April 1996

It sounds simple. The price farmers receive for their crops should at least cover the costs of planting, tending and harvesting them. But for those of us in the sustainable agriculture movement, this goal, which has been central to our work over the past two decades, has been unattainable. Continuously depressed commodity and livestock prices -- often falling to half the cost of production -- have made it very difficult for many farmers to survive, much less adopt sustainable farming practices. We tried in the 1985 Farm Bill, again in 1990, and again in 1995, to achieve federal farm policies that would support farm prices at fair levels. The few changes to farm policy we accomplished have done little more than slow the assault on family farmers.

Ironically, bad weather across the globe, rising demand, and stresses on food producers have achieved what we couldn't accomplish through federal policy: raised world commodity prices to levels that equal the full costs of production. Unfortunately, these fair prices did not come as the result of careful planning and conscious policymaking, but instead fell into a food system ill-prepared to handle them.

Farm prices have doubled compared to last year and will most likely stay at comparable levels for two or three more years. For grain farmers, the longevity of this price rise, far longer than the average one-season increase following previous floods and drought-induced shortages, is a blessing.

The crisis of short supply, however, has very negative consequences for the future of our food system. First, poor people around the world who have become "hooked" on cheap grain imports since the 1970s and who now face prices that are double or triple previous levels, are suffering hunger. In Kenya, for example, rumors of rising world prices led food brokers to fill local storage bins with still-cheap imported grains, quickly eliminating storage and markets for the local harvests. Thus, although world prices had doubled, prices paid to Kenyan farmers fell by half because there was no place to store grain. In Mexico, white corn, normally the staple food of the poor, is being taken to feed cattle and poultry for rich consumers in Mexico City and overseas, creating hunger and malnutrition in the countryside. In West Africa, where the currency has recently been devalued, food is obscenely expensive.

Second, many financial institutions, corporations, and government agencies are using current grain shortages as an excuse to promote many self-serving, environmentally damaging ideas. Some, like the World Bank, are promoting the consolidation of land into large land holdings and the privatization of the world's food reserves. Fertilizer, pesticide and biotechnology companies insinuate that unless farmers use their products to boost yields, people will starve. Some lawmakers in Congress are citing current farm prices as evidence that all farm programs should be eliminated. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is even using the current situation to revive its languishing proposal to re-channel the Mississippi River, arguing that grain exporting corporations would be able to ship their goods to the world market more rapidly.

Finally, the crisis could set off another cycle of volatility that will result in new overproduction, food dumping, and concentration in agriculture. Policymakers are urging farmers to plant fence row to fence row, eliminating acreage reserve programs and set asides, and eliminating supply management.

We have a problem in the food system -- but it isn't high prices. The problem is instability in our food supply caused by volatile swings from overproduction to shortage, and from low to high prices. Hope lies in taking advantage of the short-term price increases to create the conditions for sustained economic and ecological stability over time for family farms. We need fundamental reform of agricultural policy based on the principles of sustainability and economic justice. We need fair and stable farm prices and fair and stable prices for consumers -- and both production and consumption need to be organized for long-term ecological survival. To accomplish this, we will need to work together, North and South, at the local, national and global levels. In short, we need a global campaign for sustainable food security.

Comments are welcome at:

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

1313 Fifth Street Southeast, Suite 303

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414 U.S.A.

phone 612-379-5980 • fax 612-379-5982 • e-mail <iatp@iatp.org>

<http://www.iatp.org/iatp>