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By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
Millions of pounds of pesticides are used each year, primarily to produce perfect looking fruits and vegetables, not to prevent crop losses. Most of the pesticides applied end up in the air, groundwater, ocean, lakes, and streams. These pesticides have been found in cities hundreds of miles away from the farms that use them.
Huge amounts of water are wasted on farms, since infertile or marginal soils must be watered heavily. Also, many huge corporate farms are located in dry regions of the nation that should never have been used to grow crops. Over 134 billion gallons of water is used every day to irrigate crops.
Sale points out the grave consequences to society of large corporate farms in the form of the "destruction or diminution of many thousands of rural communities, an exodus of millions of rural poor into cities that proved unstable to absorb the burden, and greater control over rural life by a smaller number of larger institutions."
Author and farmer Wendell Berry said that modern agribusiness "forces a profound revolution in the farmer's mind: once his investment in land and machines is large enough, he must forsake the values of husbandry and assume those of finance and technology. Thenceforth his thinking is not determined by agricultural responsibility, but by financial accountability and the capacities of his machines."
Irrigation of crops by spraying leads to waste from evaporation. (Photo courtesy Oregon State University Nutrition and Food Management Department)
Farming practices in the U.S. are largely governed by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF - or the Farm Bureau). Many farmers, environmental groups, and social change organizations consider the AFBF to be a gigantic agribusiness and insurance conglomerate. And, claims Defenders of Wildlife in a 1998 white paper on the AFBF, "The organization's nonprofit status allows it to use the U.S. tax code to help build a financial war chest with which it pursues an extreme political agenda, while doing little for - and sometimes working against - America's family farmers."
The Defenders report says that the AFBF spends a great deal of time and money opposing pesticide regulations and environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. It has large investments in the automobile, oil and pesticide industries, and often supports factory farming rather than family farming. They regularly oppose government regulation to reduce air and water pollution and pesticide use and to protect wildlife, habitat, rural amenities and food quality.
It is critical of efforts to counter global warming. It has opposed the registration and licensing of firearms, and has advocated repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, one of the nation's key civil rights laws.
Billions of dollars of government subsidies may be the most troubling aspect of modern agribusiness. These subsidies also promote environmental harm by encouraging overproduction and dependence upon pesticide and water intensive crops.
While the 1996 Farm Bill (The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act) began a program to eliminate overproduction subsidies, many forms of subsidies are still in place.
Studies have consistently shown that a one family farming operation is much more efficient than giant agribusinesses. Sadly, even many family farms have adopted the pesticide and chemical dependent, water wasting practices of the bigger corporate operations.
Organic farmers have shown that you can be successful by returning to farming systems that rely on ecologically based practices. Organic farms use environmental and biological pest management and virtually exclude the use of pesticides and synthetic chemicals in crop production. They also prohibit the use of antibiotics and hormones in livestock production.
Farmers everywhere must return to sustainable practices that are more in harmony with the Earth around them. They must put sustainable husbandry first, end their dependence on government subsidies, and stop fighting environmental protections. If the fish die, then eventually, so do we.
RESOURCES
1. Read what family farmers have to say about the Farm Bureau at
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/
fb2.html
2. Check out family farming issues at http://www.familyfarmer.org/
3. Read the Defenders of Wildlife report on the Farm Bureau at
http://www.familyfarmer.org/awg.html.
4. See a discussion of the top players in corporate agribusiness at
http://www.purefood.org/corp/greed.cfm.
5. We should be able to feed the world, but greed interferes. See some ideas about how to change this at
http://www.applesforhealth.com/
GlobalHealth/boostfarm2.html.
6. See a discussion about pesticide residues in your
food.
7. The Friends of the Earth thinks subsidies should end. See their argument at
http://www.foe.org/eco/scissors2000/
agriculture.html.
8. Visit the The Center for International Food and Agriculture Policy at
http://www.cagw.org/policy/foodag/
pf.foodag.home.htm.
9. See the benefits of organic agriculture at http://www.organicadvocates.org/
org2.html.
10. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them it is time to stop encouraging big corporate farms and to return to ecologically sustainable family operations. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
ziptoit.html.
Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found considering joining an organic food co-op. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at
jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at
http://www.healingourworld.com
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2001/2001L-08-24g.html |
