EARTH DEMOCRACY:A CALL TO CONSUMER

KATRINA HINDMAN ~10670217FINAL PROJECT ~ CES 260

“This we know; the earth does not belong to

man; man belongs to the earth. This we

know. All things are connected.”–

Chief Seattle

GLOBALIZATIONThe increasing concentration of capital in the hands of relatively small number of transnational corporations. Two effects of globalization are greater influence on the world economy than that of nation states and a global distribution of wealth and poverty that privileges Western European, North America and other advanced industrial nations.

The Top Ten Firms that Preside Over A World Where 850 Million are Malnourished

Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland: control three quarters of the world's grain trade

Philip Morris, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee: control 70% of the world's coffee market.

Cargill, ADM and Philip Morris: account for over 80% of the world cocoa trade.

Astra-Zeneca, DuPont, Monsanto, Novartis and Aventis: account for nearly two thirds of the global pesticide market, almost one quarter of the global seed market and virtually all of the genetically modified seed.

A Profound Transformation in Food Production

Large corporations produce 98% of all poultry in the United States.

Just two percent of farms produce 50% of all agricultural products in the country.

Four firms handle more than 80% of all beef slaughter. Just two decades ago, concentration in this sector was below 40%.

60% of pork production in the U.S. is owned by just four firms.

Tools Corporations Use to Control the Economy of the Food

Market To eliminate competition and increase their ability to dictate farm prices, corporations in many farm sectors have been buying railroads, shipping lines, packing facilities, and even supermarkets at staggering rates.

The corporations that own farms are also entering into contracts with food retailers that serve to block smaller producers from access to the mainstream retail market.

The power of the transnational corporations is such that of the 100 major economies in the world, 51 are corporations and 49 are countries.

Profits Over People

PEPSICO (expected profit $3.5 billion) is most famous for its cola but also owns KFC. It has subsidiaries in repressive regimes such as Burma.

MARS INCORPORATED (expected profit $2 billion) brands include Snickers, Twix, M&Ms and Uncle Ben. It is another multinational that benefits from collapsing commodity prices. Its precise profits are unknown because, like Cargill, it is a private company.

DIAGEO (expected profit $1.8 billion) is the result of a merger between Grand Metropolitan and Guinness. Most of its profit comes from alcohol-Johnnie Walker, Guinness, J&B, Baileys, Smirnoff and many others.

COCA-COLA (expected profit $3.5 billion) is the best known product name in the world. It owns 80% of the world's bottled water. It stands accused of working with death squads in Colombia to eliminate union organization at its plants.

NESTLÉ (expected profit for this year $5 billion) is perhaps the world's largest food company. It is dominant in chocolate and coffee markets. Its brands include Kit Kat, Nescafé, Buitoni, Crosse & Blackwell, Shreddies, Carnation, Vittel, Perrier, Cheerios and Polo.

UNILEVER (expected profit $4 billion) sells food and other products in 150 countries under brand names such as Brooke Bond, Calvin Klein fragrances, Bestfoods, Birds Eye, Persil, Omo, Knorr, Hellmann's, Dove, Ben & Jerry's, Lipton, Slim Fast and Levers.

CONAGRA FOODS (expected profit $2 billion) has become a major force by sweeping up competitors in the meat industry. Its operations now centre on frozen foods such as Butterball turkeys, packaged foods, and agricultural products like fertilizers, seeds and chemicals

Recent Corporate Takeovers of Small Organic Brands

Kraft Foods bought small natural cereals producer Back to Nature in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of Altria Group, which also owns Phillip Morris Companies Inc., one of the largest cigarette makers in the world, also purchased Boca Burger Inc.

Odwalla Inc., which consists of premium-priced juices that are all-natural and partially organic, was purchased by Coca-Cola in 2001.

Dean Foods Co., the largest dairy company in the U.S., bought out Horizon Organic in 2003.

Kellogg's has acquired a few natural and organic brands: Kashi Cereal and Morningstar Farms.

General Mills purchased Small Planet Foods, which owns organic brand Cascadian Farm, in 2000. The brand consists of items such as frozen fruit, vegetables, granola bars and fruit spreads.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. bought Tom's of Maine, which specializes in natural oral and personal care products, in March.

Ecological Insecurity is Created by Globalization

Many conflicts within Third World countries are related to the practice of exploiting resources faster than nature can renew them or diverting them away from where people need them.

Rivers are polluted and there is no clean drinking water. Groundwater is exhausted and people are forced to migrate. Dams in every society have become major sources of conflict. As water scarcity grows, neighbors, families turn against each other.

Instead of leaving seeds in the hands of the peasants who co-evolve them in partnership with nature, seeds become a monopoly in the hands of five or six global corporations.

Instead of water belonging to millions of local communities, water too is to be controlled by five or six global water giants.

These are recipes that use economic systems to appropriate for the few the base of survival of the majority.

The 80 percent who are dispossessed of the wealth of nature move into economic insecurity, because their livelihood as peasants, as fishermen, as farmers, as tribals, as forest dwellers, all depend on having the fisheries, the land, the forest, to make a living.

Vandana Shiva “Economic insecurity is

the legacy of a finance-driven, capital-driven, corporate-driven economic model that is destroying our natural capital and the resilience of local economies.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32Iq6akmpo

Corporate Globalization Leads to Privatization

Corporate globalization is based on new enclosures of the commons; enclosures which imply exclusions and are based on violence.

Instead of culture driven abundance, profit driven globalization creates cultures of exclusion dispossession and scarcity.

Patents on life and the rhetoric of the ownership society in which everything—water, biodiversity, cells, genes, animals, plants—is property express a worldview in which life forms have no intrinsic worth or integrity.

The privatization of public goods and services and the commoditization of the life support systems of the poor is a double theft which robs people of both economic and cultural security.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA76tcYLNXg

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

A great deal of the genetic engineering of food is designed to produce plants that are either resistant to herbicides or grow plants that produce their own pesticides.

Roundup Ready soybeans, for instance, are genetically altered to withstand a dose of herbicide and thereby allow more efficient harvests.

Scientists in support of GMO say these slight gene modifications are safe and do not make a profound difference in the crops.

Currently the FDA does not currently require food with GMOs to be specifically labeled.

United States Agriculture Statistics

40% of American-produced corn and 55% of American-produced soybeans are grown from genetically modified seeds.

Monsanto Corporation is a leading producer of genetically modified seeds and creator of the herbicide Roundup Ready.

Monsanto Corporation hopes that 100 percent of this year’s American soybean crop will be grown from genetically engineered seeds.

Reason for opposition of GMOs

There are potential health issues at stake, ranging from allergic reactions to the possibility of alterations in plant chemistry.

The production of GMOs will result in a loss of biodiversity, as one genetically modified strain replaces several naturally occurring varieties of a crop.

If the dominant modified strain becomes susceptible to an unforeseen threat, entire crops could be lost.

Another inadvertent consequence of GMO technology is the unwanted migration of genes from one plant to another.

Consumers Have the Right to Know When They are Eating

GMOs! Consumer advocates and a wide range of environmental and food safety groups have campaigned against genetically modified (GM) products, referring to them as “Frankenstein Foods.”

Some retail grocers, like Whole Foods, have recently announced that they will not carry genetically altered foods for health and environmental reasons.

Around the world, 19 countries require such labeling, and the European Union has banned the sale of any new engineered products since 1988.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fofKzn6qSo

How Does Globalization Affect Small Farmers?

The number of farms in the United States that gross between 50,000 and 249,999 (18.2%) now only represents 21.1% of the total market value.

73.6% of the nation's farms share 6.8% of the market value of agricultural products sold.

7.2% of the farms receive 72.1% of the market value of products sold.

Large corporations have been moving into rural communities throughout the Southeast and Midwest. These operations impose economic and environmental hardship on farmers and consumers.

Record low dairy prices are fueling expansion of dairy farms throughout the country. These operations are buying up the cows from farmers forced to sell out due to low prices.

Bovine Growth Hormone (rBST) is being used to increase production, resulting in even more milk on the market further depressing prices and threatening the environment.

There is a loss of local credit or banks that understand the rural community.

There is a loss of farm land in the United States and a dramatic loss of farmers who are able to make a full-time living from the farm.

Antibiotics in Food

Scientists are warning of a "post-antibiotic era," in which antibiotics are no longer able to fight disease. Antibiotic over-use in humans is considered the most significant contributor to resistance.

A growing list of scientific organizations – including the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health Organization – says the agriculture industry should limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed to help stave off the public-health threat.

“There’s an arms race between the drugs and the bugs, with the drugs trying to keep up.“ Ron Phillips, of the industry-funded Animal Health Institute, told The NewStandard that "antibiotics are used by food producers to keep animals healthy, and healthy animals are necessary for producing a safe and healthful food supply."

Over 350 organizations, from the American Medical Association to the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, support legislation to phase out antibiotic use in farm animals.

The World Needs Small Organic Farmers

These farmers use sustainable or organic practices that build up the soil, reduce runoff, create habitat for wildlife, treat livestock humanely and best of all, produce safe, delicious food.

As these farmers explore creative new ways to grow and market their products, consumers can support their choice to farm sustainably by purchasing their products.

You can vote with your food dollars and support a delicious revolution that will ensure fresh healthy food for yourself and for future generations.

Buy Organic and Buy Local!

You can join a CSA, go to a farmers market, patronize a restaurant that uses local organic foods, or buy direct from farmers.

It is a pleasurable way to make significant impacts in a number of areas, from global warming to ensuring that we have access to safe, wholesome food produced by someone you know and trust.

When you buy local food, you help ensure the open space of the agricultural landscape and you ensure a fresh, safe food supply for yourself, your community, and

future generations.

By Eating Your Way Towards a Sustainable Future You Are…

Getting exceptional taste and freshness

Getting food produced the way you want

Strengthening your local community

Supporting small-scale and diversified family farms.

Protecting the environment

Sources Cited

Lawmakers Move Against Over-use of Antibiotics on Farms

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2007/02/lawmakers_move.html Buying Organichttp://www.thelandconnection.org/files/buying.html Multinational Corporations

Move to Dominate the Organic Market

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/04/multinational_c.html

The World Needs Small Farmers

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/10/the_world_needs.html

Look What's Coming to Dinner- The Opposition

http://www.acfnewsource.org/environment/the_opposition.html

Should Genetically Modified Foods be Labeled?

http://impact.typepad.com/articles/2006/01/how_should_gene.html

A Monopoly in Agriculture http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

whatwedo/where_we_work/united_states/news_publications/food_farm/art2563.html

Corporations that control world's food

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=5070