Food Crises I Development Underdevelopment From Green Revolution

Food Crises - I Development & Underdevelopment, From Green Revolution to Famine

Readings ¨ H. Cleaver, "Food, Famine & Int'l Crisis" ¨ NACLA, "US Grain Arsenal" ¨ "US Food Power: Ultimate Weapon in World Politics"

Food as Feast ¨ Food as staff of life, fundamental necessity · gathering, production always social act ¨ Food as social medium · · family meals religious rituals collective rituals, holidays, festivals sharing of food = sharing of self bonding

Food as Power ¨ Control over food power over life · control over land - food autonomy ¨ power to live independently · control over land - food Power over others ¨ Power to make others lives dependent · e. g. , sharecropping · e. g. , wage labor · e. g. , soviet family plots

Power over Others ¨ Families · control over children ¨ no work, no supper, primogeniture ¨ Local community · control over land fundamental to structure of power ¨ Nation States · internally: role in food distribution function of pressures, top down, bottom up · externally: food as weapon in diplomacy

Food in Capitalism ¨ Control over land - food control over work ¨ Without autonomous sources of food, people are forced into labor market ¨ Monopoly of control gives capitalists Power to impose work ¨ History of capitalism is history of business efforts to achieve monopoly control of land food · enclosure, Wakefield, etc.

Food & Resistance ¨ Conversely, access to land - food gives power to resist, material basis for autonomous life ¨ Historical resistance to enclosure, from England in 18 th Century to Zapatistas at beginning of 21 st Century ¨ Those who have lost access to land fight for "access" to food, e. g. , welfare, food stamps · greater the access, greater ability to resist low wages

Development & Underdevelopment ¨ Development & underdevelopment · as states-of-being ¨ developed = industrial, rich ¨ underdeveloped = agrarian, poor · as processes ¨ development = investment, growth, industrializing, rising real income per capita ¨ underdevelopment = disinvestment, decline, falling Y/cap · as strategies ¨ development: giving food to get work ¨ underdevelopment: witholding food to get work

Giving Food (& Land) - I ¨ Lack of food seen as source of revolution ¨ 30 s - 40 s private foundations developed "food politics" for Third World ¨ land reform, community development, new ag technology · especially Rockefeller Foundation in China · even earlier in US South ¨ "development" strategies, give to get · state took over private policies and integrated into foreign policy thru foreign aid programs, diplo. · state also subsidized increased food production, increased real wages in US & Europe, welfare

Giving Food - II ¨ 1960 s: "Development Decade" · "Green Revolution" technologies from IRRI, CYMMIT, ¨ high yielding rice & wheat varieties ¨ replaced land reform & com. dev. · promise of food in exchange for acceptance of capitalist rules of the game, integration into global economy · Development = Keynesianism in 3 rd & 2 nd worlds ¨ Soviet Keynesianism in countryside, cities

Withholding Food - I ¨ After World War I, Herbert Hoover & American foreign aid in Eastern Europe · food aid given to those who followed the American line, vis a vis Germany & USSR, US investment · food aid withheld from those who didn't go along with US policies

Withholding Food - II ¨ 1950 s - 1960 s: PL 480 · · · subsidies to US agriculture food surpluses Hubert Humphrey saw surpluses as leverage food for starving if and only if governments accepted American directives ¨ e. g. , Indian famine 1965 -66 ¨ Orville Freeman, Sec of Agriculture tells Indian Min of Ag Subramaniam food aid if: · population control · opening of Indian fertilizer industry to US firms

Contradictions of Green Revolution Technologies ¨ Unforeseen consequences of Green Revolution · uneven application across regions · accessible to rich farmers, not poor, aggravated inequalities · rich farmer investment in labor saving capital equipment caused unemployment for landless · environmental problems due to: ¨ monocropping ¨ increased use of inorganic fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides

From Green to Red Revolution ¨ Regional Disparities aggravated Pakistan Conflict as West benefited and East didn't ¨ Increased intra-peasant conflicts in India btwn those who benefited and those who didn't ¨ Naxalite Rebellion in W. Bengal, Bihar

Welfare State & Rebellion ¨ Food subsidies to poor: · school lunches, food stamps, etc ¨ Viewed as inadequate, part of cause of rebellions: · central city uprisings · Black Panther Party extortion for breakfasts ¨ State response: dramatic spread of Food Stamp program to meet demands, quiet rebellion

Food & Rebellion in East ¨ Circa 1960: food riots in Russia · · · chronic peasant resistance results in Krushchev's opening steppe production later Keynesian policies for peasants ¨ 1970: Polish govt increases food prices · widespread rebellion in Poland, food prices dropped · sympathy strikes in USSR, 5 -yr plan revised, increased food imports (1972 grain deal), efforts to industrialize food production

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