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Making the Connections U.S. Domestic Agricultural Policy and International Trade An Interfaith Persp

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Everyone should have access to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food ... Money talks in agricultural policy. Participation and the Federal Legislature ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Making the Connections U.S. Domestic Agricultural Policy and International Trade An Interfaith Persp


1
Making the ConnectionsU.S. Domestic Agricultural
Policy and International TradeAn Interfaith
Perspective
  • Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment
  • August, 2005

2
Introduction
  • Everyone should have access to safe, nutritious,
    and culturally appropriate food
  • U.S. food and agricultural policy has global
    consequences

3
Why Now?
  • U.S. Farm Bill will be reauthorized in 2007 and
    the debates are already starting
  • The Farm Bill legislates
  • Farm Programs (Subsidies)
  • Nutrition Program (Food Stamps)
  • Conservation Programs

4
Outline Of Presentation
  • Use ethical principles of the Interfaith Working
    Group on Trade and Investment to raise the key
    ethical questions that people of faith should be
    asking in the process leading up to the Farm Bill
  • See www.tradejusticeusa.org for more information

5
Principle 1
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should respect
    and support the dignity of the human person, the
    integrity of creation, and our common humanity

6
Principle 2
  • U.S Food and Agricultural Policy decisions should
    be transparent and should involve the meaningful
    participation of the most vulnerable stakeholders

7
Principle 3
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should advance
    the common good and be evaluated in light of its
    impact on those who are most vulnerable, both
    domestically and internationally

8
Principle 4
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should
    safeguard the global commons and respect the
    right of local communities to protect and
    sustainably develop their natural resources

9
Principle 5
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should reflect
    that the U.S. government, in collaboration with
    civil society, is creating public policies that
    encourage the development and welfare of all
    people, both domestically and internationally

10
Goal of Presentation
  • Further discussion and analysis
  • Unified progressive interfaith voice

11
Principle 1
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should respect
    and support the dignity of the human person, the
    integrity of creation, and our common humanity

12
Right to Food
  • Every person has the right to an adequate amount
    of nutritious food, through production or
    purchase, to sustain a dignified human life.

13
Food Security Hunger
  • Food Security when all people, at all times,
    have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious
    food to meet their dietary needs and food
    preferences for an active and healthy life
  • Hunger 852 million people on earth are still
    hungry

Bread for the World, World Hunger and Poverty
How They Fit Together www.bread.org/hungerbasics/
international.html. Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations,
www.fao.org/spfs.
14
Why is Hunger So Wide Spread?
  • Current agricultural system is driven by large
    corporations, banks, and individuals, whose
    primary goal is profit, not feeding people

15
Farmworker Rights
  • Annual incomes below 10,000
  • Not guaranteed overtime pay
  • Not guaranteed the right to organize
  • Exposure to hazardous pesticides and chemicals
  • Do not receive medical insurance from their
    employers
  • For landless agricultural workers in the Global
    South, many of whom are small farmers who have
    been forced off their land, working conditions
    can be even worse than they are in the United
    States.

Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs,
www.afop.org/advocacy. Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers
Movement), www.mstbrazil.org. Farmworker Justice
Fund Inc (www.fwjustice.org) exposed to
16
Corporate Consolidation
  • Threat to the Integrity of Creation
  • Threatens justice in the distribution of
    agricultural goods and resource
  • Agribusiness industry is an oligopoly

17
Corporate Consolidation Statistics
  • In 2002, Monsanto and DuPont alone controlled 65
    of the global seed markets for maize, excluding
    China.
  • While three quarters of all human food is
    grain-based, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland,
    Louis Dreyfus, and Bunge controlled 73 of the
    global grain trade in 2003.

Oligopoly, Inc. by ETC Group, www.agribusinessacc
ountability.org/page/264/1. Boston Consulting
Group, AWB (International) Maximising Returns to
Growers Supplying the Single Desk, 2003, in AWB
(International), Submission to the 2004 Wheat
Marketing Review, 2004.
18
Principle 2
  • U.S Food and Agricultural Policy decisions should
    be transparent and should involve the meaningful
    participation of the most vulnerable stakeholders

19
Common Humanity and Rural Development
  • Trend has been that family farmers in the Global
    North and small farmers in the Global South have
    gone out of business
  • Increase in off-farm work
  • Currently, less than 10 percent of rural
    Americans live on farms, and only two percent of
    rural Americans earn their primary income from
    farming.
  • It is estimated that as much as 89 percent of the
    income for farm households came from off farm
    sources in 2003.

Bread for the World, Strengthening Rural
Communities Hunger Report 2005, 2005, p 21.
Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org/farm/find
ings.php.
20
Principle 3
  • U.S Food and Agricultural Policy decisions should
    be transparent and should involve the meaningful
    participation of the most vulnerable stakeholders

21
Democratic Participation
  • The voices of those who are directly affected by
    public policy decisions should be involved in the
    decision-making process
  • Money talks in agricultural policy

22
Participation and the Federal Legislature
  • During the 2004 election cycle, the agribusiness
    industry contributed 52,593,698 to political
    campaigns

Center for Responsive Politics, Agribusiness
Long-term Contribution Trends, www.crp.org, 6
July 2005.
23
Agricultural Lobbying
  • In 2004, Monsanto Co. Spent 3,257,000 on
    lobbying efforts
  • In 2004, Cargill Inc. spent 460,000 on lobbying
    efforts

Source The Center for Public Integrity
www.publicintegrity.org/lobby
24
Participation in Federal Agencies
  • Among the top ranking political appointees at the
    USDA in 2004, there were nearly as many people
    who previously worked with agribusiness firms or
    their trade associations, lobbying firms, and
    research arms as there were career civil
    servants.

Philip Mattera, USDA, Inc How Agribusiness has
Hijacked the Regulatory Policy at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 2004.
25
Revolving Door Policy
  • The resulting regulatory frameworks tend to be
    more beneficial to industrial agricultural
    producers than family farmers.

26
International Democracy
  • Problems with lack of transparency and
    undemocratic nature of WTO processes
  • Without transparency and democratic participation
    at the WTO, the countries that are hurt by U.S.
    agricultural policy have no place to bring their
    grievances.

Various NGOs, Re Memorandum on the need to
improve internal transparency and participation
in the WTO, July 2003, from the International
Gender and Trade Network, www.igtn.org.
27
Principle 3
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should advance
    the common good and be evaluated in light of its
    impact on those who are most vulnerable, both
    domestically and internationally.

28
Common Good
  • A just agricultural policy can promote universal
    access to adequate food
  • Family farmers in the Global North, African
    American farmers, and small farmers in the Global
    South are among those who experience this growing
    injustice in the agricultural industry

29
Supporting Family Farmers
  • Family farmers often do not receive a fair price
    for their commodities
  • Family farmers can become dependent on a
    government subsidized system for much of their
    income
  • The current subsidy system does not translate
    into a decent income for farmers and results in
    low farm prices that depress the prices for farm
    commodities in the U.S. and other farm-based
    economies throughout the world.

30
African American Farmers
  • Even though African American farmers make up one
    percent of United States farmers, they only
    receive one-tenth of one percent of all crop
    subsidy payments.
  • Also, African American farmers are continually
    being pushed off of their land. In 1910, African
    Americans owned 14 percent of the countrys
    farms. Today, they own about one percent of
    farms.

Environmental Working Group, Analysis of Farm
Subsidy Payments to African American Recipients,
1996-2000, www.ewg.org. Damien Jackson, 40 Acres
and a Mule, Denied, 17 November 2004,
www.alternet.org. Federation of Southern
Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund,
www.federationsoutherncoop.com/aalandown04.htm
31
Agricultural Dumping
  • Dumping is when a firm in one country exports a
    good to another country at below the cost of
    production
  • Has detrimental effects on small farmers
    throughout the world, especially small farmers
    and women in the Global South.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
(www.iatp.org)
32
Agricultural Dumping Stats
  • In 2003, wheat was exported from the U.S. at an
    average price of 28 below the cost of production
  • In 2003, cotton was exported from the U.S. at an
    average price of 47 below the cost of production

Sophia Murphy, Ben Lilliston, and Mary Beth
Lake, WTO Agreement on Agriculture A Decade of
Dumping, Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy, 2005.
33
Why Dumping Happens
  • U.S. export subsidies
  • Certain U.S. domestic supports
  • Increased agribusiness consolidation
  • A lack of supply management
  • Overproduction
  • Pressure from the U.S. and the EU on countries in
    the Global South to rapidly liberalize their
    agricultural sectors

34
Problems Caused by Dumping
  • Small farmers cannot compete, even at their local
    markets
  • Displacement of small farmers to urban areas or
    other countries
  • Undermines agricultural development in the Global
    South
  • Disproportionately negative impact on women

Maria Pia Hernandez, Incorporating Gender
Considerations for the Designation of Special
Products in WTO Agriculture Negotiations,
International Gender and Trade Network,
Switzerland, March 2005, www.igtn.org.
35
Principle 4
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should
    safeguard the global commons and respect the
    right of local communities to protect and
    sustainably develop their natural resources.

36
Environmental Impacts
  • Soil and water contamination because of increased
    dependence on pesticides and chemicals
  • Soil erosion from monocropping
  • A loss of biodiversity

Agribusiness Accountability Initiative,
www.agribusinessaccountability.org.
37
The Beginnings of Sustainability
  • Conservation Security Program (CSP)
  • The CSP is a voluntary conservation program that
    supports ongoing stewardship of private
    agricultural lands by providing payments and
    technical assistance for farmers who are
    maintaining and enhancing natural resources.

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture,
Stewardship Incentives Committees,
www.sustainableagriculture.net. National
Resources Conservation Service, USDA, Farm Bill
2002 Conservation Security Program Key Points,
2005, www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/csp/cspqa5905.pdf
.
38
Who Makes Decisions?
  • Decisions about the use and development of
    natural resources are being decided by CEOs and
    stockholders, not the people whose communities
    are directly affected by corporate agriculture.

39
Principle 5
  • U.S. Food and Agricultural Policy should reflect
    that the U.S. government, in collaboration with
    civil society, is creating public policies that
    encourage the development and welfare of all
    people, both domestically and internationally.

40
Food Sovereignty
  • Food sovereignty calls for members of civil
    society and governments to have the right to
    define their agricultural and food policy,
    without any dumping vis-à-vis third countries.

Via Campesina, What is food sovereignty? 2003,
www.viacampesina.org.
41
Pillars of Food Sovereignty
  • The prioritization of local agricultural
    production to feed people over producing mainly
    for export
  • Access of peasants and landless peoples to land
  • The right of countries to protect themselves from
    below-cost agricultural and food imports
  • Agricultural prices linked to production costs
  • The recognition of the rights of women farmers

Via Campesina, What is food sovereignty? 2003,
www.viacampesina.org.
42
Government Procurement
  • Government buying typically represents ten to
    fifteen percent of a countrys GDP.
  • Intentional government procurement of
    agricultural goods and food can encourage
    sustainable agricultural practices, local
    agricultural development, and important financial
    support to family farmers.

World Trade Organization, Overview of the
Agreement on Government Procurement, www.wto.org.
43
Free Trade and Procurement
  • Under the regulations of some free trade
    agreements, government procurement would need to
    be as non-discriminatory as possible, meaning
    that decisions about purchasing must be based
    solely on price and quality, not social or
    environmental concerns.

CAFTA Does Not Measure Up, American Friends
Service Committee, www.afsc.org/trade-matters/trad
e-agreements/cafta-measure-up.htm.
44
Conclusions
  • Must consider structural and policy implications
  • Treatment of farmworkers
  • The forced displacement of family farmers
  • Corporate consolidation
  • Governmental transparency and procurement
    decisions
  • Environmental protection
  • Racial and gender equality
  • Agricultural dumping

45
Conclusions (Contd)
  • Enhance the right to food globally
  • Address economic justice
  • Promote environmental sustainability
  • Ensure human rights
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