Immigration, the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, and the Transformation of our Food and Fuel Systems
Immigration, the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, and the Transformation of our Food and Fuel Systems
The current immigration legislation attempts to balance the fears of a post-9/11 electorate with the management of the largest single migration in the modern history of the Americas. At this writing, this bill focuses on symptoms rather than causes and faces strong opposition from all sides.
Rather than immigration reform, sweeping reform of our national and international food & agricultural policies could do much to address the underlying causes of immigration—grinding poverty that drives people to abandon home and family.
For decades the U.S. Farm Bill has used taxpayer subsidies to keep grain prices low, causing overproduction
that benefited big grain companies who then dumped cheap grain abroad at below the cost of production. This subsidized overproduction—coupled with free trade agreements and the devastating polices of the International Monetary Fund—forced millions of small farmers in the Global South out of farming. Many of the 1.1 million immigrants crossing the U.S.’s southern border each year are these farmers, who can no longer afford to farm. In the U.S., over-production of grain encourages over-consumption of cheap, processed, unhealthy foods. It has concentrated market power in the agri-business sector, making farmers worldwide dependent on a handful of corporate giants for their inputs and their markets.
Though the economic power of the agri-foods industry (and their lobbyists) is strong, many observers maintain that conditions for far-reaching agricultural reform in the U.S. have never been better. This is because our food systems are in a profound state of flux and transformation.
First, as the Food First Backgrounder, Biofuels: Myths of the Corporate Agro-Fuels Transition explains, the "agro-fuels boom" is transforming our food and fuel systems worldwide, bringing both under one enormous industrial roof. There will be big winners and losers in this transition. The question is not whether agro-fuels have a place in our future—they are inescapable—but whether or not we allow a handful of global corporations to determine the future of our food and fuel systems.
Another major element transforming our food systems is the global liquidity crisis: money is backing up in the world’s banks. Globalization has efficiently concentrated enormous wealth over the past 20 years. We now have 500 billionaires and over a million millionaires in the world—while the number of people living in poverty continues to grow. Banks are driven to loan; otherwise they are stuck paying interest, with no income to offset that interest… Extractive sectors including agro-fuels, oil and mining are prime investment opportunities because of their capacity to absorb large sums of investment capital quickly. Multilateral development banks, including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, provide governments with loans to re-structure laws, markets, and local infrastructure to favor corporate investment— often at the price of local food security. Two pending 2007 Food First Development Reports will detail how the World Bank’s territorial restructuring in favor of mining corporations is driving farmers from the land, channeling precious natural resources to foreign businesses, and undermining food security
in Ghana and Guatemala.
At the same time, activism in the U.S. and worldwide on food, environment and social justice issues is at an all-time high. From underserved neighborhoods of people of color fighting to ensure health and nutrition, to slow food advocates seeking quality food, to farmers producing for the local market, people are taking back their local food systems from the corporate agri-foods industry. Paul Hawken, author of Natural Capitalism and Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming claims that there are a minimum of 130,000 registered civil society organizations working for social and environmental justice on the planet—there may be as many as one million. These organizations are reacting to the negative changes in our food systems and then advancing alternatives, shaping outcomes, and building parallel systems serving millions of people. They have held the largest anti-war demonstrations in the history of the world and the largest immigrant rights demonstrations
in the U.S. since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. They are taking matters into their own hands by setting up thousands of gardens in schools and on vacant lots, challenging government on food regulations and strengthening local food systems through farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA), and by educating themselves about where food comes and how much energy it takes to transport it to market. They are creating markets and extending the meaning of organic, fair trade, and direct trade, and are re-building local economies by re-investing the food dollar in local production, local processing
and local distribution systems.
All of these actions are pieces of an international movement that is organizing and putting pressure on government officials for food sovereignty— the right of people to control their own food system. The struggle for food sovereignty is the struggle for control over the transformation of the world’s food and fuel systems.
The 2007 Farm and Food Bill could advance the process of agricultural reform in favor of food and fuel sovereignty. There are a number of "marker bills" before the Agricultural Committee in Congress with provisions to ensure a fair price to family farmers, put a cap on subsidies, encourage fruit and vegetable production, resource conservation, research in organic agriculture, and the rebuilding of local food systems in underserved communities. Contact your congressional representative and Senators to urge them to vote for a 2007 Farm and Food Bill that provides for a fair price for all farmers—not just the large corn, wheat, soy, rice, and cotton farmers.