Page 360 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-22 1/10/09 8:54 AM Page 331

HUNGER AND PLENTY 331

industrial products instead of food. In the and the concentration and centralization of
US, for example, it is estimated that 90% of ownership have resulted in the destruction
all soya beans, 80% of all corn and 70% of of subsistence economies, peasant and
all grain is used as animal feed (Schwartz, simple commodity production in agriculture.
1996: 30). The main issue is not availability This has in turn led to massive rural-urban
but accessibility of food to people. This has a migration patterns, to increasing hunger and
lot to do with low income, lack of access to poverty both in the countryside and in
land and other means of production and the urban shantytowns. Despite its tremen-
sustainable livelihoods for the increasingly dous transformative capacity, the modern
marginalized segments of the world popula- food system tends to pay more attention to
tion. UN sources estimated that in 2000, efficiency, productivity and profitability than
about 2.7 billion people struggled to make a to equity, sustainability and health (Lang and
living with less than two dollars a day. While Heasman, 2004; Nestle, 2002).
there is some progress in poverty alleviation, Globalization of the agri-food system
at least in some parts of the World, the oft- offers potential for cooperation on a global
cited figures of the human consequences of scale, reduced vulnerabilities to regional
global poverty are alarming. food security crises and a broader selection
While in most cases exclusion is handled of food choices to those who can afford it.
through the hidden hand of the market place, Nevertheless, globalization also causes prob-
in the Cold War era international sanctions lems that threaten food security. The most
were increasingly used as a tool to put pres- visible impacts of globalization include:
sure on uncooperative states to weaken their
military ability and political will (Brzoska, 1 an increase in inequality, poverty, hunger
2003; Colonomos, 2004; Cortright and Lopez, and poor health, as well as a loss of cultural
2000; Davidsson, 2004; Drezner, 2003; diversity;
2 increasing exploitation of the natural environ-
Gordon, 1999; Hawkins and Lloyd, 2003;
ment which is manifested in increasing pollution,
Marks, 1999; Messer and Cohen, 2001).
the degradation and loss of resources, and the
loss of biodiversity;
3 the steady loss of national and local sovereignty
to concentrations of economic and corporate
CONCLUDING REMARKS power, with a corresponding reduction of demo-
cratic power and social controls.
The global food system is organized according
to principles of efficiency, productivity, When the wide-ranging impact of global-
profitability and comparative advantage. ization is considered, the so-called success of
Misgivings about safety, fairness, local and the current food system – its great productive
regional development and national security capacity – is seen as its biggest liability for
are seen as socio-economic, and political sta- long-term economic and ecological sustain-
bility concerns only indirectly relevant to the ability. Its very structures lead to an under-
conditions of accumulation. Reviewing the mining of local and traditional systems
characteristics of the modern global food which provide efficient and accessible pro-
system, this chapter has argued that certain duction and distribution. They also steadily
chronic or periodic problems that are associ- reduce future food options of the world’s
ated with the food system, such as the farm many societies and cultures – both through
crisis, hunger and malnutrition and obesity, the destruction of their cultural and biologi-
are not anomalies but are reproduced by cal diversity and by making them dependent
structures and institutions of the modern food upon big corporations that are motivated by
system. The intensification of commodity private gain and accountable only to their
relations in agriculture and in the food system, shareholders.