Food aid or agri-business?

The announcement at the recent G8 summit of a $15bn investment in agricultural initiatives to boost food security in the developing world sounds great on paper, but will it succeed where past interventions from the developed world have failed?

It's encouraging that the emphasis is not just on aid but on educating and assisting communities to become self-sufficient and produce food locally with access to local markets. We all know that pouring in aid without education and capacity building is not a sustainable solution.

The 1970s 'Green Revolution' when Western nations introduced industrialised high-yield farming into developing nations such as India came at a high price. The application of machinery, chemicals and mono-cropping put paid to regional varieties, mixed cropping and traditional methods of irrigating the land. Documentary-maker and journalist Barbara Summer Burstyn travelled to India with her husband, Canadian cinematographer Tom Burstyn, and biodynamic farmer Peter Proctor to produce an award-winning film One Man, One Cow, One Planet. href="http://www.cloudsouthfilms.co.nz">

I heard Barbara speak in February 2008 at the 'Taste of Slow Food Festival' in Melbourne. During her travels around India, she discovered that mechanised farming has made many farmers redundant and created high levels of personal debt. As a result the suicide rate among farmers has escalated. The environmental costs have been equally high: the accumulation of chemicals in the soil has eradicated the vital layer of topsoil. "Soil in India has become merely a means of keeping plants upright," says Barbara.

Interestingly in the context of the G8 initiative, Barbara found many of the farmers in rural areas were consistent in their message to the West: “Leave us alone: we don’t want your food aid, your GM technology or your free trade.”

Referring to big-bucks agri-business as 'anti-human' and 'anti-growth', Barbara think it is essential to maintain a bank of knowledge about traditional human-based systems, "so that we will be ready to forge ahead when everything else falls over."

And this is where the work and legacy of Peter Proctor come in. Travelling around New Zealand for many years on behalf of the Biodynamic Farming Association, Peter, now 82, gave up a comfortable retirement in New Zealand and, instead, started to travel regularly to India with his partner, Rachel, to promote the benefits of biodynamic farming. Using cow dung to enrich the soil is central to his teachings: a method which has clearly found resonance with many Indian farmers. As the old Indian saying goes: 'The Goddess of prosperity lies in cow dung.'

Let's hope that the G8 agri-dollars will be spent wisely and will respect traditional farming methods and local knowledge about climate, land, water supply and regional varieties of seed. And let's hope that the big agrochemical companies don't dictate the agenda. While GM technology may have a place in combating malnutrition, food shortage and climate change, evidence from North American farmers shows that GM crops are a liability.

Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser’s tale of GM-contaminated canola crops and his legal battle with Monsanto over patent infringement is now well known. His experience is a sobering reminder of what can happen when farmers are forced to sign away the right to their own seeds, livelihood and production methods.

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