The Current Food Crisis I confess I am passionate about food. I believe nourishing our families and ourselves is a serious responsibility, and that good food both sustains and heals us. Throughout history, food has done more than simply provide sustenance. It has acted as a catalyst for societal organization, social transformation, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. Food was the foundation for entire civilizations (1). By far the greatest transformation caused by food trade was a result of the European desire to circumvent the Arab spice monopoly. This led to the opening of maritime trade routes between Europe and Asia, the discovery of the New World, and the establishment of the colonial outposts in the Americas. But we live in an era when food has lost its place in the natural order of things. After centuries characterized by small, family-centered farms, the American agricultural landscape began to change around the start of the 20th century, with the inventions of a highly polished steel plow, silos, combines, grain elevators and the automated binder. During WWI, the manufacture of explosives led to the development of chemical fertilizers. Sarin gas, a weapon developed in 1938, just before WWII, was modified to make pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. With these innovations, farm production increased by one-third during WWII. Then, in the 1950’s, refrigerated long-haul trucks began transporting fruits and vegetables across country. It was then that factory farming really took hold (2). What follows is a brief overview of some of the problem areas created by America’s factory-farmed food supply. The first problem to address is the issue of food waste in the United States. The US wastes 27 percent of food available in supermarkets, restaurants, and in homes. In 1997, the USDA estimated that 96.4 billion pounds of the nation’s 356 billion pounds of edible food were never eaten. Some 12 percent of waste found in landfills is food. The USDA estimated that recovering just 5 percent of the wasted food could feed 4 million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million (3). This would go a long way towards alleviating the problem of hunger in our country. The second problem to address is the food crisis in developing countries. “The worldwide food crisis worsened in developing countries when the governments stopped supporting small farmers with help in purchasing seeds and fertilizer, storing grain, providing loans and distribution networks. The dismantling of the agricultural support system has made these countries more dependent on imports. This change was the result of trade policies brought on by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank”(4). These actions have served to drive many farmers off the land. Small farmers can no longer afford to farm because they are forced to buy expensive, genetically modified seeds that are not as productive as the seeds they had used traditionally. The farmers are also forced to buy more fertilizers. Changes in the agricultural support system encourage farmers to monocrop. Monocropping means that instead of growing many different vegetables, for example, the farmer will just grow one, making the farm income dependent on one crop and thus more susceptible to ruin if that crop fails. All of these factors contribute to the worsening food crisis. The next problem involves the methods now used by Corporate Industrial Agriculture. This way of farming is responsible for high-energy use. Its use of monocropping results in unhealthy soils because over time nutrients are depleted. Many foods grown by Industrial Agriculture are contaminated with harmful chemicals and contribute to food-borne illnesses. The way this food production system works, much of our food is transported for long distances and is not available to the local communities where it is grown. The food produced through Corporate Industrial Agriculture makes huge profits for corporations, but the cost to the public is exorbitant because the food produced in this manner is high in preservatives and chemicals, but devoid of most of its nutrients (5). None of this is acceptable. Another issue created by the factory-farming system of agriculture is the effect of this system on farm workers and their families. Wages and working conditions are horrendous for many farm workers, both native and migrant. A sad fact is that many undocumented workers have come to the US because they have been driven off their own land by trade policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement and by the business practices of corporations like Monsanto, ADM, and Cargill. In the United States, some progress is being made to improve the circumstances of farm workers. The United Farm Workers is working to win health and disability benefits as well as better working conditions for farm workers. The UFW has negotiated contracts with a variety of producers of wine, roses, mushrooms, almonds, dates, strawberries, vegetables, and citrus fruits. The names of these producers can be found at the UFW website. A current key campaign is to help to protect children from toxic pesticides, a very real danger, particularly for the children of farm workers. The Environmental Protection Agency has long ignored a law passed by Congress that requires that the agency protect children from ALL pesticide exposure, including pesticide drift. The UFW is pressuring the EPA to adopt buffers around homes, schools, parks and day care centers to counteract such exposure(6). I have painted a bleak picture of the agricultural landscape, and I have only scratched the surface. But there is hope. There are a multitude of exciting initiatives, some that have been around for many years, some just getting started, and many that are in the planning stages. A friend recently asked if I thought any of these initiatives would make a difference. I told her, “Yes!” There is a groundswell in this country and around the world to change the direction of the farming industry. More and more farmers and communities are seeing that industrial food production is neither environmentally sustainable nor economically viable and are getting involved in working for change. TAKE ACTION If you would like to become better informed and more involved, the following is a
list of relevant websites, current films and books which can help you to do so.
Please take some time to learn more about what you can do to make a difference
in the current food crisis. Then, become involved. Current Films Books Footnotes |
