>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (M Chossudovsky)
>Subject: GLOBAL FAMINE
>
>>
>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (M Chossudovsky)
>>Subject: GLOBAL FAMINE
>>
>>50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAO
>>
>>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
>>
>>16 OCTOBER 1995
>>
>>KINDLY POST AND FORWARD THE FOLLOWING TEXT
>>
>>
>>THE CAUSES OF GLOBAL FAMINE
>>
>>by Michel Chossudovsky
>>
>>
>>16 OCTOBER 1995: THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION (FAO) CELEBRATES
IN QUEBEC CITY ITS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. YET THE INNER CAUSES OF FAMINE
REMAIN CAREFULLY CONCEALED.
>>
>>THE IMF-WORLD BANK SPONSORED MACRO-ECONOMIC REFORMS IMPOSED ON DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES HAVE BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF LOCAL LEVEL FOOD
SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND THE OUTBREAK OF FAMINE. WORLD AGRICULTURE HAS FOR THE
FIRST TIME IN HISTORY THE CAPACITY TO SATISFY THE FOOD REQUIREMENTS OF THE
ENTIRE PLANET, YET THE VERY NATURE OF THE GLOBAL MARKET SYSTEM PREVENTS THIS
FROM OCCURRING. THE CAPACITY TO PRODUCE FOOD IS IMMENSE YET THE LEVELS OF
FOOD CONSUMPTION REMAIN EXCEEDINGLY LOW BECAUSE A LARGE SHARE OF THE WORLD'S
POPULATION LIVES IN CONDITIONS OF ABJECT POVERTY AND DEPRIVATION.
>>
>>THE FINAL ACT OF THE URUGUAY ROUND, THE ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT OF THE NEW
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO)) WILL GIVE UNRESTRICTED FREEDOM TO THE FOOD
GIANTS TO ENTER THE SEEDS MARKETS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND ESTABLISH
"PLANT BREEDERS RIGHTS" TO THE DETRIMENT OF MILLIONS OF SMALL FARMERS.
>>
>>THE NEOLIBERAL POLICY AGENDA IS NOT QUESTIONED. THE INCIDENCE OF FAMINE IS
NARROWLY ASCRIBED TO POPULATION PRESSURES, CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL
FACTORS...
>>
>>SINCE THE EARLY 1980S, GRAIN MARKETS ARE DEREGULATED UNDER THE SUPERVISION
OF THE WORLD BANK, US AND EUROPEAN GRAIN SURPLUSES ARE USED TO DESTROY THE
PEASANTRY AND DESTABILISE NATIONAL FOOD AGRICULTURE.
>>
>>In the late 20th century, famine is not a consequence of "a shortage of
food". On the contrary, famines are spurted as a result of a global
oversupply of grain staples. Famine has become a Worldwide phenomenon:
dearth and starvation are striking simultaneously in all major regions of
the World; Sub-Saharan Africa, Northeast Brazil, South Asia, the Andean
altiplano of South America, the former Soviet Union... From the dry savannah
of the Sahelian belt, famine has extended its grip into the wet tropical
heartland. A large part of the population of the African continent is
affected. There are several million people in "famine zones" in India and
Bangladesh. Moreover, in the labour surplus economies of South Asia and the
Far East (eg. India, China, Indonesia), an important segment of the rural
and urban population driven well below the poverty line due to the absence
of employment opportunities, is seriously at risk.
>>
>>Hunger and deprivation, however, are no longer limited to the Third World:
the economic crisis is conducive to "a process of global impoverishment":
unemployment, homelessness and low wages in the urban ghettoes and
shantytowns, destruction of the independent farmer in Europe and North
America... Low levels of food consumption and malnutrition are increasingly
hitting the urban poor in the rich countries. According to a recent study,
30 million people in the United States are classified as "hungry"...
>>
>>What are the underlying causes? The global TV image spotlights the victims
of civil war, drought and flood. Famine in Somalia or Mozambique is
mechanically ascribed to the "external" political and climatic factors: "the
absence of rain carrying clouds and air pressure anomalies"... History is
distorted, only the surface and colour of World events are disclosed.
Somalia was self-sufficient in food until the 1970s; what precipitated the
collapse of civil society? Why were food agriculture and nomadic pastoralism
destroyed?...
>>
>>Complex and far-reaching changes in the global economy have taken place
since the early 1980s which redefine the structure of both industry and
agriculture. The family farm is driven into bankruptcy, the agricultural
producer looses control over the land which he farms. And in the developing
countries, the peasantry is increasingly transformed into an army of
landless seasonal plantations workers.
>>
>>The earnings of farmers in rich and poor countries alike are squeezed by a
handful of global agro-industrial enterprises which simultaneously control
the markets for grain, farm inputs, seeds and processed foods. One giant
firm Cargill Inc. with more than 140 affiliates and subsidiaries around the
World controls a large share of the international trade in grain. Since the
1950s, Cargill became the main contractor of US "food aid" funded under
Public Law 480 (1954).
>>
>>With the signing of the final act of the Uruguay Round, the articles of
agreement of the new World Trade Organization (WTO)) will give unrestricted
freedom to the food giants to enter the seeds markets of developing
countries and establish "plant breeders rights" to the detriment of millions
of small farmers. The acquisition of exclusive "intellectual property
rights" over plant varieties by international agro-industrial interests,
also favours the destruction of bio-diversity.
>>
>>World agriculture has for the first time in history the capacity to
satisfy the food requirements of the entire planet, yet the very nature of
the global market system prevents this from occurring. The capacity to
produce food is immense yet the levels of food consumption remain
exceedingly low because a large share of the World's population lives in
conditions of abject poverty and deprivation. Moreover, the process of
"modernisation" of agriculture (including the Green Revolution) has led to
the dispossession of the peasantry, increased landlessness and environmental
degradation. In other words, the very forces which encourage global food
production to expand are also conducive antithetically to a contraction in
the standard of living and a decline in the demand for food.
>>
>>The economic policy actions of G-7 governments and the Washington based
international financial institutions tend to support this Worldwide
restructuring of agriculture. "National agriculture" and the independent
peasantry are undermined, demand and supply relations are remoulded. Global
impoverishment since the debt crisis, tends to favour stagnation in the
production of basic food staples while redirecting agriculture towards "high
value added" non-staple and processed foods.
>>
>>Throughout the developing World, food security is destroyed, the national
grain market is displaced, grain prices are re-aligned with those of the
World market and the peasantry is subordinated to the requirements of the
global food monopolies. In turn, local-level merchants and money lenders as
well as bureaucrats become increasingly tied into the interests of the food
transnationals.
>>
>>The food giants are not only the recipients of US "food aid", they have
become "development brokers" in a wide range of agro-industrial projects
funded under PL 480. With direct access to the World Bank, the US Department
of Agriculture and the national governments, they exercise a dominant role
in shaping the agricultural policy of indebted countries.
>>
>>Undermining the Agricultural Base of the Former Soviet Block
>>
>>Since the early 1990s a similar reform pattern has affected the countries
of the former Eastern block with devastating economic and social
consequences. In September 1994, the Ukraine signed an agreement on
macro-economic reform with the IMF which laid the basis for the
restructuring of its agricultural sector. The IMF "shock treatment"
implemented in October 1994 wreaked havoc: the price of bread increased
overnight by 300 percent, electricity prices by 600 percent, public
transportation by 900 percent... Combined with the abrupt hikes in fuel and
energy prices, the lifting of subsidies and the freeze on credit will
contribute to destroying Ukraine's breadbasket economy. In November 1994,
World Bank negotiators were examining the overhaul of Ukraine's agriculture.
With trade liberalisation (which is part of the proposed package), the door
is open to the dumping of US grain surpluses and "food aid" on the domestic
market. This would contribute to destabilising one of the World's largest
and most productive wheat economies...
>>
>>Global Food Surpluses Generate Famine
>>
>>Since the early 1980s, grain markets are deregulated under the supervision
of the World Bank, US grain surpluses are used (far more systematically than
in the past) to destroy the peasantry and destabilise national food
agriculture. The latter becomes, under these circumstances, far more
vulnerable to the vagaries of drought and environmental degradation.
Similarly, subsidised beef and dairy products imported (duty free) from the
European Community have led to the demise of Africa's nomadic pastoral
economy. European beef imports to West Africa increased seven fold since
1984 with the effect of displacing local level livestock producers. In the
Sahel, the deregulation of the grain market under the supervision of the
World Bank was initiated at the height of the 1983-84 drought with devasting
social consequneces.
>>
>>The decline and weakening of food agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa,
however, predates the era of IMF "shock therapy". It was largely a legacy of
the colonial era: in the Sahel, the export crops occupied the best land.
Whereas agricultural infrastructure, irrigation, extension services and
credit were channelled in support of exports, traditional food crops (millet
and sorghum) were steadily pushed into marginal lands, the so-called "grey
area" of the arid Sahelian belt.
>>
>>The debt crisis of the early 1980s marks a major turning point. The
colonial-style cash crop economy is precipitated into a state of depression.
The peasant's meagre cash income from export crops (eg. coffee or cocoa) was
compressed as a result of the collapse of commodity prices, but there was
nothing to fall back on because the life support system of traditional
subsistence farming had been dismantled. Moreover, the cash crop economy
combined with the commercial plunder of forest reserves had caused serious
environmental damage and degradation of the soil. The cash revenues from
export crops were insufficient to buy enough food. The famines of the 1980s
and 1990s were, therefore, more severe and devastating than those of the
seventies...
>>
>>From the early 1980s, a major revamping of the agricultural sector of
developing countries was implemented. While experiences differ widely from
one region of the World to another, the same economic reform package (under
the guidance of the Bretton Woods institutions) was simultaneously imposed
on a large number of indebted countries. Under World Bank supervision,
trade barriers to grain, dairy products and meat from the rich countries
were removed alongside the elimination of subsidies and preferential bank
credit for farmers. The World Bank also encouraged reforms in the structure
of land tenure and ownership which favoured the formation of larger
land-units, the forfeiture of land by the small-holder, the transformation
of indigenous land rights and the privatisation of communal lands.
>>
>>While new "alternative" export crops were promoted, the reforms were also
intent upon preventing the Third World farmer from "switching back into food
production" for household consumption or for domestic sale. The
commercialisation of food production and the taking over of the peasant
economy by urban-based agro-business was also encouraged.
>>
>>Developing countries were advised by the World Bank to develop new
specialised export areas. In Senegal and Mali, for instance, a profitable
fruits and vegetables business for export was developed in private
plantations to the detriment of the peasant economy. In Bangladesh, village
based shrimp farming supported by the World Bank encroached upon the
development of paddy production with detrimental environmental implications.
This boom in non-traditional exports did not last, however, because the same
so-called "high value added" exports were developed simultaneously (under
World Bank guidance) in a large number of countries leading to a subsequent
collapse in prices.
>>
>>Throughout the developing World, the pattern of "sectoral adjustment" in
agriculture under the custody of the Bretton Woods institutions, was
unequivocally towards the destruction of food security. Dependency vis a vis
the World market was reinforced with a view to providing market outlets for
US and European agricultural surpluses. "Food aid" to Sub-Saharan Africa
increased by more than seven times since 1974, commercial grain imports more
than doubled. "Food aid" however was no longer earmarked for the
drought-stricken countries of the Sahelian belt, it was also channelled into
countries which until recently were more or less self-sufficient in food.
Food aid is never given it is always sold by governments on local markets
invariably below the domestic market price.
>>
>>Severe austerity measures were imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions
on African governments, expenditures on rural development were drastically
curtailed leading to the collapse of agricultural infrastructure. Under the
World Bank programme, water was to become a commodity to be sold on a cost
recovery basis to impoverished farmers. Due to lack of funds, the State was
obliged to withdraw from the management and conservation of water resources.
Water points and boreholes dried up due to lack of maintenance, or were
"privatised" by local merchants and rich farmers. In the semi-arid regions,
this "commercialisation of water" and irrigation leads to the collapse of
food security and famine.
>>
>>The Collapse of Agricultural Investment
>>
>>Since the debt crisis, the international financial institutions have moved
away from the provision of credit in support of "real development projects".
A new generation of "policy based loans" has been devised. Money was
provided "to help countries to adjust". These World Bank loan agreements
included tight "conditionalities": the money was granted only if the
government complied with the structural adjustment reforms while at the same
time respecting very precise deadlines for their implementation. The loan
disbursements could be interrupted if the government did not conform. A
peculiar and somewhat strange lending practice had been set in motion: the
money granted in support of the "adjustment" of agriculture, was not meant
for investment in agricultural projects. The loans could be spent freely on
commodity imports.
>>
>>Needless to say, the very nature of these loan agreements was conducive to
the collapse of agriculture, since none of the money was channelled into
investment. Another important objective was served, however: the adjustment
loans diverted resources away from the domestic economy and encouraged
countries to keep on importing large quantities of consumer goods including
food staples from the rich countries. The result of this process was
stagnation of the domestic economy, enlargement of the balance of payments
crisis and growth of the debt burden...
>>
>>Concluding Remarks
>>
>>While "external" climatic variables play a role in triggering off a famine
and heightening the social impact of drought, famines in the age of
globalisation are man-made. They are not the consequence of "a scarcity of
food" but of a structure of global oversupply which undermines food security
and destroys national food agriculture. Tightly regulated and controlled by
international agro-business, this oversupply is ultimately conducive to the
stagnation of both production and consumption of essential food staples and
the impoverishment of farmers throughout the World. Moreover, in the era of
globalisation, the IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programme bears a
direct relationship to the process of famine formation because it
systematically undermines all categories of economic activity, whether urban
or rural, which do not directly serve the interests of the global market
system. Import substituting industries for the internal market are
dismantled as a result of the lifting of tariff barriers and the collapse of
internal purchasing power, small artisans are impoverished, food farming is
undermined in favour of export crops,... In turn, the State apparatus is
undone through the imposition of fiscal austerity, civil society collapses
and the Nation State becomes politically fragmented...
>>
>>Michel Chossudovsky
>>Department of economics,
>>University of Ottawa,
>>Ottawa, Canada
>>fax 1-613-7892050,
>>E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>
Michel Chossudovsky
Department of Economics,
University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, K1N6N5
fax: 1-613-7892050
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
