INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY

SPRING 2008 VOLUME 14 • NUMBER 1

From Food Rebellions to Food Sovereignty: Urgent call to fix a broken food system

By Eric Holt-Giménez and Loren Peabody

Hunger in a World of Plenty he skyrocketing cost of food has resurrected the specter of the “food riot.” The World Bank reports that Tglobal food prices rose 83% over the last three years and the FAO cites a 45% increase in their world food price index during just the past nine months.1 The Economist’s comparable index stands at its highest point since it was originally formulated in 1845.2 As of March 2008, average world wheat prices were 130% above their level a year earlier, soy prices were 87% higher, rice had climbed 74%, and maize was up 31%.3 Not surprisingly, people have taken to the streets in Mexico, Italy, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Indonesia, 1 Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Yemen, Egypt, and Haiti. Over 100 people have been killed and many more injured. In Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with food prices increases of 50-100%, driving the poor to eat biscuits made of mud and vegetable oil, angry protestors forced the Prime Minister out of office. The food crisis will get worse before it gets better. Without massive, immediate injections of food aid, 100 million people in the Global South will join the swelling ranks of the word’s hungry.4 But the protests

are not simply crazed “riots” by hungry masses. Photo by Kimberly D. Mok Rather they are angry demonstrations against high food prices in countries that formerly had food sur- pluses, and where government and industry are unre- sponsive. They reflect demands for food sovereignty: people’s political and economic right to determine the course of their own food systems. The food crisis appeared to explode overnight, rein- Food Protestors, Mexico 10-25-2007 forcing fears that there are just too many people in the world. But according to the FAO, with record grain harvests in 2007, there is more than enough food in the world to feed everyone—at least 1.5 times current demand. In fact, over the last 20 years, food production has risen steadily at over 2.0% a year, while the rate of population growth has dropped to 1.14% a year.5 Population is not outstripping food supply. “We’re seeing more people hungry and at greater numbers than before,” says World Hunger Program’s executive director Josette Sheeran, “There is food on the shelves but people are priced out of the market.”6 The immediate reasons for food price and development—the industrial agri- project of Ford and Rockefeller Foun- inflation include; droughts in major foods complex is made up of multina- dations (thereafter financed with public wheat-producing countries in 2005-06, tional grain traders, giant seed, chemical money), the Green Revolution raised low grain reserves (we have less than 54 and fertilizer corporations, processors and yields per acre by developing rice, days worth, globally); high oil prices; a supermarket chains. Forty years ago, much wheat and maize hybrids that could be doubling of per-capita meat consump- of the countries of the Global South had densely planted and responded to irri- tion in some developing countries, and yearly trade surpluses in food of $7 bil- gation and high applications of fertil- the diversion of 5% of the world’s cere- lion. After the UN’s first “Decade of izer. In the West, world per-capita food als to agrofuels. Though an increase in Development” this surplus shrunk to $1 production increased by 11%. But the agricultural growth is projected for billion. Today, after four “Development number of hungry people also increased 2008, most experts agree food prices Decades” and the expansion of global by 11%. 8 This is because the Green will continue to rise. Drought, meat agri-foods, the southern food deficit has Revolution’s technologies were more diets, low reserves, and agrofuels are ballooned to US $11 billion/year. The easily adopted by large-scale farmers only the proximate causes of food price FAO predicts it will grow to $50 billion who took over rich bottomlands, dis- inflation. These factors do not explain by 2030.7 While not the result of a cen- placing peasants. Many smallholders, why—in an increasingly productive and tral “conspiracy,” the rise of food deficits pushed out of agriculture, migrated to affluent global food system—next year in the Global South mirrors the rise of the city slums now common through- up to one billion people will likely go food surpluses in the industrial North. Far out the Global South. Others, encour- hungry. To solve the problem of hunger, from the result of “overpopulation,” or the aged by government “land reforms” we need to address the root cause of the “invisible hand” of the market, hunger is cleared new agricultural land in tropical food crisis: the corporate monopoliza- the result of systematic destruction of forests and on fragile hillsides. Develop- tion of the world’s food systems. southern food systems through a series of ment projects soon followed, offering northern economic development projects. cheap credit so smallholders could buy Rise of the Industrial the Green Revolution technological Agri-foods Complex The Green Revolution packages. In fragile forest and hillside 2 The world food crisis reflects the weak- The first major development in the rise conditions, Green Revolution packages nesses of a global food system that is of the agri-foods complex was the degraded soils rapidly, requiring higher highly vulnerable to economic and envi- spread of the industrial model of food and higher fertilizer applications. Yields ronmental shock. Why? Much of the production through the “Green Revolu- fell, and the tremendous diversity of problem springs from the risks and ineq- tion.” Starting in the 1960s, the Green local varieties planted by traditional uities inherent in the industrial agri-foods Revolution marketed “technological farmers was reduced by as much as complex. Built over the past half-century— packages” of hybrid seeds, fertilizers 90%, destroying centuries-old agro- largely with public funds for grain subsi- and pesticides to developing countries biodiversity. To compensate, more and dies, foreign aid, and international research in Asia, Africa and Latin America. A more forest and hillside land was brought into production, causing mas- sive environmental damage. The Green Green Revolution: Winners and Losers Revolution, ostensibly a project to save The germplasm collected from peasants in Asia and Latin America by Green Revolution sci- the world from hunger, undermined the entists contributed $10.2 billion/yr to U.S. corn and soy production in the 1970-80s. Fully ability of the poor to feed themselves one third of the seed produced by the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improve- by displacing them from their land and ment (CIMMYT in Spanish) was appropriated by private northern seed companies including degrading the agroecosystems they Pioneer Hy-Brid, and Cargill (Ecologist, 1996). Farmers and the environment fared less well depended on to produce food. from the spread of the Green Revolution. Central America is a case in point: From 1979-97, Take Two: fertilizer use increased from 80 to 120/kg-ha and grain production increased by 45 million Structural Adjustment t/yr (CIECA, 2001) (CIMMYT, 1992). However, average yields actually dropped by 50% from The second major development in the 1980-96 (CIECA, 2001). How did grain production increase even as yields dropped? By rise of the industrial agri-foods complex expanding the “agricultural frontier.” During the heyday of the Green Revolution in Central was the Structural Adjustment Programs America, the region lost half of its tropical forests and almost doubled its CO2 emissions (SAPs) of the 1980-90s. The SAPs were (Utting, 1996; Kaimowitz, 1996) conditional loan programs enforced in “Free” Trade: The nail in the Agrofuels: A poor idea, The Debt Crisis coffin of food security badly implemented, at the The spread of the Green Revolution The spread of Free Trade Agreements worse possible time coincided with a general boom in lending (FTAs) and the rise of the World Trade The renewable fuel targets of the US from the Global North to the Global South Organization (WTO) ended any aspira- Energy Acts of 2005 and 2007 man- (which is one reason why so much credit tions to food security the Global South dated the consumption of 4 billion, 7.5 was available to peasants for technological might have had. The WTO was formed billion, and then 36 billion gallons a packages…) The Global South borrowed in 1995 for the global enforcement of year of agrofuels.9 This obligatory mar- heavily to finance economic development. market-led economic development. The ket—sweetened with tariffs and subsi- Agricultural exports were used to obtain WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) dies that prop up half of ethanol’s foreign exchange to pay back loans. restricts government power to establish wholesale market price—has led to an Production boomed, leading to a fall in agricultural policies. The WTO’s “disci- “agrofuels boom.” Between 2001 and prices for agricultural goods. Farmers in plines” (areas of enforceable deregula- 2007, the amount of corn used in US the North and the South responded by tion) include domestic supports, export ethanol distilleries exploded from 18 producing more to increase income. The subsidies, market access, tariffs, and million tons 81 million tons. In 2007, global oil shock of the 1970s led to an quotas—all the mechanisms needed by the jump in ethanol production more increase in production costs and a reces- nations to regulate their farming sector than doubled the average annual growth sion that, in turn, led northern banks to and ensure a stable food supply. The in demand for the world’s grains that call in their loans. Family farmers in the WTO has a number of obscure rules took place between 1990 and 2005.10 US went bankrupt and the countries of kept in colored “boxes” that allow the At this rate, half of the US corn harvest the Global South defaulted on the loans, US and EU to exempt their subsidies will be diverted to ethanol production leading to the “Debt Crisis.” from WTO disciplines. This dualist sys- by the end of 2008. As more corn is tem privileges northern grain, seed and planted, it displaces wheat and soybeans, tandem by the World Bank and the chemical companies seeking to dominate increasing their market price. Since U.S. International Monetary Fund (IMF) so 3 southern markets. corn accounts for some 40% of global 3 that developing countries, debt-ridden production, U.S. agrofuel expansion Similarly, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) after twenty years of development, impacts global markets for all food enforce “free” trade agreements within would pay back their loans to northern grains, and exacerbates food-price infla- regional trading blocs. Since their incep- banks. To receive loans from the World tion worldwide. Bank, developing countries signed IMF tion, the North American Free Trade agreements to remove their tariff barri- Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central The agrofuels boom collapses the food ers to foreign imports, privatize state American Free Trade Agreement system with the energy economy. Ever companies and services, and dismantle (CAFTA) have led to the destruction of since the Green Revolution, cheap oil has their food marketing boards. This millions of rural livelihoods in Latin driven a fuel-intensive industrial food allowed widespread “dumping” of America, driving a million people a year system. Rising petroleum costs makes highly-subsidized US and European to the US in search of work. industrial farming more expensive, and grain surpluses. Farmers in the Global raises the cost of transporting food the South couldn’t compete against grain 1200-2000 miles it often travels through sold at prices below the costs of pro- the global food system. At this writing, The Calculus of Northern the price of oil is a record $120 a gallon. duction and were forced to quit farm- Subsidies ing. These rural poor were then available Freight costs are up 80% since 2006 and • $1 billion/ day 11 to work for starvation wages on planta- fertilizer prices spiked 150%. Now, • EU subsidy/cow ≈ $2 ≈ daily thanks to agrofuels, food not only depends tions growing low-end agricultural wage of world’s 3 billion poor exports including, bananas, cotton, on oil, it competes with fuel. • 6x greater than OECD’s develop- tobacco, coffee, sugar, and beef, or ment assistance In addition to food-fuel competition in high-end, non-traditional export crops, • Removal could return more than the global north, the proliferation of like snow-peas and flowers. Support for 5x all development assistance to agrofuel plantations throughout the national food production disappeared. 3rd World Global South is further displacing small- Southern countries lost the ability to scale farmers. Since smallholders make feed themselves. up one-half to two-thirds of the popula- up grains and grain futures, traders are hoarding, withholding stocks and fur- ther inflating prices.

Food Sovereignty: Fixing Photo by Leonor Hurtado the Food System to Solve the Food Crisis World leaders are scrambling to address the political fallout from the waves of protest sweeping the planet. US presi- dent George Bush recently requested $770 million in food aid from Congress. But the corporate agenda behind the president’s call became apparent when he then called on other countries to ease trade barriers on agriculture and to lift bans on genetically modified foods.’ 14 The official prescriptions from the US, the World Bank and the CGIAR for solving the world food crisis call for more of the same policies that caused the crisis in the first place: e.g., more free trade and more Green Revolutions (now read: gene revolutions). Expecting the institutions that built the current food 4 Low-technology irrigation of lettuce fields in Mali system to solve the food crisis is like ask- ing an arsonist to put out a forest fire. tion in southern countries (and still pro- The Balance of the Agri- More free trade and more Green Revolu- duce almost half of the food), the foods Industrial Complex tions are good news for an industrial agrofuels boom not only threatens this The expansion of industrial agri-foods agri-foods complex seeking to prolong sector’s livelihood security, it reduces crippled food production in the Global their windfall profits, but it will do noth- their contribution to national food secu- South and emptied the countryside of ing to re-structure our environmentally rity. The fuel produced will do nothing valuable human resources. But as long as vulnerable and economically inequitable to alleviate the energy crunch in the cheap, subsidized grain from the indus- global food system. Global South either, as agrofuels are pri- trial north kept flowing, the agri-foods To solve the food crisis we need to fix the food marily for export to northern countries. complex grew, consolidating control of system. That entails re-regulating the mar- Just how much agrofuels’ effects food the world’s food systems in the hands of ket, reducing the oligopolistic power of prices depends on who is talking. Presi- fewer and fewer grain, seed, chemical the agri-foods corporations, and re- dent Bush says it’s responsible for about and petroleum companies. Today three building agroecologically resilient peas- 15 percent of the rise in costs. The U.S. companies, Archer Daniels Midland, ant and smallholder agriculture. We need Department of Agriculture claims 20 Cargill, and Bunge control the world’s to make food affordable by making sus- percent.12 The World Bank asserts that grain trade. Chemical giant Monsanto tainable family farming viable. These the 60% rise in corn prices from controls three-fifths of seed production. tasks are not mutually exclusive—we 2005-07, “is largely because of the U.S. Unsurprisingly, in the last quarter of don’t have to wait to fix the food system ethanol program, combined with mar- 2007, even as the world food crisis was before making food affordable or farm- ket forces.”13 What is clear, is that both breaking, Archer Daniels Midland’s ing viable. In fact, the three need to direct and indirect effects of agrofuels profits jumped 20%, Monsanto 45%, work in concert, complementing each on the food system are global, pro- and Cargill 60%. Recent speculation other. Farm and food advocates are sug- found—and highly destructive. with food commodities has created gesting four essential steps: another dangerous “boom.” After buying An essential step—at home and abroad—is Step 1: Reactivate the peasant Step 2: Moratorium on Agrofuels to re-establish national grain reserves. The sector in the Global South National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) United Nations Special Rapporteur on claims, “We are just one drought away from “An absolute priority has to be given to Hunger, Jean Zeigler has called for an possibly seeing $10/bushel corn or $20/ domestic food production in order to immediate 5-year Moratorium on Agro- bushel wheat with absolutely no plan in decrease dependency on the international fuels. In both the US and Europe, cam- place to deal with such a calamity.” A sign- market. Peasants and small farmers should paigns are underway to roll back the on letter to Congress drafted by NFFC and be encouraged through better prices for renewable fuels standards that force signed by over 30 US farm and food their farm products and stable markets to consumers to buy agrofuels at the organizations, states, “The United States produce food for themselves and their pump. Joachim von Braun, director gen- needs to have a long-term vision for communities. Landless families from rural eral of the International Food Policy preserving our food security and food and urban areas have to get access to land, Research Institute, the policy arm of sovereignty – much more than simply seeds and water to produce their own CGIAR stated, “Our models analysis answering agribusiness’s pleas for cheap commodities. A prudent reserves policy food. This means increased investment in suggests that if a moratorium on biofu- that stabilizes commodity prices would peasant and farmer-based food production els would be issued in 2008, we could reduce controversial farm subsidy payments for domestic markets.” expect a price decline of maize by about by ensuring prices do not collapse... It is 20 percent and for wheat by about 10 Henry Saragih not too late for Congress to establish percent in 2009 and 2010.” 16 Without International Coordinator for policy that will benefit both consumers mandatory targets, the agrofuels global La Via Campesina15 and farmers instead of leaving our fates house of cards falls flat. A 5-year Mora- to the whims and dictates of unstable, Taking agriculture out of the WTO and torium on the targets will halt the agro- global markets.”18 re-negotiating Free Trade Agreements fuels expansion and give us time to to favor the smallholder-peasant sector research alternatives and for an informed Step 4: Prioritize Agroecology will be important parts of decreasing public debate on the future of our food 5 dependency on international markets. and fuel systems. The International Assessment of Agricul- In the immediate term, the World Food tural Science and Technology (IAASTD) Program (WFP) needs $755 million to Step 3: Rebuild national food recently released the results of an exhaus- close its funding gap and make emer- economies tive four-year international consultation gency food available. The WFP should with over 400 scientists. The IAASTD calls for an overhaul of agriculture dominated buy as much food locally as possible Decades of letting the global market by multinational companies and governed from smallholders at fair prices, then allocate food resources has crippled by unfair trade rules. The report warns distribute or sell at accessible prices to national food economies, pitted people who are too poor to buy it on against relying on genetic engineered northern farmers against southern “fixes” for food production and emphasizes the open market. This avoids “dump- farmers in a race to the bottom, and the importance of locally-based, agroeco- ing” cheap grains from abroad and unleashed a “speculative frenzy” in food logical approaches to farming. The key reduce the costs of relief, allowing more commodities. According to Via advantages—aside from its positive envi- people to eat. If accompanied with a Campesina, ronmental impact—is that while creating a strong rural support system of produc- market surplus, it provides both food and “Countries need to set up intervention tion credit, transport, marketing and employment to the world’s poor.19 On a distribution, this will rebuild local food mechanisms aimed at stabilizing market pound-per-acre basis, these small family systems as it extends relief. Because prices. In order to achieve this, import farms have been more productive than smallholders represent 80% of the controls with taxes and quotas are needed large-scale industrial farms.20 And, they use world’s poor, this strategy will help to avoid low-priced imports which under- less oil, especially if food is traded locally most of the hungry feed themselves and mine domestic production. National buf- or sub-regionally. These alternatives, grow- produce a surplus for others. fer stocks managed by the state have to be ing throughout the world, are like small built up to stabilize domestic markets: in islands of sustainability in increasingly per- times of surplus, cereals can be taken from ilous economic and environmental seas. As the market to build up the reserve stocks industrialized farming and free trade and in case of shortages, cereals can be regimes fail us, these approaches will be the keys for building resilience back into a released.” 17 dysfunctional global food system. Notes

1. “Food Price Surge Could Mean ‘7 Lost Years’ in 8. World Hunger: Twelve Myths, Frances Moore 14. “Bush Seeks More Food Aid for Poor Poverty Fight, Zoellick says.” The World Bank Lappé, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset Countries,” Steven Lee Myers , New York News & Broadcast. 11 April, 2008; “Urgent with Luis Esparza, Grove Press Book, ISBN: Times, May 2, 2008 http://www.nytimes. Measures Required to Reduce the Impact of 0-8021-3591-9, 1998 com/2008/05/02/world/02prexy.html?_ High Food Prices on the Poor UN Agency Chiefs 9. “Renewable Fuels Standard.” Renewable r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin Highlight Role of Agro-Industries.” FAO News- Fuels Association. http://www.ethanolrfa.org/ 15. Henry Saragih. “Concrete Measures Are Needed room. 9 April, 2008. resource/standard/ to Strengthen Peasand and Farmer-Based Food 2. “Cheap No More.” The Economist. 8 December, 10. Lester Brown. “Why Ethanol Production Will Production.” La Via Campesina. 30 April 2008. 2007: 81. Drive World Food Prices Even Higher in 2008.” http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index. 3. “The Cost of Food: Facts and Figures.” BBC Earth Policy Institute. 24 January 2008. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=524 News. 8 April, 2008. http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/ &Itemid=38 4. “Food Price Crisis Imperils 100 Million in Poor Update69.htm 16. Missy Ryan. “Biofuels Halt would Ease Food Countries, Zoellick Says.” The World Bank News 11. “High Prices and Volatility in Agricultural Com- Prices—IFPRI.” Reuters News Services. 30 April & Broadcast. 14 April, 2008. modities.” FAO Food Outlook Special Features. 2008. 5. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/img/worldgr.gif November 2007, “High Food Prices—A Harsh 17. Saragih, 2008. and http://faostat.fao.org/site/339/default.aspx New Reality.” World Bank Data & Research. 29 18. http://www.nffc.net/ February 2008. 6. Geoffrey Lean. “Rising Prices Threaten Millions 19. C. Badgley, J. K. Moghtader, E. Quintero, E. Zakem, with Starvation, Despite Bumper Crops. The 12. “Scientists advise halt to biofuels,” Seth M. J. Chappell, K. R. Avilés Vázquez, A. Samulon, Independent. 2 March, 2008. Borenstein, SF Chronicle/AP, April 30, 2008 and I. Perfecto (2007), “Organic agriculture and 7. “Food Import Bills: Changing Consumption Pat- 13. Seth Boronstein. “Food Scientists Say Stop the global food supply,” Renewable Agriculture terns in International trade”, in The State of Ag Biofuels to Fight World Hunger.” The Associated and Food Systems, Vol. 22, Issue 2, pp. 86-108. Commodity Markets (SOCO), 2004. http://www. Press. 29 April 2008. 20. Rosset Peter, “On the Benefits of Small Farms,” fao.org/docrep/007/y5419e/y5419e03.htm Food First Backgrounder, February, 1999

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