Articles by Dr. Shiva

Localisation of Food Systems : Necessary for both ecological sustainability ad social justice

by Dr. Vandana Shiva

Globalisation of food systems has taken a heavy toll on the planet, on farmers of the third world and on the right to food of future generations. As corporations have gained control over the seed supply, over production, and over distribution systems, there is a deepening agrarian crisis faced by small farmers and rural communities, a growing crisis of hunger and malnutrition and an acceleration of climate destabilization through increased greenhouse gas emissions - carbondioxide, nitrogen oxide and methane.

Globalisation and corporate control is leading to industrialization of food systems. Industrialisation implies increased intensification of chemical and fossil fuel based energy inputs. Chemical and energy intensification implies displacement and uprooting of small farmers through indebtedness and land alienation.

In India more than 200,000 farmers have committed suicide due to debt caused by purchase of costly seeds, costly agrichemicals and costly farm machinery such as tractors. Worldwide the dispossession of small farmers and their conversion of their lands into large scale corporate farms is one of the worst human tragedies of our times - a tragedy that has by and large gone unnoticed by most human rights and social justice groups. And as commercial interests replace small farmers, the nature of food agriculture also changes.

Small farmers are not merely producers of commodities. They are protectors and custodians of our vital and collective natural heritage - our soils, our biodiversity, our water, and even our air. They are providers of food and nutrition security for rural families and all society.

When agriculture is reengineered by global corporations, farmers are driven off the land, the environment is polluted, and food security is threatened. There is an intimate connection between how many farmers are pushed our of farming, how many species disappear, how much greenhouse gas emissions increase, and how many children die of hunger.

When land and water in the Third World is diverted from maintaining natures ecological processes and providing for food security for local populations to providing cheap fruits and vegetables for the rich in the north, desertification of the countryside and deepening of poverty and hunger in rural communities of the south is an inevitable consequence.

International trade in agricultural produce is not new. Spices and cotton from India have been exported for centuries, since these crops need very special climates and soils and cannot be grown everywhere. What is new about today's globalised trade is that it is destroying biodiversity and food sovereignty and making the Third World dependent on imports of basic foods such as cereals and edible oils at ever increasing cots and export of luxury crops such as flowers, and temperate vegetables and fruits at ever declining prices. Those in the North who feel that importing lettuce and green beans from Africa and Brocolli and barley corn from India helps the poor in the south ignore a number of basic issues.

Firstly, the poor are in fact displaced to make way for the corporate farms that export vegetables. In India's, Punjab huge land conflicts have been triggered by appropriation of land of small farmers for corporate farms growing vegetables for Tesco and other supermarket chains. Transfer of land from peasants to corporations is the first negative impact of an export oriented agriculture based on export of temperate produce from tropical countries. Farmers become workers on corporate farms, instead of being sovereign producers on their own land. Secondly, an export agriculture controlled by corporations displaces local biodiversity of local foods, creating hunger and malnutrition.

A "food first" system embeds exports within biodiverse small farms. Local food and nutritional needs are met and export crops supplement food staples, they do not displace them. Corporate led exports undermine local food security and promote monocultures which destroy biodiversity, a vital source nutrition.

Globalised trade driven by corporations works against biodiversity intensification. It undermines food security and ecological security. For food systems based on care and solidarity, we need "food first" policies in the south. "Export first" policies hurt the planet and the poor. They work only for corporations.

The globalized food system is causing destruction at every level. Biodiversity is being destroyed foe monocultures of corn, soya, and canola. Food has been reduced to a commodity. And the commodity can go to run a car, feed animals in factory farms, or feed people. The uniqueness, distinctiveness, quality, nutrition, taste, food are no longer in the equation.

Farmers are being destroyed because prices of farm products are driven down with a combination of monopolistic buying by global corporations, and dumping of subsidized products.

Meantime food prices keep rising for the poor, and hunger grows.

The long distance transport of food is also polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

No one is gaining from globalized trade in food except the corporations. Localisation of food systems is a climate change imperative to reduce "food miles". It is also food sovereignty and human rights imperative because small farmers will only survive in the context of vibrant and robust local food economies.

Localization is also a food security imperative. Short supply chains ensure better democracy in distribution, better quality food, more freshness, and more cultural diversity.

In Navdanya, we work on the following principles of organic and local

1. First: Food for the soil and her millions of microorganisms

Organic can be organic only if the food rights of millions of soil organisms are protected. This involves the law of return, of growing food for the soil, not just commodities for the market. In fact all "developments" in industrial agriculture are increasing commodity production at the cost of production for return of organic matter to the soil. The Green Revolution with its chemical intensive dwarf varieties killed the soil organisms with chemicals, and bred varieties with less straw so no matter was returned to the soil. Genetic Engineering of Herbicide Resistance Crops like Roundup, Ready Soya, and Corn deliberately kills vegetation which would have gone back to feed the soil. Feeding markets while starving the soil is a recipe for hunger and desertification. If we feed the soil, we will also feed people, and even have quality production for the market.

2. Second: Food and nutrition for the farming family

The tragedy of industrialized globalized agriculture is that while commodity markets grow, people starve. More than a billion people are now permanently hungry. Most of them are from rural areas. Many of them are food producers. They are denied food either because their soils have been desertified, or because chemical agriculture and costly seeds have got them into debt or they are growing cash crops like cotton and coffee which bring no incomes because globalized trade has pushed down farm prices or they have been pushed off the land. It is criminal that our "annadatas", our food providers, should themselves be hungry. That is why we ensure that every producer family which is a member of Navdanya first grows healthy and nutritious foods for the household and only traders in surpluses.

3. Third: Food for local communities

Everyone must eat. If local communities do not eat what is grown locally, their food will come from somewhere far away. And it will be more contaminated and adulterated and less safe. If local communities do not eat local produce, the biodiversity will disappear from our farms, and cultural diversity will disappear from our diets, making both the land and its people poorer.

4. Fourth: Unique products for long distance trade and exports
Every part of the earth is productive. Every culture on the earth has evolved its diet according to the particular ecosystem. Food staples must as far as possible be grown locally, both to produce what the ecosystem is best suited for, and to produce what local cultures have adapted themselves to.

Trade in food must be restricted to what cannot be grown locally, what is of high value, yet has a small ecological footprint in terms of use of land and water.

Different vegetables and fruits grow in different climates. It is wrong to grow temperate zone vegetables in the tropics and fly them back to rich consumers. This uproots local peasants, creates hunger and poverty, destroy local agro-biodiversity. It also blocks the potential for localization in importing countries. Since vegetables and fruits are perishable their long distance trade is highly energy intensive, thus contributing to climate change.

In India, the home of mango, the famous Alphonso is only traded and eaten in Maharashtra and Goa where it grows, and the famous "Dusheri" is largely eaten in the northern regions where it grows.

Global trade in perishables destroys the biodiversity of fruits and vegetables. One kind of "Chiquita" banana, one kind of Washington apple ends up every farm and every table. Local production for local consumption is the best way to conserve biodiversity, taste and quality.

Spices are a perfect candidate for long distance trade. Tiny quantities are needed to add flavour to food. Spices grow in very specific ecosystems. They cannot be grown everywhere. They give high value with low volumes. This benefits the producer who can also grow food. In Karnataka, spice growers use 10% of their land for spice gardens of pepper, cardamom, arecanut and 10% for paddy for local consumption. These gardens have existed for centuries and are a model for farming, which supports trade but is not destroyed by trade and commerce.

"Spice of life trade" is justified which enriches the giver and the receiver.

Re-localization of our food systems has become an ecological and social imperative.