Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
Hunger and the Globalized System of Trade
and Food Production
Picture Credit: Hannah Arem To solve the world hunger crisis, it’s necessary to do more than send emergency food aid to countries facing famine. Leaders must address the globalized system of agricultural production and trade that favors large corporate agriculture and export-oriented crops while discriminating against small-scale farmers and agriculture oriented to local needs. As a result of official inaction, more than thirty million people die of malnutrition and starvation every year, while large industrial farms export ever more strawberries and cut flowers to affluent consumers. Excessive meat production, again largely for the affluent, requires massive amounts of feed grains that might otherwise sustain poor families. Giant agribusiness, chemical and restaurant companies like Cargill, Monsanto and McDonalds dominate the world's food chain, building a global dependence on unhealthy and genetically dangerous products. These companies are racing to secure patents on every plant and living organism and their intensive advertising seeks to persuade the world's consumers to eat more and more sweets, snacks, burgers, and soft drinks.
Also See GPF's Pages on:
World Hunger | The World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and Other Institutions | International Trade and Development
Agricultural Subsidies | Genetically Modified Organisms
Articles and Documents
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | Archived Articles
Causes and Strategies on World Hunger: Green Revolution versus Sustainable Agriculture (May 2008)
Global Policy Forum’s Katarina Wahlberg criticizes the World Bank’s proposal to create a Green Revolution in Africa. By focusing on boosting agricultural production through scientific development of more productive crops, the Bank disregards the fact that the Earth’s biological systems cannot be exploited forever. Also, the supporters of the new Green Revolution fail to address the major causes of the global food crisis, including biofuel production and unsustainable global consumption of meat. The author calls for a shift from industrial agriculture of export crops to sustainable agriculture for local consumption. (World Economy & Development in Brief)
An international research project consisting of 900 representatives from multilateral organizations, civil society, national governments, the private sector and scientific institutions has produced a report that evaluates the “relevance, quality and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, science and technology” (AKST) on development. This summary of the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report concludes that small-scale farmers and their traditional agricultural knowledge should play a greater role in production. Also, the report criticizes genetic modification (GM) in agriculture, pointing out that research on long-term effects of GM is lagging behind. The study warns that patenting genetic modifications undermines local farming practices and concentrates the ownership of resources. (GreenFacts)
Global Policy Forum’s Katarina Wahlberg warns that for the “first time in decades, worldwide scarcity of food is becoming a problem.” Increasing demand of cereals for food consumption, cattle feeding and in particular biofuel production, is driving food prices to record levels. Especially the poor, who spend a majority of their income on food, will suffer. To make matters worse, the food price hike is also affecting the amount of food aid available, as governments have not increased funding for the UN’s World Food Programme. (World Economy & Development in Brief)
2008
Artificial Foods and Corporate Crops: Can We Escape the “Frankenstate”? (May 2, 2008)
This article criticizes the effect of industrial agriculture on global food security. The author points out that a few large corporations have patented or genetically modified most of the plants humans rely on for their basic needs. These corporations use chemical and genetic technologies to “dominate agricultural production from seed to stomach and to profit from every bite.” In addition, industrial food production exhausts Earth’s basic biological support systems, and makes the planet more vulnerable to climate change. (AlterNet)Europe: Subsidies Feed Food Scarcity (April 25, 2008)
European subsidies for agriculture are contributing to rapidly rising food prices and the destruction of small-scale farming. These massive subsidies artificially cheapen EU products, making it impossible for small-scale farmers in poorer countries to compete. Critics have long protested the way in which these subsidies distort global agriculture and trade. In light of the 2008 food crisis, the EU subsidies are under heavy fire, from poor countries who suffer most, but also from within, by EU politicians and policymakers. (Inter Press Service)Liberians Drop Rice for Spaghetti (April 22, 2008)
In the first half of 2008, the price of rice more than doubled, making it unaffordable for many Liberians, who have switched from rice to cheaper staple foods like spaghetti. Liberia depends almost completely on foreign imports of rice from the US and Asia. While the Liberian Minister for Agriculture optimistically notes that this might be an opportunity for Liberians to diversify their diets, this example shows how vulnerable poor, net food importing countries are to price shocks on the global market. (BBC)Face It, We All Aren't Going to Become Vegetarians (April 18, 2008)
Biofuel production and livestock are important causes of the global food crisis. Both divert huge amounts of grain away from human mouths: 100 million and 760 million tons, respectively. The author states that consumers should eat as little meat as possible. The author concludes that it seems surreal that while half the world might not have anything to eat at all, those in rich countries have endless choices and barely notice the global food crisis. “It is hard to understand how two such different food economies could occupy the same planet, until you realize that they feed off each other.” (AlterNet)A Man-Made Famine (April 15, 2008)
This article is highly critical of World Bank president Robert Zoellick’s calls for further trade liberalization as a response to the global food crisis. According to the author, trade liberalization is not the solution but the cause of the food crisis. The 2007-2008 food price rises have had such a severe effect on the world’s poor because of the trade liberalization the World Bank, World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund propagate. These policies limit social safety nets and public sector agricultural support, push small-scale farmers out of the market, and lead to the sale of grain stockpiles to service foreign debt. Consequently, there is no “buffer between price shocks and the bellies of the poorest people on earth.” (Guardian)A Time of High Prices: An Opportunity for the Rural Poor? (April 2008)
This Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy report argues that while high commodity prices – such as those of 2007 and 2008 – can potentially benefit farmers, this is not the case in the short-term. The immediate effects of high food prices are to place extreme stress on the urban and rural poor of net-food importing, low-income countries. The IATP urges trade ministers at the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Accra, 2008 (UNCTAD XII) to review three decades of commodity market liberalization critically and to take action to rebalance power relations in agricultural markets.Rising Food Prices, What Should Be Done? (April 2008)
Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, calls for policy action in three areas to address the massive rise in food prices. Firstly, he proposes the implementation of social safety nets to help the poor who can no longer afford essential foodstuffs. Secondly, he calls for increased investment in agriculture. Finally, stating that export restrictions and import subsidies only add to global trade distortions that harm poor countries, he calls for other trade policy reforms, such as the removal of trade barriers by rich countries.A New Philanthro-Capitalist Alliance in Africa? (March 31, 2008)
This article analyzes the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an initiative by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. AGRA aims to end poverty and hunger by restructuring Africa’s food systems. But, this reform may ultimately serve the interests of agribusinesses like Monsanto, by creating a new market for genetically modified seeds and agrochemicals. AGRA’s philanthro-capitalism overrides local agricultural techniques by focusing on global market-based “solutions.” This diverts attention from the role that global markets systemically play in creating hunger and poverty in the first place. (Pambazuka)Priced Out of the Market (March 3, 2008)
This New York Times editorial discusses the human cost of the “rich world’s subsidized appetite for biofuels.” When it seemed that global food supply might run out in the past, food production grew to meet demand. This time it might not be so easy, with the demand for biofuels diverting food into energy for cars, rather than human beings.Crop Prospects and Food Situation (February 2008)
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) predicts that even though global cereal production will increase in 2008, prices will remain at record high levels. Production is not growing fast enough to match the strong demand so countries’ cereal stocks will keep falling. Most of the production increase will take place in the US, EU, China and India. The majority of poor countries will experience a decline in production, making them even more dependent on imports and vulnerable to higher grain prices.2007
World Food Stocks Dwindling Rapidly, UN Warns (December 17, 2007)
The UN warns against massive price increases for food grains and declining global food stocks, officials say as a result, the world’s poor are facing “a perfect storm.” Both supply and demand side factors have produced these changes – global warming, increased production for animal feed and biofuels. The World Food Program representatives believe that the change in these factors is permanent. (International Herald Tribune)Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts (December 1, 2007)
In 2005, a famine struck Malawi and a third of the population needed emergency food aid. In 2007, the same country is the number one southern African supplier of corn to the World Food Program. The Malawian government ignored the World Bank’s pressure to implement free market policies and to cut back on subsidies, and instead deepened their fertilizer subsidies, boosting the productivity of the country’s agriculture. (International Herald Tribune)World Cereal Prices to Remain High, Warns UN Report (November 12, 2007)
Global cereal prices are increasing due to low global food stocks and higher transportation costs. The prices of cereal cause food inflation across the world, and further increase the price of bread, meat and milk. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expect prices to remain high for several years, which could result in hunger for the world's poor, as they will be unable to purchase sufficient amounts of food. (OneWorld South Asia)Global Food Crisis Looms as Climate Change and Fuel Shortages Bite (November 3, 2007)
The price of food is increasing worldwide and several countries are on the brink of a food crisis. The reason for the increase is due to a combination of rising oil prices, greater amounts of food crops used for bio-fuel production, and unstable weather conditions. The rise in food prices has devastating consequences for the world’s poor who cannot afford to buy basic necessities and food to live above the subsistence level. (Guardian)Unpredictable Weather Patterns, Diversion of Grain for Biofuels, Contribute to Growing Food Shortages (September 28, 2007)
The author of this YaleGlobal article expresses concern over a looming global food crisis. Food crop harvests are falling while consumption is increasing, and the author fears this will lead to social and political unrest. Also worrying is the increasing share of agriculture devoted to biofuels. Combined with growing consumption, environmental degradation, watershortages and urbanization and massive agricultural subsidies in rich countries this could spell disaster. Further, climate change leaves poor equatorial countries extremely vulnerable to weather changes and seasonal variation.Historic Surge in Crop Prices Roils Markets (September 28, 2007)
Crop prices are rising to historic levels, reversing a long-term trend of steadily lowering world crop prices. For the third consecutive year the world is consuming more food grain than it produces, making the gap between demand and supply the largest in thirty years. This has dramatic consequences for poor countries as they are increasingly vulnerable to bad harvests. Further, high food grain prices will reduce poor countries’ purchasing power and hinder economic growth. Also, humanitarian groups fear that they will lose ground against hunger, as their food aid budgets will not reach as far as planned. (Wall Street Journal)US-Korean Food Fight (August 24, 2007)
This Foreign Policy in Focus article illustrates the negative economic effects of the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Korean agriculture. The FTA would seriously undermine Korean agricultural production and food safety laws, leading to a complete restructuring of the local agricultural practice. Korea’s National Policy Institute estimates that the country’s agriculture may well disappear within the next 10-15 years as a result of the new FTA. Washington has suggested that the FTA could function as a blueprint for other US trade liberalization agreements with countries across Asia, which would lead to similar adverse consequences.How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor (April 24, 2007)
A surge in demand for alternative fuels such as ethanol has caused the price of corn to rise to its highest level in ten years. Because corn is a staple food for billions of impoverished people around the world, these price increases have “potentially devastating implications for both global poverty and food security,” argues this Foreign Affairs article. The authors further point out that “political and corporate interests” dominate the ethanol industry, so that corn growers in rich countries receive substantial government subsidies which diminish the competitiveness of their developing country counterparts.Deadly Combination: The Role of Southern Governments and the World Bank in the Rise of Hunger (2007)
This report published by Norwegian Church Aid, Danish Church Aid, Church of Sweden and Brot-fur-die-Welt finds that ever since African governments began liberalizing trade, food security has worsened on the continent. In particular, economic liberalization has harmed poor subsistence farmers. The author suggests that to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015,the World Bank and local governments must abandon their present governance and liberalization policies.2006
High Cereal Prices Hitting Poor Countries: FAO (December 9, 2006)
In November 2006, world cereal prices reached their highest level in 10 years, according to UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) December 2006 Food Outlook. As a result of the higher prices, the FAO predicts that in 2006 developing countries will spend 5 percent more on food imports than they did in 2005. Along with poor harvest, the price increases stem from a fast growing demand for biofuel that diverts crops away from food purposes. (Hindu Business Line)World’s Hungry Swell to 852 Million Despite Promises to Eradicate Hunger: UN Expert (October 26, 2006)
The number of hungry across the world continues to increase, reports UN News. UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler blames the rising hunger levels on degraded lands, “massive underfunding” of UN feeding programs, and EU and US agricultural subsidizing and dumping. With 80 percent of the world’s hungry living in the countryside, governments and UN agencies must invest in small-scale agriculture and irrigation, Ziegler argues. He further highlights that people must have “access to justice” when their right to food is violated, and recommends that “Israel be held responsible under international law” for the extensive damage that its bombings did to Lebanese livelihoods.UN Food Envoy Slams Europe over 'Hunger Refugees' (September 22, 2006)
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, strongly criticizes Europe’s policy towards Africa. Ziegler highlights the obvious, but vastly ignored, connection between EU agricultural subsidies and the large flow of African migrants to Europe. While Europe destroys African agriculture by dumping subsidized food, Europeans want their borders closed to poverty-stricken Africans and respond with security measures to a problem which is in fact about “hunger refugees.” Ziegler calls for a halt to the “deadly dumping.” (AlertNet)Gateses Approach to African Hunger Is Bound to Fail (September 22, 2006)
In this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, agricultural development specialist Peter Rosset criticizes the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations’ US $150 million initiative to bring a “new” green revolution to Africa. Rosset finds that an “apparent naiveté about the causes of hunger” has led the Gateses to invest in technology packages that will likely only benefit seed and fertilizer industries, have “negligible impacts” on total food production and worsen countryside marginalization. Rosset holds much higher hopes for the “Food Sovereignty” approach focusing on ending “free trade extremism,” improving land access for the poor, and increasing support for family farmers and ecological farming methods.12 Myths About Hunger (Summer 2006)
This Food First list provides a critique of traditional hunger alleviation including US aid, the free market, and population control. The points demonstrate the misconceptions that limit the effectiveness of hunger relief. The article suggests that by recognizing these faults, individuals and agencies can better identify ways to address underlying causes of hunger.A World Addicted to Hunger: Part 1 (May 3, 2006)
850 million people suffer from chronic hunger and five to six million have lost the capacity to produce or buy enough food, even under normal weather and market conditions. As most poor countries actually produce enough food to feed all of their people, Inter Press Service sees unequal distribution and limited physical and economic access to food as the main causes of famines. Furthermore, man-made crises, such as wars, have more than doubled the number of famines since 1992.A World Addicted to Hunger: Part 2 (May 3, 2006)
In this article, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) make clear that, thanks to highly developed early warning systems, rich governments can prevent most famines. However, donor countries seldom prioritize “preventability” and hesitate to give money until the press shows pictures of ongoing humanitarian crises. Inter Press Service also points out differencing opinions between the FAO and the WFP on the impact of direct food shipments to starving people.America's Masterplan Is to Force GM Food on the World (February 13, 2006)
The World Trade Organization (WTO) penalized the European Union for banning genetically modified (GM) food imports between 1999 and 2003. The penalties will please the highly subsidized US food corporations, while discouraging resistance to GM food imports all over the world. (Guardian)Africa's Hunger - A Systemic Crisis (January 31, 2006)
This BBC article looks at the main factors causing Africa’s continuous struggle for agricultural self sufficiency. Decades of underinvestment in rural areas, hundreds of armed conflicts, HIV and high fertility rates turned Africa from a net food-exporter in the 50s into a continent dependent on foreign aid and food imports. Furthermore, many rich countries destroy local agricultural markets with subsidized food exports while abusing aid for their own corporate interests.Fixing the Humanitarian Aid System (January 2006)
This article likens the international emergency relief system to a “lottery” where media coverage decides which countries receive aid. Furthermore, donor governments’ tie their decreasing contributions to their economic and political interests. Africa Renewal calls for a more predictable and fair distribution of aid funds and urges governments to support initiatives like the United Nation’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). In addition, the article clarifies the controversy between food-shipments and locally bought food.2005
Niger: The IMF and World Bank's Invisible War on Africans (September 1, 2005)
The author of this article charges that the “western powers” are responsible for the famine crisis in Niger. In recent years, neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund have contributed to famine in several areas of Africa, most recently in Niger. Surprisingly (or not), one IMF-imposed condition required that countries receiving aid sell off their grain reserves. (Kilombo)Coordinating Global Efforts to Curb Corporate Power in the Food System (September 2005)
After two decades of uncompromising liberalization, transnational corporations now drive the global food system. Corporations' “tremendous political and economic power” created and worsened soil erosion, air and water pollution, pesticide residues and the inhumane treatment of animals. In addition, transnational corporations often influence governments’ positions on agricultural and food issues. This publication calls for farmers, workers, consumers and environmental activists to “create a united response to corporate power.” (Center of Concern)Africa Falters in Food Security Goals (August 11, 2005)
A recent study published by the International Food Policy Research Institute says that Africa will not meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. In the last three decades, the food shortage has substantially worsened and the debt burden still obstructs funding for productive investments in development in Africa." The upcoming UN summit in September should represent an opportunity to review this strategy. (Inter Press Service)Blenheim and Bangalore (July 5, 2005)
The Duke of Marlborough, a British aristocrat, receives over half a million pounds sterling in agricultural subsidies for his Blenheim estate near Oxford. At the same time, desperate Indian peasants, overwhelmed by subsidized imports and free-market reforms, commit suicide in large numbers. Rahul Rao, an Oxford-based scholar, connects Blenheim with his home city of Bangalore in India, showing a global web of institutions, policies and responsibilities that simultaneously creates wealth and destitution.Bitter Harvest: How EU Sugar Subsidies Devastate Africa (June 22, 2005)
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has distorted trade for decades. The sugar industry illustrates the injustice of this policy all too clearly. While the EU guarantees its sugar farmers a price that is over three times the world market price, African sugar producers struggle in vain to compete in an unfair market. These subsidies, paid for by European taxpayers, mean the security of a way of life in the North, but cost millions of African jobs, causing increased poverty and malnutrition. (Independent)Farm Subsidies That Starve the World (June 20, 2005)
This article from the New Statesman examines the global effects of agricultural subsidies. Although fair trade is growing, consumers “remain fixated by price, whatever the consequences.” These subsidies allow rich nations to keep their agricultural goods artificially low, and thus African producers, unable to compete, are doomed to fail. Fields lie barren and unused, next to piles of US rice—food aid for farmers that rich countries have subsidized out of a job.Part of the Problem: Trade, Transnational Corporations, and Hunger (March 2005)
Advocates of free trade have long pushed for the liberalization and acceleration of the global food trade. Bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) treat agricultural goods like any other consumer good. But as the number of hungry people in the world grows, critics are raising questions about who benefits from liberalizing the food trade. Transnational corporations (TNCs) like Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Monsanto have profited tremendously from the food trade, while rural farmers and the global poor suffer the consequences. (Center Focus)Agriculture Prices Decline, Devastating Countries that Export Single Product (February 15, 2005)
According to a new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), real prices of most farm products have fallen and the long-term forecasts do not look encouraging. While the lower price gives many urban consumers access to a more nutritious diet, it hurts billions of people who derive their livelihoods from agriculture, especially in poor countries that depend on a single commodity. (UN News)Power Hungry: Six Reasons to Regulate Global Food Corporations (January 2005)
This report from ActionAid shows how trade liberalization concentrates power over the global food market into fewer hands. Five companies now control 90 % of the world’s grain trade and one company, Monsanto, manages 91 % of the global genetically modified seed market. Market concentration drives down prices for staple goods like wheat, coffee and tea, hurting farmers and small producers in poor countries.
Archived Articles
More Information on Social and Economic Policy
More Information on World Hunger
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
