(Or How a "Doomed" Class Refused to Accept Extinction)
By Walden Bello*
 
(A longer version of this piece comes out in the April 2007 issue of Global Asia. It is reprinted with permission.)
 
If the Doha Round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization is stalemated, a great part of the reason is the resistance of small farmers, among them Asia's farmers.
 
One of the terrible truths of the 20th century is that it was a blight on small farmers or peasants everywhere. Before looking at the question of whether small farmers need protection from free trade, it is necessary to consider this historical background. This article will focus on Asia's peasantry but the history it recounts is one that is shared as well by farmers in other parts of the South and in the North.
 
The Triple Threat to Asia's Peasantry
In both wealthy capitalist economies and in socialist countries, farmers paid a heavy price. Asian industrialization also was carried out largely on the backs of the rural population as farm policies were manipulated to favor the needs of industry.
 
In advanced capitalist countries like the United States, a deadly combination of economies of scale, capital-intensive technology and the market led to large corporations cornering agricultural production and processing, thus reducing small and medium farms to a marginal role in production and a minuscule portion of the work force.

By Geof Rayner, City University, London, UK
Corinna Hawkes, Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA
Tim Lang Department of Public Administration
Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South, University of the Philippines
(From Health Promotion International, Vol 21, Supplement 1, pp. 67-74)

Abstract

Trade liberalization remains at the forefront of debates around globalization, particularly around the impact on agriculture and food. These debates, which often focus on how poorer countries can 'trade their way' out of poverty, pay limited attention to dietary health, especially in the light of the WHO's Global Strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health (2004), which warned that future health burdens will be increasingly determined by diet-related chronic diseases. This article examines the diet transition as the absent factor within debates on liberalizing trade and commerce. We describe the evolution of trade agreements, noting those relevant to food. We review the association between trade liberalization and changes in the global dietary and disease profile. We illustrate some of the complex linkages between trade liberalization and the 'diet transition', illustrated by factors such as foreign direct investment, supermarketization and cultural change. Finally, we offer three scenarios for change, suggesting the need for more effective 'food governance' and engagement by public health advocates in policy making in the food and agriculture arena.

HYPERLINK TO FULL TEXT IN PDF

http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/21/suppl_1/67.pdf?ijkey=yIQQNiAcAu2VJ7H&keytype=ref

By Sarath Fernando, MONLAR (Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform), Sri Lanka

( 27-28 March,2007, Imagine New South Asia, New Delhi, India)

"Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life".

I would like to imagine a new South Asia and a new world, where "every single individual on earth will have the possibility of living a decent life". One simple and obvious requirement for a decent life is that no individual should be hungry or should not die of hunger. Therefore, before we go too far into complex and complicated imaginations can we think of a South Asia and a world where no human being would be compelled to die of hunger. This should be quite easy to achieve, because it is admitted that the world, the earth, has capacity to produce enough food for all human beings and more.

We know very well that over the centuries the processes of production, forms of distribution and consumption have not looked at the need to sustain the earth's capacity or the nature's capacity to continually "regenerate" its resources, the resources that are necessary for the survival of humans and all other living beings. Thus, most of these processes have been so designed that they deplete these resources and destroy the nature's ability to regenerate itself. In spite of such massive destruction, almost through out the history of what is described as "Human advancement" it has still been possible for the World to say that the ability of the world to produce enough to feed all is not yet lost.. Therefore it should be possible to imagine a world and a South Asia where no one goes hungry, at least where no human person dies of hunger.  

by: Aileen Kwa, Focus on the Global South
19 February 2007

''Resumption? This is a false resumption. The process is to legitimise the deal that the US and EU may come up with.' African delegate to the WTO, based in Geneva.

Whilst the WTO Doha negotiations have formally resumed, most negotiators in Geneva are in the dark about what is really going on. There are no formal agriculture meetings of the membership. The agriculture committee chair, New Zealand Ambassador Crawford Falconer is regularly holding informal 'fireside chats' which only about 23 - 25 delegations are invited to. ⁽¹⁾ These meetings are only for Ambassadors. A meeting of the African Group in Geneva on Friday 16 February, saw African delegates expressing anger over the fact that they have been excluded from these talks. Of the entire continent, only Benin, as the spokesperson for the West African cotton issue, is on the 'fireside chat' invitation list - an irony given DG Pascal Lamy's proclamations that the Round is most important for Africa.

The fireside chats last for about two hours and are held about once or twice a week. Various scenarios - numbers on domestic supports and market access - are explored at these meetings.