Farming for Families and Food, Not Corporate Profits

Farming for Families and Food, Not Corporate Profits

By Corrina Steward | April 19, 2005

Editor: Emira Woods, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)

Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

 

Two contradictory visions of globalization are sweeping around the world: one favors a top-down model of economic development via militaristic, corporate aggression. The other favors grassroots-led, democratic pluralism and seeks to produce diverse local development models suited to the needs of local communities.

Democratizing Global Agriculture

As trade agreements seek to homogenize global agriculture policies and production, Via Campesina--a global network of farmers with as many as 200 million members--is calling for local policies and diversified production models. They are making farming communities’ needs central to agricultural policies and providing a much-needed reality check to U.S. and European Union trade negotiators.

Via Campesina has begun to carve out a new policy space in global agricultural politics for “food sovereignty.” The concept of food sovereignty is gaining political and social leverage as proposals like the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) continue to threaten the ability of family farmers in both the North and the South to determine how food will be produced and who will make food production decisions. Via Campesina’s members believe in “the peoples’, Countries’, or State Unions’ RIGHT (sic) to define their agricultural and food policy, without any dumping vis-à-vis third countries.”4

Inserting food sovereignty into current agricultural trade and policy debates reframes them to approach national resources from a human rights approach rather than an economic one. The human right to essential resources is not a new concept. Several United Nations treaties already recognize the right to food, and traditional community rights over biodiversity are supported by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2005/0504viacampesina.html

I would HIGHLY recommend the following books for anyone interested in a different philosophy of agriculture, ag policy and the future of sustainable food production practices:

The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0930031741/qid=1114268519/sr=8-6/ref=pd_csp_6/002-5873330-0750408?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

and Living At Nature's Pace also by Logsdon


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/189013256X/qid=1114268519/sr=8-8/ref=pd_ka_1/002-5873330-0750408?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Along with anything by Wendell Berry.


These visionary (or rooted in the common sense of the past) men both understand "Pastoral Economics" and explain how it, (and the world it creates) is infinitely superior to modern "agribusiness". :puke:

Wouldn't setting the payment ceiling at a lower amount hurt the big corporations more than the family farmer? $250,000 is still quite a big subsidy, if you ask me - and yet Naylor says this would hurt 'family farmers', while benefiting 'a few corporations'. Can anyone explain this to me?

control the food supply can be found in Iraq, where U.S. regulations forbid Iraqi farmers from saving seeds -- the agricultural model that they have employed since the beginning of civilization . . .

Order 81
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Order-81-Iraq1feb05.htm

Under the guise of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally re-engineer the country's traditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. They’ve even created a new law – Order 81 – to make sure it happens.

all in all, an incredibly important topic . . . recommended . . .

Terminator Seed technology is being exported anywhere and everywhere. It's downright evil -- every bit as evil as privatizing water, IMO.

These subjects are near and dear to my heart as well. I believe everyone who's on this forum needs to understand their importance, AND, if at all possible not just educate themselves about organic /sustainable gardening and farming, but actively participate. There are CSA's -- Community Supported Agriculture organizations and co-ops sprouting up everywhere. You can support them AND get high quality, locally and sustainable (and often organically -- or very close) grown food. Absolutely essential that we preserve and support these efforts.

Seed savers is another class of organizations that deserve our support. These are folks (and there are several different organizations as well as many hundreds of individuals through them) who work to preserve the genetic diversity of our vegetables and so forth -- growing and saving and sharing seed from open pollinated (non-hypbrid) and heirloom plants.

I myself started a bunch of seedlings for my vegetable garden this year, all of them from non-hybrid and heirloom seeds. I have such colorfully named tomatoes as Jeff Davis (well, I DO live in the South!), Super Sioux (the star so far -- you go, girl!!), Mortgage Lifter (from the 1930s), Rutgers, Goliath, and several others including 3 different paste and 2 different cherry tomatoes started. I have a Lemon Cucumber from Martha Stewart seeds which is labeled heirloom. And I have a number of regular non-hybrid peppers, squash, etc. as well. I fully intend to save seeds from all these, ESP. the heirlooms and do the same for other varieities next year.

All of this is SO important and I encourage people to educate yourselves about these dangers to our food supply and the efforts being made to counter them AND to take action yourselves, however small.