Mark Ritchie and Karen Lehman, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
April 1996
It sounds simple. The price farmers receive for their crops should at
least cover the costs of planting, tending and harvesting them. But for
those of us in the sustainable agriculture movement, this goal, which has
been central to our work over the past two decades, has been unattainable.
Continuously depressed commodity and livestock prices -- often falling to
half the cost of production -- have made it very difficult for many farmers
to survive, much less adopt sustainable farming practices. We tried in the
1985 Farm Bill, again in 1990, and again in 1995, to achieve federal farm
policies that would support farm prices at fair levels. The few changes to
farm policy we accomplished have done little more than slow the assault on
family farmers.
Ironically, bad weather across the globe, rising demand, and stresses on
food producers have achieved what we couldn't accomplish through federal
policy: raised world commodity prices to levels that equal the full costs
of production. Unfortunately, these fair prices did not come as the result
of careful planning and conscious policymaking, but instead fell into a
food system ill-prepared to handle them.
Farm prices have doubled compared to last year and will most likely stay at
comparable levels for two or three more years. For grain farmers, the
longevity of this price rise, far longer than the average one-season
increase following previous floods and drought-induced shortages, is a
blessing.
The crisis of short supply, however, has very negative consequences for the
future of our food system. First, poor people around the world who have
become "hooked" on cheap grain imports since the 1970s and who now face
prices that are double or triple previous levels, are suffering hunger. In
Kenya, for example, rumors of rising world prices led food brokers to fill
local storage bins with still-cheap imported grains, quickly eliminating
storage and markets for the local harvests. Thus, although world prices
had doubled, prices paid to Kenyan farmers fell by half because there was
no place to store grain. In Mexico, white corn, normally the staple food
of the poor, is being taken to feed cattle and poultry for rich consumers
in Mexico City and overseas, creating hunger and malnutrition in the
countryside. In West Africa, where the currency has recently been
devalued, food is obscenely expensive.
Second, many financial institutions, corporations, and government agencies
are using current grain shortages as an excuse to promote many
self-serving, environmentally damaging ideas. Some, like the World Bank,
are promoting the consolidation of land into large land holdings and the
privatization of the world's food reserves. Fertilizer, pesticide and
biotechnology companies insinuate that unless farmers use their products to
boost yields, people will starve. Some lawmakers in Congress are citing
current farm prices as evidence that all farm programs should be
eliminated. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is even using the current
situation to revive its languishing proposal to re-channel the Mississippi
River, arguing that grain exporting corporations would be able to ship
their goods to the world market more rapidly.
Finally, the crisis could set off another cycle of volatility that will
result in new overproduction, food dumping, and concentration in
agriculture. Policymakers are urging farmers to plant fence row to fence
row, eliminating acreage reserve programs and set asides, and eliminating
supply management.
We have a problem in the food system -- but it isn't high prices. The
problem is instability in our food supply caused by volatile swings from
overproduction to shortage, and from low to high prices. Hope lies in
taking advantage of the short-term price increases to create the conditions
for sustained economic and ecological stability over time for family farms.
We need fundamental reform of agricultural policy based on the principles
of sustainability and economic justice. We need fair and stable farm
prices and fair and stable prices for consumers -- and both production and
consumption need to be organized for long-term ecological survival. To
accomplish this, we will need to work together, North and South, at the
local, national and global levels. In short, we need a global campaign for
sustainable food security.
Comments are welcome at:
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
1313 Fifth Street Southeast, Suite 303
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414 U.S.A.
phone 612-379-5980 * fax 612-379-5982 * e-mail <iatp@iatp.org>
<http://www.iatp.org/iatp>
----
Mark Ritchie
President
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
1313 Fifth Street, SE, Suite 303
Minneapolis, MN 55414 USA
tel. 612-379-5980
fax. 612-379-5982
email mritchie@iatp.org
URL: http://www.iatp.org/iatp