'The World Food Crisis' from The Nation

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Monsanto, one of the players behind the World Food Crisis

The World Food Crisis

by Nichols

The only surprising thing about the global food crisis to Jim Goodman is

the notion that anyone finds it surprising. " So, " says the Wisconsin

dairy farmer, " they finally figured out, after all these years of

pushing globalization and genetically modified [GM] seeds, that instead

of feeding the world we've created a food system that leaves more people

hungry. If they'd listened to farmers instead of corporations, they

would've known this was going to happen. " Goodman has traveled the world

to speak, organize and rally with groups such as La Via Campesina, the

global movement of peasant and farm organizations that has been warning

for years that " solutions " promoted by agribusiness conglomerates were

designed to maximize corporate profits, not help farmers or feed people.

The food shortages, suddenly front-page news, are not new. Hundreds of

millions of people were starving and malnourished last year; the only

change is that as the scope of the crisis has grown, it has become more

difficult to " manage " the hunger that a failed food system accepts

rather than feeds.

The current global food system, which was designed by US-based

agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill, Monsanto and ADM and forced

into place by the US government and its allies at the World Bank, the

International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, has

planted the seeds of disaster by pressuring farmers here and abroad to

produce cash crops for export and alternative fuels rather than grow

healthy food for local consumption and regional stability. The only

smart short-term response is to throw money at the problem. W.

Bush's release of $200 million in emergency aid to the UN's World Food

Program was appropriate, but Washington must do more. Rising food prices

may not be causing riots in the United States, but food banks here are

struggling to meet demand as joblessness grows. Congress should answer

Senator Sherrod Brown's call to allocate $100 million more to domestic

food programs and make sure, as Representative Jim McGovern urges, that

an overdue farm bill expands programs for getting fresh food from local

farms to local consumers.

Beyond humanitarian responses, the cure for what ails the global food

system--and an unsteady US farm economy--is not more of the same

globalization and genetic gimmickry. That way has left thirty-seven

nations with food crises while global grain giant Cargill harvests an 86

percent rise in profits and Monsanto reaps record sales from its

herbicides and seeds. For years, corporations have promised farmers that

problems would be solved by trade deals and technology--especially GM

seeds, which University of Kansas research now suggests reduce food

production and the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and

Technology for Development says won't end global hunger. The " market, "

at least as defined by agribusiness, isn't working. We " have a herd of

market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild

and constructed a world of inequality and horror, " says Ziegler,

the UN's right-to-food advocate. But try telling that to the Bush

Administration or to World Bank president (and former White House trade

rep) Zoellick, who's busy exploiting tragedy to promote trade

liberalization. " If ever there is a time to cut distorting agricultural

subsidies and open markets for food imports, it must be now, " says

Zoellick. " Wait a second, " replies Dani Rodrik, a Harvard political

economist who tracks trade policy. " Wouldn't the removal of these

distorting policies raise world prices in agriculture even further? "

Yes. World Bank studies confirm that wheat and rice prices will rise if

Zoellick gets his way.

Instead of listening to the White House or the World Bank, Congress

should recognize--as a handful of visionary members like Ohio

Representative Marcy Kaptur have--that current trends confirm the wisdom

of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's call for " an urgent

rethink of the respective roles of markets and governments. " That's far

more useful than blaming Midwestern farmers for embracing inflated

promises about the potential of ethanol--although we should re-examine

whether aggressive US support for biofuels is not only distorting corn

prices but harming livestock and dairy producers who can barely afford

feed and fertilizer. Instead of telling farmers they're wrong to seek

the best prices for their crops, Congress should make sure that farmers

can count on good prices for growing the food Americans need. It can do

this by providing a strong safety net to survive weather and market

disasters and a strategic grain reserve similar to the strategic

petroleum reserve to guard against food-price inflation.

Congress should also embrace trade and development policies that help

developing countries regulate markets with an eye to feeding the hungry

rather than feeding corporate profits. This principle, known as " food

sovereignty, " sees struggling farmers and hungry people and says, as the

Oakland Institute's Anuradha Mittal observes, that it is time to " stop

worshiping the golden calf of the so-called free market and embrace,

instead, the principle [that] every country and every people have a

right to food that is affordable. " As Mittal says, " When the market

deprives them of this, it is the market that has to give. "

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