Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
example of the impact of politics on agriculture. In some
cases governments enacted policies that perpetuated
preexisting inequalities; in others land reforms were
introduced that served to redistribute land to individuals
or communities. The latter were common in parts of
Central and South America, leading to a substantial
reorganization of the rural landscape—sometimes
spreading wealth more broadly. Pressure for land reform
continues in many countries, and land issues are at the
heart of many social movements in the global economic
periphery and semi-periphery.
A more mundane, but common, way in which gov-
ernments infl uence agriculture is through tax regulations
and subsidies favoring certain land uses. The U.S. gov-
ernment currently spends more than $10 billion subsidiz-
ing large-scale farmers. Pushed by a strong farm lobby,
these subsidies guarantee fl oor prices for staple crops and
protect farmers in bad years. They give large-scale agri-
culture an advantage over smaller scale alternatives. But
in the past 60 years perhaps the most dramatic examples
of politics affecting agriculture have come from the com-
munist world. The governments of the former Soviet
Union, eastern Europe, and Maoist China initiated far-
reaching land reforms that led to the creation of large
collective farms and agricultural communes. This giant
experiment resulted in the massive displacement of rural
peoples and irrevocably altered traditional rural social
systems. Today farming privatization is under way in both
Russia and China.
reality of much coffee production in Latin America,
however. In most cases coffee is produced on enormous,
foreign-owned plantations, where it is picked by local
laborers who are hired at very low wage rates. Most cof-
fee is sent abroad; and if the coffee pickers drink coffee,
it is probably of the imported and instant variety.
Recently, however, coffee production has under-
gone changes as more consumers demand fair trade
coffee and more coffee producers seek fair trade certi-
fication. CNN reports that “Retailers who are certi-
fied Fair Traders return up to 40 percent of the retail
price of an item to the producer.” Once a producer
meets the requirements of organic coffee production
and a few other criteria, that producer can be regis-
tered on the International Fair Trade Coffee Register.
Coffee importers then purchase the fair trade coffee
directly from the registered producers. Being regis-
tered guarantees coffee producers a “fair trade price”
of $1.40 per pound of coffee (plus bonuses of $0.30 per
pound for organic). Over 1.2 million farmers and
workers in 58 countries, mainly in the periphery and
semi-periphery, are connected to the 827 fair trade
certifi ed producer organizations worldwide (Fig. 11.20).
The fair trade campaign pressured Starbucks into sell-
ing fair trade coffee, and in 2010, Starbucks committed
to doubling the amount of fair trade coffee it pur-
chases, which accounts for 40 percent of the fair trade
coffee imported into the United States. Other retailers
have followed suit; for example, all espresso sold at
Dunkin' Donuts in North America and Europe is fair
trade certified. Fair trade coffee is available at large
Socio-cultural Infl uences on Agriculture
Agriculture is also affected by social and cultural factors.
As incomes rise, many people start consuming more meat
and processed foods, seek out better quality fruits and
vegetables, or demand fresh produce year round.
Consider the case of coffee, one the most important lux-
ury crops in the modern world. Coffee was fi rst domesti-
cated in the region of present-day Ethiopia, but today it is
grown primarily in Middle and South America, where
approximately 70 percent of the world's annual produc-
tion is harvested.
In the early eighteenth century, coffee was virtually
unknown in most of the world. Yet, after petroleum, cof-
fee is now the second most valuable legally traded com-
modity in the world. The United States buys more than
half of all the coffee sold on world markets annually, and
western Europe imports most of the rest. A well-known
image of coffee production in North America is Juan
Valdez, portrayed as a simple yet proud Colombian peas-
ant who handpicks beans by day and enjoys a cup of his
own coffee by night. This image is quite contrary to the
Figure 11.20
Mount Elgon, Uganda. This fair trade coffee farmer in
Uganda picks coffee berries at her farm, which is one of 6,000
small farms on Mount Elgon that sells directly to Cafedirect, a
British Fair Trade company.
© Karen Robinson Panos Pictures.
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