THE WAY FORWARD - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 187

set out under global trade agreements. In fact, direct payments to farmers, in the form of subsidies, were
adopted largely because they were unconnected to price or supply conditions, and therefore WTO-compat-
ible.
Instead of trying to find ways to make U.S. farm policy compliant with global agricultural trade rules,
lawmakers should adopt policies that ensure that farmers receive fair prices for their crops and livestock.
Indeed, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture has encouraged a flood of cheap commodities into the devel-
oping world (when prices are low), and food import-dependent countries have faced prohibitively expens-
ive food staples (when prices were high, as in 2008 and 2011). The WTO required member countries to
reduce tariffs on agricultural goods. As a result, floods of U.S. corn, soybean, and other commodity crops
inundated developing countries most years when prices were low. This dumping of commodities pushed
many farmers in the developing world off their land.
Meanwhile, U.S. fruit and vegetable producers have been undercut by a sharp increase in imported
fruits and vegetables from corporate-owned plantations in developing countries with weaker labor and en-
vironmental standards. The globalized market in agricultural products allows the same agribusinesses that
squeeze farmers in the United States to take advantage of farmers and farmworkers worldwide in the pur-
suit of cheap farm goods.
The WTO offers a failed model for agriculture policy that should not be the foundation for agriculture
policy in the United States. Instead, U.S. farm programs should ensure that farmers receive fair prices for
their crops and livestock, which would stabilize prices for farmers worldwide. When prices are low, ag-
ribusiness can export U.S. crops at below the cost of production, which hurts farmers in the developing
world. If agribusiness export companies had to purchase their grains from U.S. farmers at a fair price, they
could no longer dump these products on the developing world at below the cost of production and destroy
local markets in poor countries.
Creating a truly fair food system that rewards sustainable local and regional food production requires
taking decision making about agriculture and food away from the jurisdiction of the WTO and other trade
pacts. Trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have swamped Mexico with
low-priced corn; when crop prices were especially low in the late 1990s, this drove millions of rural Mex-
ican farm families off the land. At the same time, many agribusinesses relocated to Mexico or sourced their
fruits and vegetables from Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor and weaker environmental standards.
Imports of tomatoes and peppers and other produce from Mexico undercut American farmers as well as
the workers at canneries and processing plants.
All of these trade deals reward the transnational agribusinesses and punish farmers and workers both at
home and abroad. Food is simply too important to be treated like a widget under international trade rules.
Safe and Drug-Free Food
One of many battles before us in the short term is stopping the use of antibiotics in industrialized animal
production. Not only is this critical for creating a sustainable food system, but the loss of these important
drugs—through their overuse and the ensuing rise in antibiotic resistance—will have a devastating effect
on the health of humanity into the future.
The FDA began raising questions about the use of antibiotics in animal feed, beginning with a task force
to review the issue, in 1970. But more than forty years later, little has been done, even as the medical and
public health communities have continued to sound the alarm about the consequences for human health
when antibiotics are no longer effective. The science is clear: overuse of antibiotics in food animal produc-
tion is driving antibiotic resistance. Yet there has been little movement from regulators or Congress to rein
in the use of these critically important drugs by agribusiness. Science is not enough.