Search

Interrelationships between public regulations and private standards involving food safety and food quality are proposed in the context of developing countries. These interrelationships also concern the social and environmental effects of agri-food systems on developing countries. Implications of these interrelationships on the evolution of private standards are provided.

A case is made for reprioritizing objectives of developing nations engaged in trade negotiations in the Doha Round, as their interests extend beyond the agricultural concerns they have initially listed as their primary goal.

Imagine this: Congressional representatives scramble out of their seats, ignoring their leader's exhortations to remain calm. They sprint out the back door of the building, trying to jump the fence [...]

This article evaluates the possible impact on agricultural policies if the agenda of the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization's summits is fully implemented. The Uruguay Round agreement on agriculture would provide agricultural protection and place limitations on trade barriers, restricting liberalization in agriculture.

The GATT is expected to have an important role in world farm trade because this sector is currently characterized by protectionism among trading countries, export subsidization and the isolation of markets through legislation. The GATT may serve to lessen agricultural subsidies, lessen barriers to agricultural trade resulting from environmental policies, food safety laws and animal welfare.

How does an increasingly global environment affect the way we establish and implement policy? Rickert Althaus and Dean Yarwood examine domain overlap between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of State regarding international agricultural policy during the Carter administration. The authors focus on three decisions: PL 480 allocations to Egypt, Commodity Credit Corporation export credits to Poland, and the Soviet grain embargo. They discover that domain overlap is frequently a cause of interorganizational conflict. Interviews with federal officials provide evidence that, in the case of international agricultural policy during these years, relations between the departments seem to have been quite cooperative. The authors discuss some of the mechanisms, structures, and attitudes that contributed to that unanticipated result and suggest that participant interviews can contribute both to the confirmation and the enrichment of theory regarding interorganizational behavior.

The success of the Uruguay Round of the GATT has been threatened from its inception by conflict surrounding efforts by European states and the US to regulate agriculture. However, the importance of the state as a major actor in the system of relations governing food and agriculture has declined. The changing system of relations has led to an increased role for multinational corporations and mass movements in the food distribution process.

November 1, 2015 In the last several months, there has been a lot of attention on a number of separate issues and events which impact global food security across a [...]

Potato production in developing countries is increasing because of the application of technology in the form of better fertilizers, genetically modified seeds and improved cultivation practices. However, blight resistance research is vital for the potato to become a major food crop. International cooperative programs are needed to provide the resources for agricultural research and development in developing countries, but the disproportionate distribution of wealth and unchecked population growth will render futile any technological advances made in raising food yield.

The current global restructuring of capitalism is eroding national economic regulation and leading to the emergence of a 'transnational state'. This is illustrated by transformations in the agro-food sector.

FAO's main policy document is full of contradictions, half-truths and fallacies. Most importantly, it concentrates on increasing world food production without adequately addressing how to make food available to those who need it. The document basically calls for a continuation of 'business as usual' -- the continuation of its promotion of unsuitable modern farming technologies, the conversion of tropical forests to farmland, the spread of hugely expensive irrigation schemes, and the export of the produce of the Third World to the well-fed of the North. The policies outlined would inevitably further indebtedness, impoverishment, environmental degradation and famine in the Third World.

FAO and other aid agencies have promoted fish farming in the Third World as a key method of increasing the production of protein and earning foreign exchange. While traditional aquacultural methods have been ignored, FAO have established grandiose high-tech schemes totally unsuited to the needs and the capabilities of the poor people they are intended to help. The poor do not have the necessary capital to set up the fish farms, and cannot afford to eat the expensive fish produced. The politics behind the ill-conceived schemes show how agricultural development policies serve the needs of bureaucrats and politicians rather than the rural poor.

FAO, influenced by its close links with the agrochemical industry, has since the late 1950s been committed to increasing pesticide use in developing countries. Recently, pressure from NGOs and overwhelming evidence for the massive health and environmental problems caused by pesticide use in the Third World has persuaded FAO to issue a code of conduct on the marketing and use of pesticides. The code is purely voluntary, however, and is widely broken. FAO should break free from corporate influence, promote alternative methods of pest control and support traditional agriculture.

FAO, set up to 'develop' world agriculture so as to enable the world to feed itself has disastrously failed in its task. It has ignored and even derided traditional agricultural methods and permits no internal criticism of its policy of promoting Western-style intensive farming and the export of cash crops. FAO's performance is judged on the amount of money it spends, not on the effectiveness of its projects, it ignores the voices of the people it is supposed to be helping and it has close links with agribusiness multinationals, whose products it actively promotes. The organization's Director-General has been much criticized by FAO staff and others for his autocratic style, and the politicial manoeuvring he has engaged in to ensure his re-election. A massive overhaul of FAO's basic philosophy, structure and function is urgently needed.

The US Government, backed up by corporate interests, is using the GATT Uruguay Round to push through a drastic series of measures to deregulate global trade in agricultural and related products. The US proposals would devastate small farmers around the world and massively increase the control of big business over the production of and trade in food and other natural products. The right of national and regional legislatures to implement environmental and health protection regulations would also be seriously compromised.

The article examines the economic, social and political effects of agribusiness and international trade on small farmers. The authors support local food production to bolster regional economies, maintain sustainable and traditional farming practices, and reduce the pollution and expense associated with importing goods that can or are being produced locally already.