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Globalisation and Food. The first and probably most important area on the topic of globalisation and food is the issue of food policy and food security. It is believed that the vast inequalities between the rich and the poor of this world have strong links to way both developing and developed countries manage, or are forced to manage, their food resources. Two documents are of particular interest to the debate as to what is to blame for the increased inequality mentioned. A recent Oxfam report states that “the problem is not that international trade is inherently opposed to the needs and interests of the poor, but that the rules that govern it are rigged in favour of the rich” (Fowler, 2003:2). This point is validated by the fact that “when developing countries export to rich country markets, they face tariff barriers that are four times higher than those encountered by rich countries. Those barriers cost them $100bn a year – twice as much as they receive in aid” (Fowler, 2003:2). The report claims that while rich countries impose such tariffs, the poorer countries are pressurised by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to open their markets at breakneck speed, often with damaging consequences. The other key document I looked at was an article by Bonnie Setiawan, which was submitted to the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development. Setiawan blames globalisation and import liberalisation for the current crisis in developing countries. Her key point is that “this liberalisation of foodstuffs is the treatment of foodstuffs and agriculture as industrial products which are traded freely like manufactured goods. As the United Nations once said, food becomes a commodity, instead of a human right; it becomes part of free trade and the free market” (Setiawan, 2001:1-2). Setiawan goes on to show what import liberalisation has done to Indonesia. “Data from the World Trade Organisation shows that we (Indonesia) have become the world’s largest rice importer, with 5.8 tons in the fiscal year of 1998/1999 hence absorbing some 25 % of the world’s rice trade. Earlier, Indonesia ranked as the world’s ninth highest rice exporter and was also self-sufficient in regards to rice” (Setiawan, 2001:1-2). As Hartwig de Haen correctly states the countries that will not be able to compete in this expanded market, for example, those with non-modernised agricultural systems, are the ones for which agriculture is still the backbone of their economies (de Haen, 2001:1). This is why food policy needs to be better managed so as to stop export dumping by rich countries and to give developing countries a chance to develop. The relevance of this is that though we claim to understand very few people really get that millions of people are starving and suffering. It also seems that the problems could be solved not with everybody donating twenty euro to Concern or Trocaire but with are few changes in policy.
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