (approximately $56 US a month in Ecuador). They spend their days cultivating food that will never reach their tables.
Across the globe food is being grown cheaply by low-wage workers to help feed the first world. The recent economic crisis saw food riots across Asia as one of the world's most important food commodities, rice, became too expensive for many people to buy. A basic staple that has played an integral role in the daily nutrition of much of the world for hundreds of years has now become too expensive for those who need it most. Huge industrial rice operations grow thousands of tons of rice that are then shipped to Europe, North America, and Japan while the workers countries like Vietnam and the Philippines who grew that rice starve.
Industrial agriculture will not feed the world, rather it has only helped to exacerbate many of the food crises that plague the poor across this planet.
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Sep 27
Amen! When folks assert that the vision of global sustainable farming simply isn’t possible, I usually just ask them to run to Iowa and grab an ear of corn. Try eating that crap. Most of it isn’t a food crop; it’s an industrial product used to feed animals and make high fructose corn syrup. When the heartland uses all of its plains to grow feedlot crap, the myth of “mega farms will feed the poor” just doesn’t hold up. So sad that something well intentioned has become so twisted.
Oct 06
Hi…
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