Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

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agroecology and the struggle for food sovereignty
money off [coffee], and another $0.50 or $1.00 a pound ought to go to those farmers
down there. It’s crazy for big corporations to be making millions of dollars when
farmers are going hungry. Let’s pay a little more, make sure those farmers get paid,
and make sure they are doing it in a sustainable manner.
I think that process raises the understanding of a lot of people, and that is a good
thing. But in reality, because [the regular market] is so huge, the scale of programs
that encourage only sustainably produced soybeans is going to be so small that the
Cargills and the Tyson Foods and the ADMs are going to live unscathed. They’ll keep
this other production, where the soy will be used in their industrial system without
labeling or without anyone really being aware of [genetically modified] content or the
environmental effects.
I think it would be much better to have environmentalists and consumers aware
that cheap isn’t always best. Not only are you going to vote with your dollars as an
individual consumer, but there needs to be a bigger movement to bring environmental
understanding and agricultural understanding together in public policy and in
international policy and trade agreements. I think that’s the real answer.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies