Small Farms More Productive than Large Farms
but Threatened by Trade Agreements
The Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First
and the Transnational Institute Release a New Report:
The Multiple Functions and Benefits
of Small Farm Agriculture
In the Context of Global Trade Negotiations
By Peter Rosset
full text of the report available at:
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/policybs/pb4.html
September 14, 1999
Maastricht, Netherlands -- Small farms are more productive than large
farms, yet their continued existence is threatened by international
trade agreements, according to a major study released today at a United
Nations conference here in Maastricht.*
The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as "Food
First," based in California, USA, and the Transnational Institute, based
in The Netherlands, published the study authored by agricultural
development specialist Dr. Peter Rosset. Challenging the conventional
wisdom that small farms are backward and unproductive, the study shows
that small farmers worldwide produce from 2 to 10 times more per unit
area than do larger, corporate farmers.
"In fact small farms are 'multi-functional' -- more productive, more
efficient, and contribute more to economic development than do large
farms," said Dr. Rosset, Executive Director of the Institute for Food
and Development Policy and the author of the report. Dr. Rosset is an
official delegate to the Maastricht conference, representing the Global
Forum on Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security, based in Brazil.
Communities surrounded by populous small farms have healthier economies
than do communities surrounded by depopulated large, mechanized farms,
according the study. Small farmers also take better care of natural
resources, including reducing soil erosion and conserving biodiversity.
Small farmers are better stewards of natural resources, safeguarding the
future sustainability of agricultural production.
"Despite more than a century of anti-small farmer policies in country
after country, in both industrialized and third world countries," said
Dr. Rosset, "small farmers not only still cling to the soil but continue
to be more productive and more efficient than large, agri-business
farming operations. Small farmers offer the best way to feed the world,
and the only way to effectively conserve soil resources for future
generations."
Unfortunately the study shows that today the world's small farmers face
unprecedented threats to their livelihoods, thanks to free trade
agreements negotiated in recent years. "Free trade causes the prices
farmers receive to drop through the floor", said Rosset," driving them
into bankruptcy by the millions." Such low prices mean only the largest
can survive, according to the study.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), to be
negotiated in Seattle, USA, in November, 1999, is the weapon that could
deal the final death blow to the world's small farmers, according to
Rosset. "The U.S. Government negotiators," said Rosset, himself an
American, "have as their goal for Seattle the complete liberalization of
trade in farm products."
Rosset, and the institutes that published his report, are issuing a call
to recognize the true, multiple value of small farms, and to defeat the
American government plans for the AOA. "Small farmers are a key
resource for our very survival into the future," said Mr. Erik Heijmans,
of the Transnational Institute, which co- published the study. "We must
oppose trade agreements which place them in jeopardy."
* "Cultivating Our Futures," the FAO/Netherlands Conference on the
Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land, 12-17 September 1999,
Maastricht, The Netherlands. Information at: http://www.fao.org/mfcal
# # #
Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy
398 60th Street
Oakland, California 94618 USA
tel: 510/654-4400 fax: 510/654-4551
foodfirst@foodfirst.org
<http://www.foodfirst.org>
Transnational Institute
Paulus Potterstraat 20
1071 DA, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: 31-20-6626608
Fax: 31-20-6757176
tni@tni.org
<http://www.worldcom.nl/tni>
Global Forum on Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security
SGAN 905 Conjunto "B", Parte "A" 70.790-050
Brasilia, DF Brazil
Tel: +55 61 347 4914
Fax: +55 61 347 9002
agora@tba.com.br
<http://www.globalforum.org.br/index1.htm>
<><><><>
Lawrence F. London, Jr. -+|+- Venaura Farm
london@metalab.unc.edu lflondon@worldnet.att.net
http://metalab.unc.edu/london, /permaculture, /ecolandtech
EcoLandTech -+|+- InterGarden -+|+- Permaculture
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