Ploughing Up the Farm Neoliberalism, Modern Technology and the State of the World's Farmers

by Buckland, Jerry

• ISBN13: 9781842773673
• ISBN10: 1842773674
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-04
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

Around the world, farmers' livelihoods and food security have eroded in the past 20 years. Increasing reliance on markets and modern technology has not generated universal farm affluence. Neoliberalism has brought about rural depopulation in the northern hemisphere, rising rural poverty in the southern, and environmental problems all around the farming world. Farmgate prices have stagnated since the 1980s, while market-driven growth has encouraged production of agricultural exports and increasing use of chemical inputs. Trade liberalization is often biased against southern and small farmers, while the power of transnational corporations in agricultural trade and farm technology has grown by leaps and bounds. The corporate-driven GM-food revolution has had little positive effect on farm livelihoods or food security. The book calls for farm policies founded on farmer-led food security and a democratization of the global institutions that have had such detrimental effects.

Author Biography

Jerry Buckland teaches international development studies (IDS) at Menno Simons College at the University of Winnipeg. From 1986-90 he worked in agricultural research in Bangladesh.

Table of Contents

The Declining State of the World's Farmers * The Importance of Farmers * The Erosion of Farmers * Key Periods * The Farm Policy Regime * Key Regions * Farm Erosion: Population , Poverty and Environment * Farm Saturation and Depopulation * Pushing Farmers Out: Farm Poverty and Inequality * The Eroding Farm Environment * Conclusion * The Farm Market Squeeze * The Farm Price Squeeze * The Farm Production Squeeze * External Inputs Raise Crop Production * Conclusion * Farm Trade and Trade Liberalisation * Farm Trade * Contemporary Strategies of Farm Liberalisation * Regional Economic Agreements and the WTO * Conclusion * The Technology Treadmill * Technology, Institutions and the Farm * The Rise and Fall of Public Institutions and the Green Revolution * The Gene Revolution and the Rise of Transnational Corporations in Agriculture * Conclusion * A Farmer-Led Approach to Food Security * Putting First Things First * Re-visioning the Farm Health and Food Security * The Way Forward * A Farmer-Led Food Security Approach * National Support for Farmer-Led Food Security * International Support for Farmer-Led Food Security * Conclusion * Bibliography * Glossary * Appendix Key Organisations Working with Farm Health and Food Security Issues