Blaming the Small Farmer for the Global Food Crisis?
- Topics:
- Hunger & Food Crisis
Friday, May 9th, 2008, 9:30 AM
Today’s Wall Street Journal has this front-page article about the global food crisis and the diminishing supplies of milk.
And, just in case you thought the global food crisis should be blamed on Big Ag making billions while the poor starve, or on the speculators who have flooded commodities markets with capital seeking refuge from the deluge of housing bubbles bursting, or on the industrial farmers in the U.S. who have converted 33 percent of their corn production to biofuels, the Journal has finally put blame where blame is due: squarely on the shoulders of small farmers.
(I’m hoping the sarcasm in that last sentence breaks through the blogosphere).
Yes, small farmers in New Zealand, who are so old fashioned they would like to hang onto local ownership instead of opening up their cooperative to foreign control, are now among the culprits for a global food crisis, according to the paper.
The irony is that the countries facing the worst food riots, and feeling the crisis most acutely, are those that have lost the local control of their food systems these New Zealand farmers are trying to hold on to. But these countries have lost that local control, not necessarily because they willingly turned it over to outside power, but often because they were required to do so in response to international loans contingent on market liberalization.
I just finished an advance copy of Paul Roberts new book, The End of Food, and he writes about some of the policies, forced on countries worldwide, that created such food vulnerability. Remember the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s? When that region reached out to the International Monetary Fund for assistance, the agency extended a $120 billion rescue package, with strings attached: The offer was tied to a requirement that the countries slash their tariffs on imported rice, as well as sugar, flour, soybeans, and corn. They did; they got the loan; the rest is history.
The vivid images of food riots dotting the planet have shown us the fragility of food systems that are so intricately tied to a global market with its wild speculation and extreme price volatility.
And now we have articles telling us we should really blame small farmers in New Zealand?
