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

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agroecology and the struggle for food sovereignty
productive and cultural diversity.” Two non-governmental organization representatives
from the United States, one from Costa Rica, and one from Mexico described
the relationship between trade policy and food sovereignty in North and Central
America and beyond, and called for changes in policies, both national and
international, to promote food sovereignty in every country.
The Fallout from Free Trade
Kristin Dawkins, a vice president at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, reflected all four panelists’ concerns when she stated: “We
now have ten years of experience with free trade. And it’s proven– it’s no longer one
of these textbook theories – it is proven that it is not contributing to development at
the community level, or even at the national level, in so very many countries. It is
proven now that the beneficiaries of this so-called free trade agenda are the trading
companies, the giant transnational corporations who benefit from the low raw material
prices paid to farmers all over the world, and the creation of new consumer markets
to buy their stuff all over the world.”
Alberto Gómez Flores, National Executive Coordinator of the Unión Nacional de
Organizaciones Regionales Campesinas Autónomas (UNORCA) in Mexico and
Coordinator of the North American region for Vía Campesina, pointed out that more
than 800 million people suffer from hunger according to the United Nations’ Food
and Agriculture Organization, despite global overproduction of food. The cause, he
said, is export-oriented policies in the United States and European Union, which
destroy other countries’ capacities to produce.
Dawkins reminded the audience that the free trade agenda in agriculture actually
goes back decades, with a long history of International Monetary Fund and World
Bank programs directing countries to focus on agriculture production for export.
Today, increased agricultural trade is being promoted through free trade agreements
and the World Trade Organization. Free trade has been a disaster for developing
countries, Dawkins argued, not because of trade itself but because of food surplus
“dumping.” She explained that farmers in developed countries receive subsidies that
enable them to sell their products at cheap prices, often below the cost of production.
When trade barriers are opened, these cheap commodities are “dumped” into other
countries’ markets, out-competing their local producers.
As Minor Sinclair, Director of U.S. Programs for Oxfam America in Boston, noted,
the U.S. exports corn to other countries at prices 20 percent below the cost of production,
wheat at 40 percent below the cost of production, and cotton at 57 percent
below the cost of production. As a result, in countries where governments cannot
afford to pay subsidies to farmers, the prices of agricultural goods drop, and local
farmers go out of business because they cannot cover their production costs at the
new low prices.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies