In this two-part series, Chris Mallinos looks at the policies and practices behind the global food disparity. This month he explores how powerful interests drive farm subsidies that cripple developing world economies and keep people hungry. Next month he looks at food waste in the Western world.
It was the kind of moment every politician dreams of.
Under the warm Italian sun, G8 leaders stood in unity earlier this month to announce a $20 billion pledge to help farmers in developing countries. They smiled, posed for pictures, and heralded their plan as an important step in the battle against hunger.
What’s more, like in any good photo-op, the leaders managed to entirely avoid questions on anything of substance—namely how their very own farm subsidies will render that $20 billion essentially useless.
But the fact remains that the G8 and other wealthy countries subsidize their own farmers to the tune of $300 billion a year. For decades, these massive handouts have cut poor farmers off at the knees, leaving them unable to even feed their own countries.
For all the talk of free markets and competition so often heard in the West, global agriculture remains a surprisingly lopsided industry. That’s because these subsidies fund massive overproduction in the West, which leads to the dumping of food into global markets and giant headaches for impoverished farmers.
In Japan alone, farmers receive roughly $7 a day from the government for each of their cows. Cattle are treated to imported food, cold beer, soothing music and even massages.
Thousands of miles away, African farmers deal with near-barren fields, drought, inadequate equipment and a flood of subsidized Western products that undercut local prices.
This is the reality of global food production. Not only are farmers in developing countries not on a level playing field with their Western counterparts, they aren’t even in the same stadium. They simply cannot compete.
And when they can’t compete they go out of business, making agricultural development nearly impossible. Farming is a key sector in many developing countries, so when it fails, entire economies do.
In fact, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, lavish Western farm subsidies cost developing countries a staggering $100 billion a year in lost income.
Perhaps most surprising is the fact that most of these subsidies go to wealthy farmers who don’t even need them. In the EU, the richest farms get 85 per cent of the subsidies, while in the United States three quarters of farmers don’t get any payments at all.
So why do they continue? The answer seems to lie in the often murky waters of political influence.
The farming lobby is big business in Washington. In 2006 alone, agribusiness lobbyists spent more than $90 million pushing for subsidies and other perks. Half that money went directly to Congressional candidates and party committees during the year’s mid-term elections.
So it’s was no surprise to see a multi-billion dollar farm bill passed by the U.S. Congress last year, despite being described by then-President George W. Bush as “bloated” with subsidies. Bush even vetoed the bill, but was overridden by rather keen members of Congress.
President Obama, who blasted powerful farm lobbyists for their role in the 2008 bill, has promised to re-evaluate subsidies. But like Bush, he will have to contend with some very rich and influential people committed to preserving the status quo.
Back in the developing world, where farmers struggle just to stay afloat, people are starving. The United Nations says there are now more than 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world. A child dies of hunger every six seconds.
Clearly something needs to change.
What’s ironic is that the G8’s move to help poor farmers was on the right track. The trouble is, the subsidies those same G8 nations dish out every year make all other efforts futile.
Until local agricultural industries are allowed to compete in their own markets, instead of being drowned out by subsidized foreign imports, farmers and the economies they support will remain weak, unstable and dependent on others.
But for that to happen, we must first stop treating food as just another political commodity to profit from and begin seeing it for what it really is—a necessity of life and a human right.
Because when it comes to growing enough food to feed ourselves, there should be no winners and losers.
Chris Mallinos is a Toronto-based journalist whose work has appeared on six continents and in seven languages. You can reach him at www.chrismallinos.com .
