A Foodie's Foray in France
Yet another reason to eat local? or is it?
posted Thursday, 3 April 2008
Soya is present in an estimated 60% of processed foods. I tend to stay clear of such foods but in a never ending quest for a nutritionally sound diet, I do fall back on soya for protein (especially edamame and miso (yum)). But, just like all things I love (think coffee and chocolate), the industrial farming of soya is having devastating impacts for people and communities.American soil scientist Dr. Andrew McClung, who first showed that the ecologically biodiverse savannah of the Cerrado region of Brazil could grow profitable soybeans, was awarded the 2006 World Food Prize in 2006. Interestingly, Environmental groups, such as Greenpeace and the WWF, have suggested that soybean cultivation in Brazil, has destroyed huge areas of Amazon rainforest and is encouraging further deforestation.
Just south, Argentina is struggling with similar realities.
A recent article in EarthTimes illuminates that soy farming in Argentina provided economic security and development potentials:
The changes to the main street in an Argentine village on the humid Pampa is astounding. The number of shops has tripled, people consume like they rarely did in the past, and there is a constant flow of sports utility vehicles and new cars.
"Soya!" people cheer in explanation.
The runway at the little village airstrip had never been so well- marked. A dense spread of intensely green crops reaches almost up to its hangar. Every free square metre is put to use, including the sides of roads.
"Soya!" people say.
Ploughs march pitilessly on the jungle of the Yungas in the north-western Argentine province of Salta. They churn under everything in their path.
"Soya," the answer now comes with a tone of regret.
Within a few years, soya has become Argentina's star crop to the point that it has taken over half the country's cultivable land, about 16.6 million of the 30.4 million hectares devoted to agriculture in the South American country and made Argentina the world's third-largest producer of soya after the United States and Brazil.
Close to 95 per cent of Argentina's crop is exported. The plant has become one of Argentina's main sources of foreign currency and a cross-border phenomenon - as well as the basis of an economic, social and ecological debate.
All this gets to us to an interesting question that demands serious reflection: At what point do we engage in local food politics? Ok, it’s a bit of a leap, but bare with me. There is no doubt that our industrial food system does not feed people, as originally promised. The quality of food has decreased. Autonomy and sovereignty over food and mode of production has decreased, leaving a small number of people in charge of/ responsible for our lives. Yet the reality is, our food policies have radically shifted national and local economies and consequently communities and bailing on these economic relations when the going gets tough seems equally irresponsible.
I was asked this question at my thesis defense and I was unable to provide an answer- of rather, there is no (simple) answer. For example, Kenyan farmers depend on organic exports but I personally have trouble valuing the organic-ness of a crop that is flown halfway around the world, that takes valuable water-resources away from areas that struggle against drought, that take arable land to develop export markets that have little trickledown effect for local people and leave less and less land for local food production, thus creating an import-dependency. But, undeniably, Kenyans, in the immediate, are experiencing some economic gains from the export of such commodities.So do you forget food miles, do you forget the Kenyans, do you try and find a happy medium? (Obviously, the answer involves radical shifts in the economic order and in food consumption patterns and more people out growing food in more sustainable ways….right…).
None of this is new, indeed these debates have been going on for ages now but there are no simple solutions and they require constant reflection and consideration.