Sustainable Agriculture Part 1

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Book review

In Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security: The Impact of Globalization we are told that: “These three dimensions of ecological security, livelihood security and food security are the essential elements of an agriculture policy which is both sustainable and equitable.” “The current processes of globalisation threaten to undermine all three dimensions of sustainable agriculture.” “New trade liberalization and globalisation policies are increasing centralization of control of agriculture, by handing over control over natural resources, production systems, markets and trade to global agribusiness, and further disempowering and dispossessing small farmers and landless labour in India, in the process.” “Trade liberalization of agriculture is based on three illusions about growth: that we must destroy the environment to feed ourselves; that we must shift from low value to high value crops; and that the small farmer is unproductive and that a shift to corporate controlled farms will increase productivity.” “The recipe of genocide of the small farmer is based on the false assumption that the small farmer is unproductive. Even the World Development Report (WDR) has accepted that small farms are more productive than large ones. FAO’s analysis has shown that small farms can be thousands of times more productive than large farms.” “Protecting small farms is imperative for food security. It is also of strategic value to build immunity to the turbulences of globalisation.”

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY:

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION

EDITED BY VANDANA SHIVA & GITANJALI BEDI 

SAGE PUBLICATIONS                 2002

PART I

 

PART I: GLOBALISATION AND FOOD SECURITY

Chapter 1: Globalisation of Agriculture, Food Security and Sustainability by Vandana Shiva

  • Sustainable agriculture is based on sustainable use of natural resources – land, water and agricultural biodiversity, including that of plants and animals.
  • Sustainable use of these resources, in turn, requires that ownership and control lie with decentralized agricultural communities in order to generate livelihoods, provide food and conserve natural resources.
  • These three dimensions of ecological security, livelihood security and food security are the essential elements of an agriculture policy which is both sustainable and equitable.
  • The current processes of globalisation threaten to undermine all three dimensions of sustainable agriculture. They undermine ecological security by removing all limits on the concentration of ownership of natural resources (land, water and biodiversity) and by encouraging non-sustainable resource exploitation for short-term profits.
  • The livelihood base of millions of farmers and food security at household, regional and national levels is severely threatened by the globalisation of agriculture.
  • The diversion of natural resources from ecological sustenance, protection of livelihoods and satisfaction of basic needs, to luxury exports and for corporate profit has been made possible because of three decades of agricultural policy during which this sector was made a state monopoly and run on massive debts and subsidies while ignoring all ecological imperatives of sustainability.
  • New trade liberalization and globalisation policies are increasing centralization of control of agriculture, by handing over control over natural resources, production systems, markets and trade to global agribusiness, and further disempowering and dispossessing small farmers and landless labour in India, in the process.
  • It is creating new forms of slavery and bondage. Trade liberalization is leading to external liberalization, or liberalization for global agribusiness. What the Indian farmers need is internal liberalisation.
  • Free trade under globalisation is both ecologically and socially non-sustainable because it increases resource use both in production and waste intrinsic in long-distance transport in food staples.
  • Under free-trade and free mobility of capital, comparative advantage transforms into absolute advantage for transnational corporations, and countries are pushed into a downward spiral of food insecurity through a fallacious logic of competitiveness.
  • Trade liberalization of agriculture is based on three illusions about growth: that we must destroy the environment to feed ourselves; that we must shift from low value to high value crops; and that the small farmer is unproductive and that a shift to corporate controlled farms will increase productivity.
  • The recipe of genocide of the small farmer is based on the false assumption that the small farmer is unproductive. Even the World Development Report (WDR) has accepted that small farms are more productive than large ones. FAO’s analysis has shown that small farms can be thousands of times more productive than large farms.
  • Protecting small farms is imperative for food security. It is also of strategic value to build immunity to the turbulences of globalisation.
  • The empirical reality of the impact of the liberalization of the seed sector is an epidemic of suicides linked to high debts for purchase of seeds, agrichemicals and pesticides, an intrinsic outcome of capital intensive and chemical intensive agriculture.
  • Monsanto has bought the largest private Indian seed firm Mahyco at 24 times its face value.
  • Basmati is a rice variety evolved over centuries of breeding by Indian farmers. The US company Rice Tec has patents for Basmati 867 which is essentially derived from Indian Basmati, but which Rice Tec claims is an ‘instant invention’ of ‘novel rice lines’.
  • Seed is the first link in the food chain. Serf freedom is the first link in food security. Indian IPR legislation needs to protect Indian farmers first and the global monopolies second.
  • Monopoly rights in agriculture through IPRs on seeds leads to control of plant material by western TNCs, making farmers dependent on corporations and the disappearance of farmers’ varieties.

 

PART II(A): THE IMPACT OF TRADE LIBERARISATION IN ASIA

PART II(B): THE IMPACT OF TRADE LIBERARISATION IN INDIA

Chapter 7: Seeds of Suicide: The Ecological and Human costs of Globalisation of Agriculture by Vandana Shiva and Afsar H. Jafri

  • The failure of the 1997-98 cotton crop due to pest devastation, and the suicide of over 100 farmers due to indebtedness on pesticides, indicates how vulnerable our agricultural systems have become. It is a major signal that we need to shift to ecologically resilient agriculture. Ecological problems cannot be ‘fixed’ by magic-bullet technologies.
  • The green revolution or chemical agriculture has led to the increase in weed, pest and disease occurrence. Herbicide residues in soils have led to a decline in yields, while pesticide use has led to an increase in pest occurrence.
  • Evidence is already available that rather than controlling weeds, pests and diseases, genetic engineering will create super weeds, super pests and super viruses.
  • The two most significant ways through which the risks of crop failures have been increased by globalisation are the introduction of ecologically vulnerable hybrid seeds and the increased dependence on agri-chemical inputs such as pesticides which are associated with the use of hybrids.
  • The problem of pests is a problem created by the erosion of diversity in crops and cropping patterns. The most sustainable solution for pest control is rejuvenating biodiversity in agriculture.
  • For 10,000 years, farmers and peasants have produced their own seeds from their own land, selecting the best seeds, storing them, replanting them, and letting nature take its course in the renewal and enrichment of life.
  • The ‘miracle seeds’ of the green revolution transformed this common genetic heritage into private property, protected by patents and intellectual property rights.
  • Third World peasants, as custodians of the planet’s genetic wealth, treated seeds as sacred, as the critical element in the great chain of being. Throughout India, even in years of scarcity, seed was conserved in every household, so that the cycle of food production was not interrupted by loss of seeds.
  • The shift from indigenous varieties of seeds to the green revolution varieties involved a shift from a farming system controlled by peasants to one controlled by agri-chemical and seed corporations, and international agricultural research centers.
  • Privatization of the seed sector has induced three major changes in agriculture: a change from mixed cultivation based on internal inputs to monoculture of hybrids based on external inputs; instead of growing food and maximizing ecological security and food security, farmers have been induced to grow cash crops for high profits, without any assessment of the risk, cost and vulnerability factors; a reduction in public low-interest loans and extension, and an increased dependence on high-interest private credit, pushing sales of seeds and agri-chemicals as a substitute for information and extension.
  • The freedom of seeds and freedom of organic farming are simultaneously a resistance against the monopoly of corporations like Monsanto and a regeneration of agriculture that brings fertility to the soil and prosperity to the farmer. The seeds of suicide need to be replaced by seeds of prosperity. And those seeds are in our hands.

 

PART III: CORPORATISATION OF AGRICULTURE

Chapter 8: The Corporate Reapers: Towards Total Globalisation of Our Food Supply by A. V. Krebs

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