A Sustainable Food Supply, Pt 2

When the G8 agriculture ministers are complaining about protectionism, the irony just floors me. Could there be less reliable critics?

Though while they may be enormous hypocrites, they aren't stupid. No one really wants their local farming to completely go away. As Italy's agriculture minister noted at the recent G8 summit, countries should be self-sufficient in food, and every country with the power to do so tries to ensure that they grow enough to feed themselves.

What if there's a war? What if there's a falling out with a trading partner? What if your nation is landlocked and your supply routes are unstable? What if fuel prices go up and long distance transportation becomes prohibitive?

No matter how unlikely, it would be stupid not to think of these things when you have a whole nation to worry about.

And wealthy nations do worry about these things. It's obvious from their actions, even as they encourage poorer countries to focus solely on exports destined for wealthy consumer markets. Indeed, those who can afford it are buying up farmland in poorer countries as a hedge against future food shortages:

... Food supply scare after last year's food riots has pushed several countries, such as China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, to buy or lease farmland overseas to feed their own people.

Quickly nicknamed "land-grabbing," this phenomenon has drawn sharp criticism for ignoring interests of local population. A leader of major international farmer group, IFAP, has said there was a risk of "second-generation colonialism" in such deals. ...

Though what else is encouraging one country to get on the treadmill of export-dependent agriculture besides to secure food for another consuming country? While export agriculture isn't inherently bad, as it's been practiced, it's often been highly exploitive.

So when Emily Gertz points out that eating local isn't necessarily the most direct way to cut your carbon footprint, she's right. Though as she also touches on, it keeps local farms in business, where their sustainability practices can be influenced more easily by those immediately affected and seasonality can return to our dietary expectations.

And while that might seem like a luxury in some US communities (seems, that is, because buying local food is a great way to boost local economies in the US [pdf],) supporting the development of local food security is vital to poorer nations who are more vulnerable to global supply chain and price disruptions. Instead of growing biotech foods for export, they need to be supported through appropriate research and locality specific soil management advice:

... Dave Kane, of Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, a Catholic missionary organization with priests, brothers, sisters and lay people working in Asia, Africa and Latin America, added, “We have found GM technology to be disastrous for small farmers and rural communities. Our missioners in Latin America and Asia have seen farmers get deeper and deeper into debt as they struggle to pay for all the seeds, fertilizers and herbicides that GMO technologies require. The result: farmers lose their land and with it, the ability to feed themselves and their families.”

The National Family Farm Coalition, a North American member of La Via Campesina, the international peasants movement, will be pressing the G8 to reconsider policies that advocate for food sovereignty. Ben Burkett, a Mississippi farmer and president of NFFC said, “Farmers both here and in Africa know that the current industrial agriculture model—and the push to fast-track trade liberalization—has failed to alleviate global hunger and denied family farmers a sustainable livelihood. A recently released report this month by Union of Concerned Scientists titled “Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops,” showed that despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields while only driving up costs for farmers. In comparison, traditional breeding continues to deliver better results. The G8 needs to move away from Green Revolution monoculture practices and instead implement the IAASTD’s most promising options: support ecologically sound practices, more equitable trade rules and local food distribution systems to empower family farmers.” ...

Because sustainability is more than a strictly environmental goal, the sustainability of encouraging robust local food economies is measured in more than the direct carbon footprint of the food produced. In the same way, organic agriculture, even though its yields can be high, impacts more than crop production or market prices:

... These techniques improved two important indicators of soil health. After three years of organic farming, the soil had more microorganisms, a change thought to help crops use nutrients more efficiently. The microbes turn over soil nutrients quickly, increasing the chance that nutrients will be available when plants need them, [Sean Smukler, a doctoral student in the department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at the University of California, Davis] said. "Microbes are driving the process."

As the study progressed, crops also had more mycorrhizae on their roots. Mycorrhizae are fungus colonies that set up symbiotic relationships with their host plants, supplying the crops with growth-boosting nitrogen and zinc in exchange for sugar.

... As rising oil prices increase the cost of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, more farmers will need "minimum-input" organic techniques to survive, Smukler predicts. "Sustainable agriculture means way more than just environment and financial results," he said. "It's the social result as well."

A sustainable food supply will be able to feed the people of the future at least as well as it can feed people today. It has to be good for the farmers, for people who eat, for the land it depends on. Sustainable farming has to succeed on multiple levels, by several different measures - and it can.

A good future is within our reach if we can measure success by more than the concentrated, narrowly shared benefits of corporate balance sheets.

(Photo credit: pizzodisevo and Marc Veraart on Flickr.)