Reply A/riia /•'mid (.'riti\ 71 Transnational companies The beginning of the green revolution, namely the successful cultivation of high yielding varieties, also started a strong competition for the legal ownership of these varieties. Large companies either bought the patents for the newly cultivated hybrid varieties or bought the seed producing firms as a whole. To them controlling the seed market logically meant coming pretty close to controlling the entire food supply chain. It meant being able to decide which seeds were to be cultivated, which agricultural chemicals were to be applied and where the products were to be sold. It is therefore only reasonable that the large agrochemical companies were most interested in the new seeds. A rapid process of concentration of business followed. Some transnational companies bought several seed cultivating firms in a row. Today there are 18 large multinational companies which do business in both agrochemicals and seeds, among these are Cargill, Giba-Geigy, Monsanto, Pfizer, Pioneer, Royal-Dutch-Shell, Sandoz and Union Carbide. Along with the seeds they sell fertilisers and biocides, and very often also command production industries and marketing organisations, thus enabling them to sell the final products like flour, bread and beer to the final consumers. This means that the subsistence varieties of some plants are controlled by only a few companies. The ideology of the green revolution claims that with the help of the new high yielding varieties enough food for all can be provided worldwide, thus solving the problems of malnutrition and hunger in the Third World once and for all. This ideology therefore helps the transnational companies to find a ready market for their products. Between 1974 and 1980 the worldwide demand for hybrid seeds for rice rose by at least 50%, that of wheat by 60% and of maize by about 40 % '. The leading company on the seed world market today, and only insiders are aware of the fact, is the oil and chemical giant Royal Dutch Shell, with head offices in The Hague and London. They control at least 30 seed producing and trading businesses. Seed cultivating and fertiliser transnational are also active in Southern Africa, for example among those active in Zimbabwe are: — the English agro-business and food-company Tate and Lyle, which is the. owner of the Hippo Valley Estates and of sugar-refineries, markets irrigation implements and, recently, has bought up the seed cultivating company Berger and Plate. — the chemical giant Union Carbide (USA), which produces insecticides, pesticides and chemical food-additives and has recently bought up the Keystone Seed Company. — the pharmaceutical company Pfizer (USA), which is active mainly in Third World countries, owns a number of seed cultivating companies and belongs to the leading companies on the market for maize, soyabeans and at seeds. 74 Hartmut Karner — the food and chemistry company Unilever (Lever Brothers), which has become the owner of the specialised seed company Anderson-Clayton in Brazil and Mexico. — Pioneer Hi-Breed International (USA), which controls a third of the market-shares of hybrid maize in the USA and part of the American poultry market as well. On the Zimbabwean market Pioneer penetration is mainly in the communal lands and it offers its services even in the local languages, Shona and Ndebele. Furthermore in' Zimbabwe these companies can count upon an increasing share of the market. The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Agricultural Industry says: "Agricultural chemicals are essential to productive agriculture in Africa. This is as true of the communal land and small scale sectors as it is of large scale agriculture. Herbicides assist the communal farmers to overcome the critical labour peak at weeding . . . " (Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Agricultural Industry, 1982:144) Concerning the distribution of fertiliser the report recommends that: "the fertiliser companies establish regional distribution depots to spread the peak load of fertiliser deliveries more evenly over the transport network." (op cit, p 146). Of course the same applies to the distribution of seeds and agro-chemicals. Oppression of small peasants The effect of these transnational groups on the agricultural production as well as on the agricultural markets of the Third World is disastrous, as we can learn by the experiences of Latin America and Asia. Small peasant farmers are pushed out of agricultural business and large land-owners are encouraged to expand. Propaganda and attractive credits help to make the cultivation of high yielding varieties seem an interesting project for small peasant farmers. They are often not able to calculate the additional costs for the inevitable fertilisers and pesticides. Ignorance about the best way to treat high yielding varieties adds to their difficulties. In this case poor harvests and low profits means that the small peasant farmers cannot pay their debts or repay loans. Their land goes to the money lenders or to banks and is then bought by the large land-owners or agro-companies. This is the classic circle of pauperisation. Other aggravating circumstances enhance this impoverishing circle to such an extent that the situation of the small peasant farmer in the Third World becomes hopeless. On the other hand, the withdrawal from subsistence farming and small production for local markets means that the small peasant farmers have to produce for the national market, but they are unable to respond to the mechanisms of this system. National markets are dependant on the varying Reply: Africa Food Crisis 75 prices of international trade. Without savings small peasants cannot survive an economic depression. Moreover, they are not in the least able to compete with big business. Their infrastructural conditions are less efficient because they can only buy in small quantities, are forced to pay a higher price for all raw materials, and their harvests are of poor quality because of insufficient technical equipment. Profits achieved after the withdrawal from traditional ecologically oriented farming, ie after forsaking shifting cultivation and the rotation of crops for mono-cultural farming, will lead to the overexploitation of the soil within only a few years. The immediate results are erosion and the gradual growth of prairies or even deserts. Small peasants with their limited acreage are particularly affected by this process. If small peasants are forced to produce agricultural goods for export, their situation gets worse again. They become totally dependant on the seedmultinationals or their respective marketing agents. Without being able to cultivate grains for family subsistence they are subject to the prices dictated by the agro-companies. Food aid From the point of view of political economics there is only one advantage in the agricultural export production of Third World countries, the opportunity to earn foreign currency. The disadvantages, however, are numerous including the dependence on energy, imports and technology, the increase in prices for basic foods because of insufficient supplies, etc. Profits in foreign currency are never made for the benefit of the small peasants, they are used for capital intensive industrial projects. In many countries of the Third World, especially in Africa, it has become necessary to buy and import basic foods with the money earned by agricultural exports, instead of strengthening the national industry. Once the basic structures for the supply of food, of which the small peasants are an important component have been destroyed, food has to be imported from the rich states in the north. In 1984 Africa imported 5,7 million tons of wheat from the USA, 1 million from Canada and 2,4 million from France. This foodtransfer from the rich north to the poor south is often described as food-aid, a form of humanitarian assistance from the rich to the poor. Undoubtedly the food-aid is justified in cases of acute catastrophes, provided that the suffering people get it directly and immediately. But the food-aid in cases of catastrophes constitutes only a small part of the whole food-aid situation. Both in the United States and in the European Community the foodsupplies serve to cut-down the stock of their own excess production. Thus the so-called aid-supplies are nothing other than the concealing of classic agrarian export policies. The legal authority for American food-aid programmes is represented by the Public Law 480, which also says: 76 Hartmut Karner "The Congress hereby declares it to be the policy of the United States to expand export markets for United States agricultural commodities; to use the abundant agricultural productivity of the United States to combat hunger and malnutrition and to encourage economic development in the developing countries . . . and to promote in other ways the foreign policy of the United States." (US-Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Public Law 480, Congress Chapter 469-d, Session, pi). Even the guiding principles of the European Community emphasise the humanitarian character of these measures. However, in some less official statements politicians of the European Community state again and again that food-aid is an economic necessity for the European Community, in order to reduce the agrarian surplus in the Community. Consistently European foodaid confined itself to the supply of grain, but with the surplus production of butter and skimmed milk-powder later on it was extended to these products. Therefore, since 1973 European butter oil and skimmed milk-powder must be consumed in developing countries as well. These massive food interventions, whether on the grounds of the seed transnational' aggressive expansion policy or based on the policy of foodexport of the United States and the European Community, end in the breakdown of domestic traditional production, of national markets and finally in the disappearance of self-reliant cultures in Third World countries. The only group profiting from this international food trade are the six transnational grain trading companies which monopolise 90 percent of the world grain trade, viz Cargill Inc (USA), Continental Grain (USA), Louis Dreyfus (France), Bunge Corp (Argentina/USA), Andre SA (Swiss), and Toepfer (Fed Rep of Germany). These are not deplorable secondary effects of a policy which is usually necessary and rational, but rather deliberately developed strategies of the First World for die Third World. The American President Harry Truman illustrated this economic philosophy as follows: "All liberty depends on free enterprise . . . The whole world should take over the American system . . . The American system will only survive in America, if it becomes the system of the world . . . " (In George, 1978). World culture In 1987 we approached this point in many ways. A world wide culture with one and the same class structure lies ahead. All the suggestions given by Shahid J Burki support this trend towards a new world-culture under the leadership of the USA. The structure of this 'global society' today consists less of owners of means of production on the one hand and wage earners on the other hand, but rather of those who have food and those who have no food. Reply: Africa Food Crisis 77 Today there is a plenty-food-class, a fast-food-class and a no-food-class about to be formed world-wide. The plenty-food-class, which has plenty of food and wastes resources of food, is found both in industrial countries (the rich and possessives) arid in developing countries (a national bourgeoisie and the ruling elites). The fast-food-class is represented by the majority of wage earners; this class also asserts itself world wide. Thoroughly organised, rationalised and rushed work organisation corresponds to an organised, rationalised, levelled and time-sparing preparation and intake of food system. Culturally differentiated preparation of food, and specific forms of nourishment fall victim to the ham, cheese, beef and fish-burger industry. The no-food-class, the class of the non-possessives, the paupers and the starving is less relevant in the big industrial countries. However, in the developing countries this class forms the majority of the population. In spite of the fact that 50 million people die of hunger yearly, this class is about to increase. Deprived of their traditional forms of production and nourishment and forced to follow the inadequate conceptions of progress of their national elites, they are the victims of the strategies of expansion of the industrial countries and their transnational companies. The majority in this non-food-class are peasants and landless families. Contrary to the opinion of Shahid Burki, for these people hunger is not a question of missing income but that of missing permanent food security within the family. To achieve this food security the peasants want and can use their knowledge and technical know-how and their own manpower. Food security today is impossible because of the recent transformation of traditional African agricultural structures. Effects of monocultural thinking Industrialised agriculture which is no longer limited to export crop enclaves but starts to effect all fields of agriculture prefers, for reasons of economic rentability, monocultural production. The spread of monoculture depends on our monocultural and monocausal thinking. The increasing ecological and hunger disasters are based on this unilateral thinking and acting. During the course of the history of industrialisation we have followed more and more the fetish of being obliged to treat and prepare technically, as well as chemically, all natural products. The more technical and the more chemical a product is, and the more processing it has undergone, the more progressive and the more desirable the product seems to become. This way of thinking, developed in the industrialised countries and put over on the Third World, does not exclude the production of food. The highly manipulated and prepared hybrid seeds which are gaining ground in all fields of food production, have, as their only purpose, to reach high outputs. This purpose can only be one among others. Economic rentability can be only of minor importance within an agriculture 78 Harlmul Kamer which takes into account national economic and ecological dimensions and is rooted not only in history but also gives perspectives for the future. In the field of food production we could start a new process of learning, including the large number and varieties of food and the proper balance of calories and proteins, vitamins and minerals which existed in Africa in former times. In spite of the importance of cattle in various cultural regions the basis of nutrition was in plants. If today African cattle breeding for meat production is managed on the best soils this makes no sense for a sufficient and healthy nutrition for the African people. A cow transforms one third of the absorbed calories of nutrition into milk whereas only one-eleventh amounts to meat. This means that milk production is therefore three or four times more economic than meat production. If these soils were used for plant raising instead of meat production the economic output would be ten times more productive if potatoes or similar plants were raised and sixty times more productive in the case of soyabeans. Obviously it is not sensible from the point of view of the politics of nutrition to force the production of soyabeans in large scale monoculture for export to Europe as forage for cattle, and then to get back these outputs as food aid, ie as milk powder and processed products. Soyabeans are human food. The direct use of soyabeans as human food makes more sense from the point of view of the physiology of nutrition and is healthier. Monocultural agronomics needs intensive capital and a high level of mechanisation. It is a concept that depends on high energy inputs, eg industrialised agriculture shows, in some fields, the alarming disproportion of 9:1, between input and output: this means that in order to get one calorie from the soil you have to put in nine (Vester, 1982). Giving themselves the publicly attractive image of wanting to fight hunger in the Third World, the transnational forge ahead in the fields of production of food with their hybrid seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. In the Third World the use of fertilisers rose drastically from six kilogrammes per hectare in the mid sixties to twenty kilogrammes in the mid seventies. With steadily increasing energy prices and deteriorating terms of trade the small peasants will not be able to pay for these industrial products in the near future. A future-oriented national economy should not be interested only in a short term increase in outputs but take into consideration too the longterm results of monocultural commercial farming. Among other considerations there are: — the steadily increasing vulnerability of plants and animals — the high demand for artificial fertilisers and pesticides — the drastically increasing resistance of pests against the chemical control measures — the diminution of the original variety of plants and animals — the leaching of soils to total erosion — the poisoning of sub soil water by nitrates Reply: Africa Food Crisis 79 — the poisoning of water in general and the increase of agricultural chemicals in food — a drastic increase in energy inputs — intensive mechanisation and rationalisation, with the effect of decreasing employment — the oppression of the small peasants farmer with the well known effect that these people migrate to the shanty towns of the big cities. In contrast to industrialised agriculture we can find alternatives which are getting more and more publicity. Through experimentation, the National Science Foundation of the USA obtained knowledge about the high efficiency of ecological agriculture. A detailed investigation of 32 farms in the same grain raising location (16 farms worked on conventional methods and the other 16 with applied ecological systems) obtained the result that the ecological group reached the same output and the same earnings per hectare as the conventional group. But the conventional farms with their monostructures and high inputs of pesticides, artificial fertilisers and intensive mechanisation consumed three times more energy than the farmer in the ecological farming group. In addition, the total running costs per hectare were higher by about fifty percent. Not mentioned in this investigation are the stress on the environment and permanent ecological damage caused by industrialised agriculture which should have to be taken into account in an investigation of the whole national economy. The US Ministry of Agriculture repeated this experiment with more than a hundred farms and came to the same results. Food security programmes The answer to the question of how to realise an environment saving, resource sparing, ecological agricultural system, which can simultaneously abolish acute and future hunger disasters, is the promotion of food security programmes. These programmes would enable the small peasant farmer to produce sufficient food for family subsistence and to sell surplus on the local markets. I think food security programmes should be based on the following principles: 1. The most important aim of the programme should be to secure the permanent subsistence of the people and to mobilise their capacity for selfhelp, and, by means of production-oriented measurements, stimulate a surplus production for the market, in this way reaching integration of these groups in the national economy. Apart from food security such a programme aims at other basic needs too, that is, to improve the living conditions of these people. Therefore, an integrated food security programme should include, in coexistence with the main target of food-production, social and infrastructural measures, including road-building, clean water supply, construction of latrines, etc. 2. All these measures should be realised by the people themselves. Using 80 Hartmul Kamer machines should be avoided for manpower is the resource of this group. Using cooperatively organised labour the people should obtain food for themselves and for their families. Furthermore, the programme would depend on the following support: — technical assistance by an interdisciplinary team of experts (agricultural engineer, civil engineer, expert for agroforestry, sociologist, etc.) — provision of tools and materials for construction — provision of the means of production for experiments and demonstrations — the provision of small credit. These combined means of support are meant to guarantee that the people can satisfy their basic needs after several cycles of harvest, production or work. This programme should release in the medium term, groups who had need of food-for-work programmes. This is not necessary for the technical assistance and other measures which can be continued to ensure the effectiveness of the programme indefinitely. 3. Those foods used in the food-for-work programme should be purchased in the local, regional or national market. They should be in accord with the traditional diet of the target group. 4. It is not the individual who participates in the programme but groups. This should diminish the administrative and logistic costs. Beyond this, the principle of group promotion leads to a process of self-organisation and the increase of problem solving capacities. The process of discussion, organisation and problem solving should start before the group is incorporated into the programme. This phase of reflection enables the groups to be ready for self-initiative and self-organisation. 5. The programme is founded on the principle of self-help which should promote bodi active participation and self-reliance. The groups have to join the programme through their own effort. The active participation of the people in the discussion of problems, and problem solving should re-enforce their engagement and ensure the independent continuity of the project. Instead of supporting the so-called green revolution with its massive input of hybrids, pesticides and artificial fertilisers, to the sole profit of a few transnational companies, a real green renaissance should be promoted by the introduction of food security programmes which will abolish hunger and malnutrition as well as comply with the demands of national economies. A green renaissance means a decentralised, ecologically oriented agriculture which is in compliance with the special needs of the various locations on one hand and on the other is rooted in the traditional know how of the peasants themselves, but also gives future perspectives in making use of technical and scientific know-how. Agricultural politics which makes a pledge to the green renaissance is a policy in favour of the interests of the poor and starving (the Reply: Africa Food Crisis 81 no-food-class) but also one which takes into account the basic interests of the respective national economy. It seems to me that this policy is in contrast to the thesis that "world-wide, there is adequate food that can be purchased" (Burki, 1986). FOOTNOTES 1. Mooney Pat Roy (1981) Scat-Multis and Welthunger, Hamburg, p 69f. References Baker Jonathan (ed) (1984) The Politics of Agriculture in Tropical Africa, Beverly Hills. Burki Shadid J (1986) "The African Food Crisis: Looking Beyond the Emergency", in The Journal of Social Development in Africa,Vol 1 No 2. Clarke Duncan G (1980) Foreign Companies and International Investment in Zimbabwe, Mambo Press, Gweru. Commercial Agriculture in Zimbabwe 1984/85 (1984) Harare. Gelfand Michael (1971) Diet and Tradition in an African Culture, Edinburgh. George Susan (1978) Wie die andeen sterben. Die wahren Ursachen des Welthungers, Berlin. Karner Hartmut (1985) "La cuestion campesina y el subdesarrollo del Marxismo en Latinoamerica", in Estudios rurales latinoamericanos, Vol Mooney Pat Roy (1981) Saatmultis und Welthunger, Hamburg. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Agricultural Industry (1982) Statistical Yearbook Zimbabwe 1985 (1985) CSO,Harare. US-Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Public Law 8 No 1. Zimbabwe. 480, Congress Chapter 469-d. Vester Frederic (1982) Neue Wege im Kampf gegen den Hunger, Bonn. WHAT DO AIRCRAFT, SHIPS, RAILWAYS, AND A POWER STATION ON THE PANAMA RIVER BY THE BRAZIL-, PARAGUAY BORDER HAVE IN COMMON? AIRCRAFT? The most extensive airport in the world is the King Khalid International Airport outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, covering 86 square miles. SHIPS? Hyundai of South Korea is the biggest ship building firm in the world. In 1989 they completed 44 vessels of 1,385,607 gross tonnage. RAILWAYS? With 1,600,000 staff in 1984, Indian Railways is the world's largest employer BUSES? Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, boasts the grandest bus fleet in the world, with 6,380 single deck buses in the city. A POWER STATION? The Haipu power station will by 1989 attain • staggering 12,600,000kw from 18 turbines. This will make it the most massive power plant in the world. ORDER FORM YESIWANTTOBERE1JWBLYINPOIU4EDBYTHEGIXWALVIEWTHATCARRIE PRICES: I 2 YEAR YEAR S (4fa*ues <8 braes) ) UK UK : : £4 £2 4 5 US US A A * * EUROPE EUROPE : : US$7 US$4 6 3 RESTO RES S WEIGHT T O F f WORLD WO»U . I > : USMt U s i^ f PLEASE SEND THIRD WORLD QUART1RLYTO: Qlw changing Third World makes one thing certain: It's essential that you are reliably informed at all times with a global view that carries weight on the real facts and trends chat lie behind the headlines. 4 times THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY a year, the THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY oflers you intelligent coverage of world events from the viewpoint of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. ACT NOW Thousand* of imfmraxr ij^, ^ ~. ..-77 -. Ly lit ; T£TT f^fafl JJ «er tbt worU knf m itkmtnx u Ait ft ill The common link between all these remarkable facts is that they are all part of the Third World, which includes some of the world's fastest growing economies, such as South Korea, Brazil and China. DEPENDABLE IN-DEPTH INFORMATION Today, as never before, the climate of confusion created by the volatile and fast DONT MISS OUT ON THE VITAL ISSUtS COMPLETE AND RETURN THE DHBCT SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM TO US IMMEDIATELY. NwnecfCwdhofcfer Sjanttue *)ii»|n) ^o dn CMCIIIMIIIH P t f ijmw. TTMWI W«M BUSES • • - - ' - - »•—•»••• l n _ Journal of Social Deotlopmmt in Africa (1988), 3,1, 83-94 BOOK REVIEWS Health and Health Services for Planning Workers: Four Case Studies, Richard Laing, Evaluation and Planning Centre for Health Care (EPC) Publication No 10, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, Summer, 1986 (82pp, no price given). This publication is based on four case studies on plantation workers' health and services in Malaysia, South India, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Its main assumption, that all plantations are essentially similar regardless of the political system of the country, leads to a conclusion that the improvement of the lives of plantation workers in all countries can be based on a few comparative studies. An attempt is made to compare in general the population and development indicators as well as health indicators in the four countries. In the introduction the author admits that the methods of study applied in each case have their own weaknesses and strengths, from a participatory approach in Zimbabwe to focus groups in Asia. Agriculture is divided between smallholders, plantations, and government and state land development schemes in Malaysia, and in this sector economic growth rate is lower with a high incidence of poverty. A similar situation is observed in South India where large company-managed estates of coffee, tea and rubber mostly employ the deprived social groups. Comparisons are made between the cases of Sri Lanka and of Zimbabwe where most workers are descendants of migrant labourers from Mozambique and Malawi. An historical perspective attempts to link the development of plantations with migrant labour, which has no role in defining its own health care due to poverty. The author goes on to compare findings from a number of surveys with his own observations on household income and expenditure, nutritional status and food intake, housing, water and sanitation, child care facilities, and health and health services on estates. It should be noted that, in India; the Plantation Labour Act 1951, serves to protect the interests of the workers in a number of these areas, although it is not fully implemented. Although the author's conclusion from the analysis of various surveys is very clear on the possible outcome of the health indicators in plantation workers, one feels that there may be many intervening factors which tend to make it difficult to make a statistical comparison which will justify the author's