View
222
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
1/51
The Food Crisisin Asia: ThePeoples Strugglefor Food Sovereignty
Clare Westwood
Pesticide Action Network Asia and Pacific
& The Peoples Coalition on Food Sovereignty
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
2/51
The Food Crisis in Asia Impacts
Causes
Solutions / Alternatives for the Future Food Sovereignty
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
3/51
Impacts of the Food Crisis
2008
The Rice Crisis
Rice is the life of Asia: We cant survivewithout rice
Price of rice shot up by 34% in Feb 2008
In May 2008, it went up to USD 980 per tonnecompared to USD 460 in March 2008
August 2008 average was 80% higher thanthe prices in January and 138% higher thanthe USD 335 per tonne the year before
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
4/51
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
5/51
The food crisis of 2008.
29 countries including 14 rice producerssuch as China, India, & Vietnamimplemented export taxes, export quotas,
export bans or minimum export prices inorder to protect their local markets andensure their own supplies
Set off panic buying eg by the Philippinesand Indonesia
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
6/51
The Food Crisis of 2008.
The rice crisis led the inflation of otherfood items. Prices of meat, vegetables,fruits, dairy products, cooking oil rose
sharply. Also petrol.
Wheat prices rose by 130%
Riots and protests in almost 40 countries Loss of livelihoods and lives
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
7/51
People lining up
to buy cheap
rice in thePhilippines
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
8/51
Protests against food and petrol price
hikes - Jakarta, April 2008
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
9/51
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
10/51
The Food Crisiswas a Catastrophe
waiting to happen.
This collapse of our food
production system was of a
systemic & structural nature
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
11/51
THE CAUSES?
Insufficient supply due to doubling ofdemand for rice???NO.
Rice production has been increasing by 2.2% andconsumption by 1.8% every year since 2003
Farmers across the world produced 2.3 billion tons ofgrain in 2007, up 4 percent on the previous year.
Since 1961, cereal production has tripled while thepopulation has only doubled
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
12/51
Not a problem of supply.Looking at actual consumption in 2007:
- The consumption of rice was a little belowproduction
- The consumption of meat and oilseedsremained well below production levels, and
- The consumption of dairy products remainedstable against increasing production.Only for wheat, corn and other coarse grains
did consumption outpace production, although
a similar thing happened in 2004 and otheryears. Stocks were low but there was enoughproduced in the world to feed the population
Source: Making a killing from hunger, GRAIN, 2008
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
13/51
Other Claims. A narrowing global rice market YET
ONLY 6% OF THE RICE PRODUCEDIS TRADED
The rising cost of oil and consequentlyfarm inputs, & climate change
ALTHOUGH THESE MAY HAVECONTRIBUTED TO THE PROBLEM,THEY ARE NOT THE UNDERLYINGCAUSES
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
14/51
THE REAL CAUSES
Neo-liberalist Globalization& Monopoly Capitalism
Market Speculation
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
15/51
The Globalization Process
The first wave was the colonialism period withcontrol over land and governance. In manycountries the land conversion saw theemergence of corporate agriculture with thedevelopment ofplantations.
Use of immigrant labour classic examples areSri Lanka with tea plantations and Malaysia withrubber plantations.
Use ofwomen as permanent reserve labour force as weeders, pickers, cheap labour. Capitalistand patriarchal value of female labour.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
16/51
Second phase: Post Second World War/Independence The Development Era
Development of the Green Revolution in the 1960s:corporate agriculture takes root in farms with theintroduction of machines andhazardous technologies
Displacement of labour; high internalmigration with high unemployment
Increase in women pesticide sprayersand women agriculture workers
exposed to pesticides, low wagesand heavy work.
Development of contractual/ informallabour sector
SAPs
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
17/51
The Green Revolution Narrow range of high yielding (input) varieties. In rice,
IRRI played a key role. Dependency package of seeds, pesticides & fertilizers
Monocultures
Large scale irrigation and mechanization
Destruction of centuries-old local food production systems and
knowledge HYVs more susceptible to pests and disease
In Asian countries, average productivity growth rates for 1977-86and 1987-97 dropped from 3.35 percent to 1.5 percent for rice, from6.21 percent to 2.96 percent for wheat, and from 4.04 percent to
3.34 percent for corn. There has been further decline since (Kaosa-ardet al. 1999)
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
18/51
Pesticide Poisonings In the South,
an estimated25 million
agriculturalworkers arepoisoned bypesticides
each year
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
19/51
SAPs. In the1980s, the Structural Adjustments
Programmes of the World Bank/InternationalMonetary Fund and other InternationalFinancial Institutions intensified theglobalization process through liberalization
and lowered government spending on publicservices, namely in health, agriculture andeducation. In agriculture, the new policiesessentially meant giving up self-sufficiency in food and a shift in priorityfrom growing food crops to cash crops forexports.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
20/51
Third Phase: Globalization &Trade Liberalization
Formation of the WTO. Passing of the AoA.
IPRs TRIPs, TRIPs Plus
A trade-based kind of food security
Neo-liberal restructuring as conditionality oflending
Trade and investment liberalization in foodand agriculture
Privatization and deregulation Food Dumping
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
21/51
Neo-liberalist Capitalism.
Massive Land Conversion, LandGrabbing for SEZs, AGROFUELS,cash crops, etc. over food crops
Landlessness, Mass Displacement,Migration, Social Injustice
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
22/51
GLOBALISATION
Crucial to recognize that globalization isCrucial to recognize that globalization isNOT incidental. It is designed at every stageNOT incidental. It is designed at every stage
forforcontrol, power and dominance.control, power and dominance.
It embodiesIt embodies an absolute lack of concernan absolute lack of concern forfor
the human person,the human person, for human rightsfor human rights,,for the food and national sovereignty offor the food and national sovereignty of
Third World countries.Third World countries.
The overriding aim is profitThe overriding aim is profitby transnationalby transnationalcorporations (TNCs) and developedcorporations (TNCs) and developed
nations.nations.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
23/51
MARKET SPECULATION
Globalization has financialized and commodified rice
According to the Globe and Mail, a Toronto-basedpublication, the amount of speculative money in futures likerice ballooned from US$5 billion in 2000 toUS$175 billion to 2007.
These speculative funds have had substantial clout in the
market, all because the rice market is narrow, riceproduction is in crisis, and globalization of rice has beenrelentless
Investment funds now control up to 60% of the wheattraded on the worlds biggest commodity markets.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
24/51
IAASTD 20081.9 bil ha (2.6 bil ppl) areaffected by land degradation
Abuse of fertilizers largedead zones
Abuse of pesticides groundwater pollution and lossof biodiversity
70% of freshwater is withdrawn globally due to irrigationsalinization
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
25/51
91% of the worlds 1.5 bil ha of agri. land agro-export crops, agrofuels, and GE
soya (IAASTD 2008) Emphasis on increasing yields and productivity
has had negative consequences onenvironmental sustainability (IAASTD 2008)
Loss of 00,000s of our traditional crop varieties(replaced by HYVs, hybrids, GE varieties)
Ecological balance destroyed
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
26/51
70% of developingcountries are now
net food importers150,000 farmer suicidesin India (1997-2005).
In Thailand, theproportion of farminghousehold debt rosefrom 46% in 1993 to 70%in 2002.
In the Philippines, 50% ofrural families live belowthe poverty line.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
27/51
CORPORATE CONTROL OFAGRICULTURE The top three seed
companies, Monsanto,Dupont and Syngenta,
control nearly 40% of theseed market, and 6corporations control75-80% of the globalpesticide market.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
28/51
MAKING A KILLING! $$$! CARGILL: 36% profit growth (US$ 2.3 billion) in
2007
MONSANTO: US$1 billion profit in 2007(44% > 2006). Pushing GE seeds.
SYNGENTA: 75% higher profit (US$1.1 billion) in2007. Pushing GE seeds.
ARCHER DANIEL MIDLANDS (ADM) of the US,profits up by 67% to US$ 2.2 billion in 2007.
Food processors and the world's large retailtraders, such as Walmart (US), Tesco (UK) andCarrefour (France) are the other beneficiaries.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
29/51
Monopoly control of the
agri-food chain by TNCs
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
30/51
AGRICULTURE AGRIBIZCORPORATIONS & IRRIARE CALLING FOR ASECOND GREEN REVOLUTIONMore of the Same Formula
and now we haveCLIMATE CHANGEand the South has to pay again fora problem that originated inthe North
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
31/51
THE
PEOPLESRESPONSE
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
32/51
ASSERTION &RESISTANCERECLAIMING OURRIGHTS TO:
To Food Sovereignty
To National Sovereignty
To Gender Justice
To Environmental Justice
To Social Justice
To Climate Justice
To Democracy
To Self-Determination
To Genuine Agarian &Fisheries Reform
To Our Rice Heritage
RESISTING:
Control and Dominance ofTNCsCorporate AgricultureContract farmingLand Grabbing
WTO and globalizationFeudalismPatriarchyAll forms of
Discrimination
Militarisationand State Violence
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
33/51
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY The rights of people and communities to
decide on food & agricultural policies;to adequate, culturally
appropriate and safe food;
to land & productiveresources; to sustainableproduction & livelihoods;
to gender justice; social
justice; & environmental justice
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
34/51
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY The call for food sovereignty has resulted
from mass struggles against the brutalimpacts of liberalization and
the corporatization of agriculture.
It is the freedom and the power of the peopleto fight the power of the forces that
destroy peoples foodproduction systems
through trade,investment & other
polices
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
35/51
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
36/51
BIODIVERSITY-BASEDECOLOGICALAGRICULTURE
Total Productivityof a BEA farm >just yield. Sustainsfarming families&communities in alltheir basic needs.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
37/51
BEA FARMING. 500 mil small farms help
feed the world Sustainable Livelihoods
Small BEA farmsmore are productive
& resource conservingthan large monocultures.
While the smaller
farms produced average yields worthUS$15,100 per hectare, the larger farmsaveraged only US$ 249 per hectare (Alterieri2008)
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
38/51
IAASTD REPORT A growing consensus among scientists
and many governments is that the oldparadigm of industrial energy-intensive
and toxic agriculture is an outdatedconcept, while small-scale farmersand agro-ecological methods
provide the way forward.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
39/51
PEASANTS COALITION (APC): AsianRice Crisis, due to ImperialistGlobalization Development policies in Asia should be
based on democratic principles aimed at
reducing inequality and ensuring peoples'
access to productive resources and
employment opportunities so as to enable
them to enjoy an adequate standard of living.
However, these aims can only be achieved if
a qualitative change can occur in the existing
socio-political and economic structure at the
national, regional and global levels.
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
40/51
RADICALTRANSFORMATIONFood Sovereignty of Small Farmers
There is no other credible way forwardthan to rebuild from the bottom up. Thatmeans inverting the power structure:
small farmers, still responsible for mostfood produced, should be the onessetting agricultural policy, rather than
the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank orgovernments. (GRAIN 2008)
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
41/51
PEOPLE POWER!!!
ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE!
ORGANIZE
MOBILIZE! MOBILIZE!
MOBILIZE!
across all sectors including the urbanpoor to assert their right to food and
livelihood, and food sovereignty
Th P l C 2004
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
42/51
The Peoples Caravan 2004
S i th Ri f A i
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
43/51
Saving the Rice of Asia
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
44/51
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
45/51
W ld F dl D O t 16th
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
46/51
World Foodless Day: Oct 16th
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
47/51
Promote the rights,
empowerment and
liberation of Women
L d t th L dl !
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
48/51
Land to the Landless!
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
49/51
CLIMATE JUSTICE!
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
50/51
CLIMATE JUSTICE!
No to Globalization!
Those whohave the bearthe brunt ofthe climatecrisis are theones leastresponsible
for it andleast able
to cope withit
8/14/2019 Impact of Food Crisis in Asia (CW)
51/51
WTO Out of AgricultureLand to the Landless!Safe Food for All!Gender Justice!
Climate Justice!LONG LIVEINTERNATIONAL
Recommended