Food Systems

Agriculture and Cultural Development

If anthropologists credit the spread of agriculture as the starting point for human settlements, economists regard its diminishing importance as a key indicator of development. As farmers move from subsistence to commodity production, other professions whose members trade for food become possible. Poor countries typically [Page 505]have more than half the population involved in agriculture, while rich countries have tiny percentages. For example, in the United States, a country with a population of 285 million people, only 1.8 million people work on farms as managers or as hired labor.

Food systems inevitably define the contours of the larger economy and society. Land-tenure serfdom, for example, was a key feature of feudalism in the European Middle Ages. Slavery and the subjugation of one people by another provided the economic base of ancient Egypt and the American South. The collectivization of agriculture under Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong became a prominent characteristic of the Communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and China—as well as a leading cause of resistance, civil war, and bloodshed. The relative presence of voluntary agricultural cooperatives may suggest the degree of social solidarity among farmers.

Globalization and Food Systems

Given this central role of food systems, it is hardly surprising that they have become the flashpoint of controversies surrounding globalization. Global trends, at least until recently, have favored the industrialization and consolidation of farms. The creation of global markets of agricultural commodities, driven by both proliferating trade agreements and diminishing subsidies from national governments, has driven down their prices and forced farmers to compete vigorously with one another worldwide.

Unable to compete against the low wages of many countries, farmers in wealthy countries focus on volume production through the heavy application of machinery, fertilizers, and genetically modified seeds. Many, however, have been unable to modernize themselves successfully and have gone bankrupt or quit. Some of those remaining in business have become vocal opponents of globalization and free trade, occasionally parading their tractors in vociferous protests in capital cities.

While some farmers' arguments against globalization are self-serving, others highlight the significant challenges globalization poses to community life. The destruction of family farming means the eradication of generations of knowledge about the land essential for environmental stewardship. The heavy doses of fertilizers required by modern agriculture require huge inputs of petrochemicals (some of them highly toxic), and the enormous water resources required are increasingly needed for other human uses. The use of monoculture crops for salable commodities leaves all regions more vulnerable to pests, fungi, and other blights. And the spread of genetic modifications may present new risks, surrounded by many uncertainties, to human health.

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