Download CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION AND AGRICULTURE

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE,
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Jennifer Sumner, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Rural Studies Program
Presentation for Dr. Mark Sears’ ENVB*2010 class
Food Production and the Environment
March 1, 2004
“Eating is an agricultural act.”
~Wendell Berry
AGRICULTURE
• the world’s major environmental interaction
• began thousands of years ago with the cultivation
of wild plants and the domestication of wild
animals
• involves not only the production of food and fibre,
but also their distribution and the infrastructure for
production and distribution at regional, national
and global levels
• accounts for 3% of GDP
We do not, and no-one ever will, live in a postagricultural society.
INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
Industrial agriculture refers to large-scale
industrialized forms of agriculture that are
capital intensive, highly mechanized, use
large amounts of synthetic fertilizers and
pesticides, and involve extensive
monocropping and/or highly concentrated
and intense livestock operations.
THE RISE OF
INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
• Food production, distribution and consumption
were radically transformed in the 20th century
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Fully incorporated into the market system
Increased distance between producer and consumer
Production of industrial food
Externalized costs of production
• The emergence of a globalized food system that
picks and chooses among producing countries
– The environmental race to the bottom
THE CONSOLIDATION OF
INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
• horizontal integration - the expansion of firms into
other geographic areas (e.g., the decreasing
number of family farms)
• vertical integration - occurs when a firm owns
several different stages in the food commodity
system, which increases its economic power
• farm operators now have massive dependence on
all manner of farm inputs and on ever-increasing
outputs for foreign markets
• industrial agriculture has functioned more for
financial gain than for human need
AGRIBUSINESS
It’s been a long battle by corporations
to turn agriculture into agribusiness.
• Agribusiness - the sum total of all operations
involved in the manufacture and distribution of
farm supplies, production operations on the farm,
storage, and processing and distribution of farm
commodities and items made from them
• Agribusiness and the state promote particular
policies and production techniques favorable to
the needs of large corporations
– large use of external inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides
and machinery
– Turning food into agrifood
PROBLEMS WITH
INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
• animal disease problems
– mad cow disease, hoof and mouth disease
• human health problems
– pesticides, antibiotics and other
contaminants in food and water
• economic problems
– cost-price squeeze
• increasing input and machinery costs
• decreasing world prices
– debt
• social problems
– economic stress affects:
• the health of farm families
• the vibrancy of rural communities
– fewer family farms
• the death of many rural communities
– increasing unemployment and/or increasing
off-farm employment
• Almost 90% of American farm household income
comes from non-farm sources
– rural depopulation
• North Dakota, Manitoba
Environmental Problems
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Soil and water degradation/depletion
Lack of biodiversity
Habitat destruction
Death of wildlife
Export economy
Growth imperative
Herbicide-resistant weeds
GMO’s
Greenhouse gases
The environment is reduced to a
source and a sink because economists
cannot value what the environment is
worth, merely its value in monetary
terms.
Food Fights
• Increasing consumer distrust of /digust with
industrial food
• Increasing obesity problems
• Increasing allergy problems
• International trade agreements vs. the public good
• Consumer-led revolts
– Slow food
– Organics
• babyfood
Organic Agriculture
Organic agriculture is an holistic agricultural
system that seeks to learn from and mimic
natural processes in order to
a) channel nature to the service of humanity
b) avoid problems rather than creating and then
solving them
c) integrate enterprises to capture positive
ecological and economic synergies
d) internalize costs of production
Definition of Organic Agriculture
Organic agriculture is a holistic system of production
designed to optimize the productivity and fitness of
diverse communities within the agroecosystem,
including soil organisms, plants, livestock and people.
The principle goal of organic agriculture is to develop
productive enterprises that are sustainable and
harmonious with the environment.
Canadian General Standards Board
Organic Agriculture
• involves a total systems approach - not
linear like conventional/industrial
agriculture
• goals
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elimination of agricultural chemicals
reduced energy use
greater farm and regional self-sufficiency
smaller farm units and technology
improved conservation and regeneration of
agricultural resources such as soil and water
Impacts of Organic Family Farms
on Rural Communities
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Economic
Social
Political
Cultural
Gendered
Environmental
Environmental Impacts of
Organic Family Farming
• Lowering the chemical burden on the
environment
• Protecting/stewarding the environment
– An ethic of leaving the land better than they
found it
– Care for the soil like a living being
• Promoting biodiversity
– Domestic/wild plants and animals
Organic Agriculture Productivity
• Smaller farm sizes are 2 to 10 times more
productive per unit acre than larger ones
• After transition, organic yields are
comparable to conventional yields
• What is productivity?
– Yield – production per unit of a single crop
– Output – the sum of everything a small farmer
produces
• Various grains, fruits, vegetables, fodder and animal
products
Can Organics Feed the World?
• Wrong question
• Food production has kept pace with population
growth
• The problem of hunger is lack of access to food
– Poverty
– Landlessness
• Food dependence vs food independence
• Feeding the community / region
– Foodshed
• Food security and agricultural policy
• Organic agriculture as a lens through which to
look at food production and the environment
“Eating is an environmental act.”