Summary of: Five Global Threats to the Survival of Family Farms in the International Year of the Family Farmer
An Informational Backgrounder by Food First

See the article: http://foodfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2013-14-Winter-Backgrounder-International-Year-of-Family-Farming11.pdf

        Land grabs are a threat to smallholder farmers in the Global North and especially in the Global South. Since the "food, fuel, and financial crises" of 2007-2008, land acquisition by pension funds, corporations, and other speculators have gobbled some 212 million acres of farmland. Europe, like the US before, is experiencing the agribusiness push and the demise of family farming, too. Peasant farmers in the Global South have been pushed off the land and into cities, and often the slums.
       Trade liberalization and financial deregulation has ruined local agricultural trade networks in the Global South. Already, a lack of food self-sufficiency has been created in many countries due to policies of the World Bank and free trade agreements (FTAs) that push against local small-farming towards export agribusiness. The US-Colombian FTA gives monopoly rights of seeds to US and European corporations, which threatens the affordable practice of seed preservation. Colombian farmers have been hurt by the US dumping its taxpayer-subsidized grain on the Colombian market. Also, deregulation of the financial and banking industry in the Global North has created incentives for investment in industrial agriculture and land acquisition. Moreover, proposed FTAs such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership between twelve Pacific Rim nations and TAFTA between the US and the EU will punish nations for using tariff and non-tariff measures to protect smallholder farmers.
         Military conflicts and farmer movement criminilizations have created perilous conditions for food producers in a number of countries. Mass displacement in Northern Mali and Southern Senegal, among other regions, has caused farmers to work in refugee zones and warzones. Land mines and ruined infrastructure make even basic food production all but impossible, yet women's groups in the village of Gao, Mali are producing vegetables amidst the chaos. Similarly, Iraqi producers, in places such as Basra, have been producing in locations with dangerous levels of radiation, dioxins, and depleted uranium. In Honduras' Aguan Valley, 92 peasant farmers protesting their displacement due to land grabs have been killed between 2009 and 2012.
        Climate Change and resource scarcity is causing de-stablilization of agricultural producers. In island nations of the Global South, salinization of acquifers, intensification of storms, and wind/water erosion of soils, and more, is very troubling to their future food security. As mineral prices climb, struggling farmers in areas such as highland Peru are enticed by employent in nearby mines, which leads to pollution of adjacent lands. While diversified small parcels are resistant to pest, disease, and weather issues caused by Climate Change, monocultural production and biodiversity loss has been pushed by the Green Revolution of the late 20th Century and the GMO Revolution of the 21st Century. For instance, the Phillipines had 1,400 rice varietals previously, but now has only four varietals due to incentives of the Green Revolution.  
        Big philanthropy and foreign aid commonly aim for "top-down" projects that feature little to no input from target communities, which cause worse outcomes much of the time. "Green grabbing" in the name of ecotourism, agrifuel production, and drought tolerant GMO crops has marginalized peasant farmers in poor nations. Policies that discourage peasant food production cause male out-migration to cities, which leaves women alone to raise families and farm in rural areas. In many Global South countries, 60-80% of the food is produced by women. 
       The Via Campesina, a leading peasant farmers coalition, notes, " 'Peasants and family farmers have a food producing vocation. Agribusiness [pushed by the development agencies] has an export vocation.' " A movement against the coercive agreements and market effects that hurt small producers is essential to the continuance of food production and food security.

    

Food Justice CSA 
Solutions to World Hunger

This blog is an attempt to share what I learn about the conditions that create world hunger and the ideas that can stop world hunger! 
I will be posting synopses of articles, essays, books, and other media presentations that are relevant to this goal of realizing food systems that are sustainable and food secure for everybody.
Also, I will be sharing my thoughts on being a small-scale organic farmer in the Sacramento Valley. Especially as to how my experience may relate to the overarching goal of "Food Justice."