World Investment Report 2009: Transnational Corporations - Unctad

CHAPTER III 131
4 For instance, the number of countries planting GM crops
increased to 25 in 2008, from 6 in 1996. The number
of farmers who use GM crops increased by 1.3 million
in 2008 to 13.3 million, and more than 90% of farmers
who use GM crops in developing countries are small and
resource-poor (James, 2008).
5 Four types of companies – mostly TNCs – have had
an impact on the development and adoption of GM
technology. These are agriculture seed and biotechnology
companies, chemical pesticide companies, food and feed
companies, and major retailers such as supermarkets
and fast food chains. Seeds and biotech TNCs, such as
Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer and Syngenta, developed
most of the GM crops currently on the market, and remain
dominant players (Paarlberg and Pray, 2007).
6 Excluding deforestation.
7 According to data collected by UNCTAD and summarized
in table III.3.
8 Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Indonesia,
Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Nepal,
Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, the United
Republic of Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Viet Nam and
Zambia, according to data collected by UNCTAD and
summarized in table III.3.
9 For instance, more than 70% of employment in East
Africa during 2002–2006 was in agriculture, compared
with only 32% in North Africa.
10 MDG-1: refers to “Eradicate Extreme Hunger and
Poverty” by halving, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
11 Gross capital formation is measured by the total value of
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and acquisitions less disposals of valuables.
12 For instance, Africa and South, East and South-East
Asia have a relatively high share of agriculture in total
investments, which suggests the greater importance of
agriculture for economies in these regions.
13 The term food crisis refers to a situation of food shortages
arising from the imbalance between the basic needs of
a society in terms of the supply of food and the means
of providing for the population’s dietary needs and food
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time and cause. Thus the 2007–2008 food crisis was
associated with a major increase in world food (and fuel)
prices (FAO, 2008b), fuelled by changing patterns in
global food (and energy) consumption and trade.
14 With the exception of coffee and palm oil.
15 See “Soaring food prices: Facts, perspectives, impacts and
actions required”, document HLC/08/INF/1 of the “Highlevel
conference on world food security: the challenges of
climate change and bioenergy”, Rome, 3–5 June 2008.
16 � ����� ��������� ������� ��� ���� ������������� ��� ����������
quantities of food of appropriate quality and a given
society’s access to as well as utilization of it (FAO,
2006a). The supply of food is secure if all people of the
given society, at all times, have physical and economic
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dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
healthy life (FAO, 2008a). Conversely, “the two most
basic causes of food insecurity” are “inadequate food
availability at national level and inadequate access to
food due to poverty” (Smith, El Obeid and Jensen, 2000:
205).
17 The energy crisis and high fuel prices have encouraged
the growth in biofuel crop production (III.B.3.c), putting
additional pressure on the global food supply. Speculative
activities to take advantage of high food prices have
further worsened the food supply situation and pushed
prices up even further (FAO, 2008b).
18 � �������������������������������������������������������
requirements for food assistance, agricultural inputs and
budgetary as well as balance-of-payments support.
19 See also Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food
Security: “10 percent national budget allocation for
agriculture development”, African Union, July 2003
(www.africa-union.org/root/UA/Conferences/2008/avril/
REA/01avr/Pamphlet_rev6.pdf).
20 See also Declaration of the High-level Conference on
World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change
and Bioenergy, 5 June 2008, Rome. Available at: www.
fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/foodclimate/HLCdocs/
declaration-E.pdf.
21 For instance, ZTE International (China), Flora EcoPower
(Germany), Sun Biofuels (United Kingdom) and
CAMS Group (United Kingdom) have signed land
deals with African countries for production of biofuel
crops. Similarly, Sinopec (China) and Chinese National
Overseas Oil Corporation (China) have interests in
Indonesia to grow maize for biofuel production (“Sinopec
reportedly to invest $5 billion in biofuels in Indonesia,
Biopact, 28 January 2008, at: http://news.mongabay.
com/bioenergy/2008/01/sinopec-reportedly-to-invest-5billion.html,
and “CNOOC to build 3 biodiesel plants in
West Kalimantan”, Biopact, 7 May 2007, at: http://news.
mongabay.com/bioenergy/2007/05/cnooc-to-build-3biodiesel-plants-in.html).
22 See, the Declaration of the High-level Conference on
World Food Security: The Challenge of Climate Change
and Bioenergy, 5 June 2008, Rome.
23 However there are variations of this situation. For
example, until the 1980s, a number of foreign investors
in Latin America’s food industry integrated vertically
into primary production, controlling vast areas of land
and engaging in local processing, as well as the exports
of goods such as sugar, bananas or meat to Europe and
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Moberg, 2003).
24 This can be a point of concern. It has been argued, for
instance, in a critical analysis of the nature of intellectual
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commercial and political pressures towards classifying,
say, new plant varieties as ‘inventions’ (patentable) rather
than ‘discoveries’ (not patentable) (Van Dooren, 2008).
25 � ����������������������������������������������������
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(2008) show how EU consumers’ tastes have changed for
a new variety of pineapple ‘MD2’ (marketed by plantation
TNCs via supermarkets) over another variety also grown
in Ghana, ‘smooth cayenne’. Local smallholders growing
smooth cayenne have seen a large fall for their produce,
without being able to switch to ‘MD2’.
26 For instance, there are likely to be four principle transaction
costs incurred by TNCs (or other companies) in contract
farming, especially smallholders: (a) costs of drafting,
negotiating and enforcing contracts; (b) maladoption
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up and running costs associated with governance; and
(d) bonding costs of implementing secure commitments.
These costs can be reduced to mutual advantage, as in
the case of contract farming in seed maize involving a
TNC and smallholders in Indonesia (Irianto, Yuniarti and
Santoso, 2006).
27 Because of the critical role of breeding and propagation in
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suppliers of other inputs have recently acquired companies