World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 107

World Food Policy

World Trade Organization, constrain
government attempts to “protect”
the economic viability of domestic
food industries as well as publicly
controlled food stockpiles (De
Schutter 2011). As Gonzalez (2012,
1) noted, international trade law has
taken precedence over international
human rights law and international
environmental law “to the detriment
of small farmers and the environment”.
• Structural
adjustment
policies
administered by the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund
(IMF) imposed on agriculture have
“dismantled the elaborate system of
public agencies providing farmers
with access to land, credit, insurance,
inputs and cooperative organization”
(The World Bank 2007, 138; see also
Oswald Spring 2009, 480). This has
resulted in farmers leaving their
land, under-investing in their farm
enterprises or borrowing at rates that
are not sustainable. The latter issue of
borrowing funds beyond one’s ability
to make repayments has contributed
toward the high rates of suicide among
farmers in India (Mishra 2012).
• The unregulated application of
financial instruments, or the
“financialization” of commodity
chains—futures trading, and private
equity funds4—has entailed an
upward trend of speculative capital
into commodity sector planning
(Burch and Lawrence 2013).
• Foreign direct investment in
agricultural sectors has involved

governments giving permission for
land and sea leasing (or land and
sea “grabs”) to “foreign” states and
corporations, often accompanied
by agreements for them to impose
their own production and quality
arrangements which may involve
high levels of exploitation of soils and
water catchments, and unrecycled
waste generation (Cotula et al. 2009).
• Self-regulation by food corporations
can result in both the improvement
and dilution of national food
and nutrition standards as these
corporations demand harmonization
of quality standards across national
borders to facilitate global trade.
Supermarket chains have led the way
in shifting food chain auditing systems
from government to the corporate
sector (Henson and Humphery 2009;
Higgins and Larner 2011), not only
setting standards but also moving
into certification and enforcement
(Davey and Richards 2013). Such
arrangements become subject to
public scrutiny at times of food-borne
disease outbreaks and competition
enquiries.
2.3 - The environmental costs of industrial
agriculture

Many current food production
methods are damaging the environment
(Butler 2009b; Rosin, Stock, and
Campbell 2012; Naylor et al. 2005) and in
turn are compromising future food yield
increases. “Of particular relevance are the

4

“A private-equity takeover, or leveraged buy-out, usually involves the purchase of all or most of the
shares in a publically listed company, and their liquidation and removal (Burch and Lawrence 2013,
248)
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