Food Wars ( A Book Review)

This work of Walden Bello brings back again the line that connects the Global North and South. From his book explicitly entitled “Deglobalization” to his contribution in the “Another World is Possible”, Bello’s “Food Wars” continuously assert the spread of international movements countering the industrialization crafted by these “club of rich countries” at the expense of the lives from the Global South. This time is a focus for the farmers and peasants completely hurt by the current economic order.

The problem all started from the uncontrolled increases in the food prices that spread across the continents. This alarming situation triggered protests and hunger to many people especially those living in absolute poverty who cannot afford the minimum level of basic needs, most importantly the food. All these are traced in the neoliberal project that aims a corporate industrial agriculture.

The degradation of the agricultural sector that develops the underdevelopment of countries like the Philippines was then pointed out by the abandonment of the government through cutting its subsidies on agricultural sector which is exposed to the massive importation of goods that are relatively cheaper. Without the government’s assistance in the picture, products from the countryside lead to skyrocketing prices that makes the farmers aim for return from high costs. Thus, exposing to cheaper imported products such as rice from Thailand gives an unfair treatment to our domestic products. With the farmers hurt, the free-market is more than a typhoon that destroys the sector which was the backbone of the economy way back during Marcos period.

More than the government snubbing our exhausted farmers on the field, the production which was supposed to serve sustenance in the level of their community is distorted. If serving the community was the initial purpose, then lately it shifts to serve the interest of the developed countries by supplying demands for biofuel production instead of agricultural.

This type of production is extracted from the South. This specifically refers to ethanol and biodiesel; both are renewable and believed to combat climate change.  Ethanol is made from crops high in sugar or starch while biodiesel is produced from oils and fats. The latter is most commonly consumed in Europe. With a very high demand of agrofuel from the North, Brazil, the agrofuel superpower has to respond in parallel to the promise released in the World Trade Organization. Now, this starts the ironic situation. With the higher demands from the North and the greater supply from the South, Brazil, has to expand its sugar plantation for example, to the extent of hacking away its forests. These forests are supposed to absorb the carbon emission majorly produced by developed countries. In addition, South America, the second largest ethanol producer, comes to the extent of inevitably causing deforestation in the Amazon, losses biodiversity, and even resulting to slavelike working conditions. This is reality and this is the product of the false hopes created by the agrofuel production.

So this explains that in a decrease of supply, price increases. With the focus from agricultural channeled to biofuel, prices on goods continuous to soar high. However, two other main contentions explain this situation that directly devastates the lives of millions of people.

In relation to poor Africa, where countries are remnants of the colonial Europe, African government has failed to care farming. Given the low productivity in the country, New Green Revolution might ease its problem. This is through a genetic engineering based agriculture that is seen as necessary in the continent. However, with Europe’s ban on GMO, African feared that their exports will be barred from entering Europe. Again, unfair trade exists. The fact of the nondevelopment of agriculture in Africa also extends the low supply of food in Africa unable to keep up the demand of the continent.

Branded by the corporate world that peasants’ way of farming is obsolete and uncompetitive, a capitalist industrial agriculture has been a trend in the international economy. Not knowing this led the destabilization of our local industries through the opening up to the international market legitimizes the transformation of our local land, nature, and social relations when countryside is alienated- all these are effects that made responsible to the food crises.

Another very important example to understand in the era of skyrocketing prices is the diversion of Mexico’s corn to biofuels. 60% increase in the price of Mexico’s tortillas last 2007 was enough to stage thousands of protests. With the US Government subsidizing corn in Mexico for ethanol rather than for food consumption is the root of the problem. By then, an intriguing question arrive; How on Earth had Mexicans, who lived in the land where corn was first domesticated, become independent on imports of US corn in the first place? This is very crazy to understand but easy to answer when we come to think of the global agrifood system pushed by the World Trade Organization plus the transnational corporation taking advantage in all sides for profit maximization at the expense of the developing countries’ formation towards development.

The former concrete example is also not different to the food crises especially on the deficit of rice in the Philippines. How can we be currently a net rice importer, when we achieved a respectable degree of rice sufficiency in the late 1970s? Right now, we are regularly sourcing 1 to 2 million tons of annual rice requirement in the international market. So what really weakens our national economy? The answer- Structural Adjustment Programs.

If only SAP is a person, I see him as Osama Bin Laden intentionally killing the lives of many innocent people. SAP has been more than a terrorist that legitimizes its threats in the developing country through the mandate of the World Trade Organization and some other international financial organizations such as IMF and WB.

Shifting the attention to debt servicing from agriculture during Cory Aquino’s administration was nothing but suicide. With a weak local industry due to political crisis in the 70s and 80s, Aquino liberalized the market, cut off tariffs and quotas from imported goods, and left the agriculture to the hands of private entities thus creating a government who hands-off to the sector. This is the winning situation for the rich peasants and landlords which former president Cory is a part of. Also, cutting the quota, massive importation of rice follows which exacerbates the country’s fall behind Thailand and Vietnam. This even discourages the farmers and leaves the countryside to the cities which massive migration from the rural areas to the cities makes the government head aches. Now, with the emergence of new export industry specializing in high value added crops like cut flowers, asparagus, broccoli, and snow peas,- employment in the agriculture dropped.

Another major example of this global trending economic system is China. The capitalist development path for China is really a failure. Though, it did not feel the same level to Philippine’s experience since Chinese government had been so wise in gradually opening up its market while still holding many state-owned enterprises (SOE) at the same time.

            

Among the principle widely discussed and the realities explicitly uncovered, I strongly agree the current order that we are in. The food crisis that Walden Bello pointed out last 2009 was perhaps just 3 years ago, but the drastic increase in the prices of goods is definitely shocking for a three years period to almost double. This will mostly fit the example of oil prices.

As a resolution, I couldn’t agree more on the idea of deglobalization. Though this does not strictly mean a strict protectionist policy, but about still participating in the international economy that at the same time builds local economic capacity rather than destroying it; with a destroyed local industry, more protests and social unrest seeking for the right path to development is triggered. That is why, there is a need to respond these international movement forwarded by different farmers all over the globe.

It is so much disheartening to see more people self-immolating in a struggle for genuine reform in the system. These people die in vain without returning their land grabbed by powerful private entities, they died without witnessing the growth of their domestic market that upgrades the quality of life that their family must have experience. More than that, there’s nothing more to ask in living a society on the sphere of a democratic decision making and operating a market with the values of equity and justice. It is so much fun for an economy to be “reembedded” in the society, instead of having our society driven by the principles of the economy that will naturally hurt the people if left unregulated.

I personally hoped that all these propositions were gladly opened up in the World Economic Forum just this January in Davos. Planning among global business elite is expected to get realized in the next few months. This made me excited on how they will answer the problems resulted from the current order that they imposed on the past few years. Knowing that these elite people conceded the shortcomings of a market-free system, delegates in the said forum are forming a new model. System recovery is the biggest challenge for these delegates.

Witnessing their shortcomings already shed them light to realize that indeed there is a need for a change- a change that must be definitely different to their system of neoclassical counterrevolution that emphasizes market fundamentalism. I hope they will fulfill the theme “The Great Transformation”, that is, a transformation for the benefit of everyone. So long as they fulfill not just only advantageous to their private interest but also to the interest of the global world that will feel the convincing change, then a peaceful forum for them will take place in the next few years. No more naked protesters combatting the extreme coldness in Davos will happen. No more Igloos set as camps for Occupy Davos protesters will take place.

Bombarded by all these crises, future decisions must all be learned from these nightmare experiences. Most primarily, the strength of agriculture should not be left behind. The attention of the government for this sector is even worth since it is through our farmers that sustain the lives of the people who are supplied by food which is a basic need for everybody. If we pursue the kind of globalization that continues to shape the society in which we live today, social unrest will continuously rise and I believe that it will all the more consolidate to a more powerful movement that will sooner topple the world order created by the elites in the developed and developing countries. In this I am optimistic.

Major ideas credited to Walden Bello's "Food Wars". No one shall be held responsible for any errors of analysis.

Understanding a Development Miracle: China

If people anywhere would try to assess how China emerged as the world’s second largest economy, well, what’s obvious is the country’s export-oriented industry. Everybody in the Philippines will certainly agree that explanation. With the very large export surplus, we witness how every Chinese products are displayed on almost every Filipino stalls. This is just one of the efforts done by the Chinese in shaping the kind of development that the country is molding for many years.

It feels so interesting to understand how income per capita in China by 2008 was well over 5 times what it was in 1978. However, the increase might be as well embarrassing to know that China’s income per capita in comparison to some other countries is far behind. Just late last year, TIME Magazine had this issue comparing countries of big economies. Though Japan is behind China in the world ranking, the former leads a significant higher in income per capita compared to the latter. This low income per capita relative to other countries might explain why the country still has large number of poor people. Even if World Bank estimate that the number of poor in China is falling from 53% to just 8% in 2001, still, 8% is too many in a country who has 1.3 Billion population.

Moreover, if China hailed the benefits of markets, trade, and globalization, it is still very important to understand that the country had adopted activist industrial policies, meaning, less privatization which for me gave China the wisest decision that led to their advantage in the race for rapid growth. With the neoclassical counterrevolution theories (i.e. free market model) not doing well in Africa and Latin America, China’s own crafted development policies might as well be failure without their good performance in transitional institutions which is primarily their difference against Russia who immediately abolish its central planning institutions, not allowing to coexist both institutions.

With the European countries and Russia who aimed for a “big bang” in the changeover to a free-market economy, China opted to be different. They introduced new and transitional institutions that exist side by side with previous institutions of central planning for extended periods.  It was in this core reason that perhaps generates further miracle for the country.

Well, in the investment atmosphere, China is the most favored. It has an eventual market of more than 1.3 billion consumers that is more than enough to expound the pour of investments in the region.

A factor of being homogenous also matters. Ethnic diversity impedes economic growth which associates African slow pace of growth.

In the other part of the globe, whether the country is a developing or in a transition period, state-owned enterprises were sold off to private investors quickly. China is a different case. These enterprises still remained in the government’s hands, however this was contested with many problems that later on led to some of it privatized or even closed.

Another important thing to consider is also their focus on township and village enterprises. These are local government owned enterprises. Though these were privatized lately, it spread development to rural areas. It was a perfect choice for their country to have early reforms on agriculture in rural areas, then strategic for shifting it lately toward industry.

Upon looking China’s prosperity, there are some certain drawbacks that are might as well problems encountered by almost all other counties. Extreme poverty is one. Official land grab from peasants also losses the farmers security. Also important to note is their rising local taxes and minimal improvement in technology. The latter is more delicate for the country in the years to come. With the competing countries all over the world, China who mainly relies on labor-intensive approach may not come at par with high and sophisticated technologies of their economic rivals.

It is also a country who situates the most of the polluted cities in the world. This aggravates health problems among its people. Moreover, with its skyrocketing surplus that caters too many people around the globe, we cannot forget their publicized scandals concerning their safety on food, drugs, and others. A perfect example was their melamine tainted products on milk that led too many victims especially in the South East Asia. This created a threat to international public image on Chinese products added by lists of health hazardous exported materials.

To wrap up, China has made the wisest decision for its own boundary. With a gradual change in adjusting itself into the demands of globalization, they had found themselves in a win-win situation.

(This is a reaction to a case study in China published in Michael Todaro's Economics of Development 2011 Published Book)

"The Philippine Hidden Story"

What is primarily the talk of the town is the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. But there is a hidden talk, one that is gossiped by the people more than that of a town and this talk is always overshadowed by national issues embodied by the elites. These elites are basically the powerful minority that controls the power and decision-making in the policies of the government. This is all because the monopoly they occupy in the framework of the government that is supposed to be vacated for the masses. And who represent the pool of the repressed, vulnerable, and poor? None, so they really are the powerless majority.

The majority stays behind the elites. These people are shaped by the norms created through the powers of the elite that champion their trust. This is the meat of the talk that remains hidden after the said EDSA revolution. Following this process is the stage that institutionalizes the value of conformity to those who are in power. This is where my concessions arrive to Christian Monsod’s article on Christmas Day. It is put in emphasis that the priorities of the poor, the powerless majority are mishandled and most often neglected.

Being distracted from the core issues that our country must really face- from poverty, inequality, social services, etc., it is quite startling to comprehend that the current agenda set in the country is diverged from it.  We are more than interested to Kris Aquino's talks, live concerts of Korean's Super Junior, overestimating Adele's soothing voice, too much focus on impeachment of whoever seats the office, and so many more.  But there is nothing to get confused especially in the government scandals. It has already been noted that these people who are the stakeholders on these issues are just primarily the same faces who are choosing the options on the table on how the country come and go. So it is on their lives, on their issues that we are oriented to focus into.

I just therefore dismiss the idea of EDSA Revolution. Was it really a revolution? Or was it just an authentic revolution that just aimed to get the attention of the masses being blinded by the prime movers of that movement? Well, I think, it was the latter. It’s simply the restoration of the elites. Yes, our textbooks are right to show that the power of the poor are visible in the picture on that historical uprising in EDSA where they fought along with the promises branded on their foreheads. But it was not sustained. The masses are not the champions in that long way struggle. Had we truly won, concerns of the people who are on the mass absolute poverty must have been addressed. To refer Monsod’s article, “the government family income and expenditures survey (2009) showed that the incidence of poverty went down from 35.15 percent in 1988 to 26.49 percent in 2009, but the number of the poor increased from 21.3 million to 23.9 million.”. In this, poor are trapped to less than 1$ a day despite the skyrocketing prices in the market.

With the social reforms continuously unachieved despite the hopes of the majority, there has been a telltale issue on the challenges on whether or not the social reforms are really the interest of the powerful elites. The passage of distributing the land to the farmers in Hacienda Luisita was almost half a century struggle as started way back on 1960s. Just before 2011 ended, this battlecry of our sugar farmers were heard. The Supreme Court en banc 14-0 decided to finally give back the land to the farmers who are now probably the grandsons and granddaughters of those who were  squeezed by the might of the Cojuangcos’ in their call of land distribution. But this garnered a heavy emotion towards the ever prominent Kris Cojuangco Aquino, our President’s sister. We heard too much from her and I’ve read too much of her grief in her twitter account about the final decision of the court regarding the distribution of their vast land already spilled by those heroic farmers’ blood.

Finally, I agree to Monsod’s alternative in distinguishing to why Philippines is on its deep nightmare. Basically, the plans do not strike at the roots of the problem but only at the branches. Well, how one can know the where the root is if one don’t have the ability to listen the masses. This is why there is something very wrong about using power and wealth. This is an answer that primarily comes back again on my initial views- the pool of minority elites vested on selfish interests, planning for the country though their monopolistic opinions, championing the trust of the masses through institutionalizing the value of conformity from the majority powerless poor, and thus neglecting their concerns and diverging the central hidden issues to their issues based on their lives and interests.

Well, still, have a Happy New Year for the Philippines- with optimism. :)

(This is primarily a reaction to an opinion of Christian Monsod's article in Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 25, 2011 labeled as the 'Talk of the Town')