Farm Thoughts 2 - Distant

The global economy is frustrating, violent, unjust and just plain weird. Unfortunately most farms participate fully in the global economy. They grow corn and soy for animal feed so some can eat meat while others go hungry. They also grow corn for ethanol and rely on massive chemical inputs to do so. And in the end, they hope to sell their farms so they can pass something on to their children.

The weirdest part for me is how far most food travels including our locally grown food. Canada can grow almost anything apart from rice and coconuts. Yet still we grow food and send it around the world to be sold instead of being consumed locally. For instance, Canada grows apples and sends them to Australia and New Zealand for instance. At the same time those countries grow apples and send them back to us.

Surely you've seen a New Zealand apple in a grocery store?

A more local example that I saw firsthand the other day were ginseng farms. Southern Ontario grows massive amounts of ginseng to be sold to China. How can it possibly be profitable for China to buy ginseng from us? Wouldn't it make more sense for China to grow its own ginseng to save on all kinds of cost? Then fields used here for ginseng could grow food to be consumed locally instead of buying say apples or wheat from China.

It's almost as if the fuel used to transport the food around the world doesn't exist, much like the associated greenhouse gas emissions. And the funniest part is that no one finds this weird in any way. It's normal. I thought capitalism was all about efficiency but in the end it seems waste is the lifeblood of the global economy.

Bad News

All around the world (though it hasn't reached Canada yet for the most part), food prices are going up. The UN World Food Program doesn't have enough funding to keep up with the rising prices. As such malnutrition and starvation rates are expected to rise.

From an article in the Guardian: "The impact has been felt around the world. Food riots have broken out in Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has reintroduced rationing for the first time in two decades. Russia has frozen the price of milk, bread, eggs and cooking oil for six months. Thailand is also planning a freeze on food staples. After protests around Indonesia, Jakarta has increased public food subsidies. India has banned the export of rice except the high-quality basmati variety."

Since we are essentially eating oil due to the fact that all industrial farming needs oil, unfortunately there's nothing we can do about this inevitable rise. We have built such a population that it requires oil to maintain itself. Still there's a lot that could be done (though don't hold your breath):

• Divest from ethanol and move toward public transit. If you keep driving people are going to die though you're unlikely to ever see them starve.
  
• Don't waste food. How much food is thrown out by the grocery stores in your neighbourhood every day? It's a lot and most of it is perfectly good.
  
• Start a Food Not Bombs and save some of this food that would otherwise be going to waste.
• Grow your own food, support community gardens, buy local and organic food.