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Abstract
Schizophrenia, from the Greek roots schizein (‘to split’) and phren (‘mind’), is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterised by impairments in the perception or expression of reality. The key message of this article is that mainstream agricultural policy is at odds with what needs to happen on the ground, and is being further entrenched by the bio-fuel industry. It presents a strong case for locally owned food and fuel sources. The movement demanding these is a critical movement that women need to lead, in the face of mega-trends that continue to remain outside their remit and influence. It may be that the only way for women to effect real changes to policy is to lead change in the fields, and at grassroots and communal levels. In other words, self-sufficient communities should promote their ways of life in all their diversity, to present a viable counter-movement to today's global and monolithic agricultural structures, standards, and markets. It is local people who feel most strongly about local livelihoods, and they can take responsibility for action around local issues.
Notes
1. Bio-fuels are liquid fuels derived from biomass (plant and animal matter). First-generation bio-fuels are produced from the edible parts of crops. Second-generation bio-fuels can be produced from cellulose biomass such as straw, agricultural waste, woods, and grasses. Next-generation bio-fuels will be developed from algae and genetically modified plants that are the subject of much research and investment.
2. According to the International Energy Agency, bio-fuels will represent only 4 to 7 per cent of the world's road-fuel use by 2030, compared with 1 per cent in 2005.
3. In 2008, US wheat export prices rose from $375 per ton in January to $440 per ton in March, and Thai rice exports increased from $365 per ton to $562 per ton.
4. Sawit Watch is an Indonesian network campaigning against industrial oil-palm plantations, founded in 1998 by Indonesian NGOs.
5. Fargione et al. Citation2008, p.1. In November 2007 a team from RAINS (Regional Advisory and Information Network Systems) discovered massive destruction of vegetation cover over a large stretch of land near a village called Alipe within the White Volta River Basin in the northern region of Ghana. Heavy agricultural machinery were systematically pulling down trees and decimating the area. Enquiry revealed that the site was to be the beginning of a large jatropha plantation developed by a Norwegian bio-fuel company called BioFuel Africa – a subsidiary of BioFuel Norway (World Rainforest Movement Bulletin 129, April 2008).
6. Prices had already risen right across Europe and more than doubled in the UK in the 18 months from January 2007(Commodities boom drives up land values, Financial Times, 24 April 2008).
7. Jacques Diouf, speaking at a conference in India, 9 April 2008.
8. While bio-diesel is made from edible oil feed-stocks, bio-ethanol is made from sugar-based feed-stocks like sugar cane or corn starch. Both are bio-fuels and have lower emissions, but the key difference is that bio-ethanol is a substitute for gasoline, while bio-diesel is a substitute for petroleum diesel. Diesel engines are common in Europe, which is one reason for the success of bio-diesel.
9. See www.casavaria.com/cafesentido/2008/02/06/282/why-ethanol-production-will-drive-world-food-prices-even-higher-in-2008/ (last accessed November 2008).
10. The latest United Nations population figures suggest that in 2008, humans shifted from being a rural species to being an urban species, with more than half the world's population living in urban areas
11. Official development assistance (ODA) is defined as those flows to countries on Part I of the DAC (Development Assistance Committee) List of Aid Recipients (developing countries) and to multilateral institutions for flows to Part I aid recipients which are: i. provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executing agencies; and ii. each transaction of which: a) is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective; and b) is concessional in character and conveys a grant element of at least 25% (calculated at a discount rate of 10 per cent), www.oecd.org/dataoecd/26/14/26415658.pdf (last accessed November 2008).
12. The Club of Rome is a not-for-profit organisation, independent of any political, ideological, or religious interests. Its essential mission is ‘to act as a global catalyst for change through the identification and analysis of the crucial problems facing humanity and the communication of such problems to the most important public and private decision makers as well as to the general public.’ Its activities should: ‘adopt a global perspective with awareness of the increasing interdependence of nations. They should, through holistic thinking, achieve a deeper understanding of the complexity of contemporary problems and adopt a trans-disciplinary and long-term perspective focusing on the choices and policies determining the destiny of future generations’, www.clubofrome.org/ (last accessed November 2008).
13. There are new financial instruments in place in the form of taxes, levies, bonds, and concessional loans and grants, loans and grants from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, as well as various carbon schemes, to mention a few.
14. Bio-energy includes fuel sources that have been used for millennia, such as fuelwood, cow dung, and charcoal. Today bio-fuel production is on a steep curve upwards. Global ethanol fuel production, which accounts for over 90 per cent of total bio-fuel production, more than doubled between 2000 and 2005. Global bio-diesel production nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2005 (Worldwatch Institute Citation2006).
15. The agrarian crisis in India has resulted in large scale suicides of farmers estimated to be over 100,000 in the last decade. The system has not addressed the needs of small farmers, the rising costs of farm inputs and the inequalities and increasing burdens placed on rural communities
16. See www.ndwj.kabissa.org/ (last accessed November 2008).
17. The Organic Agriculture community is aware of the potential of OA for climate-change adaptation. See IFOAM 2007 or the International Trade Centre's report ‘Organic Farming and Climate Change’. This publication concludes that organic agriculture has much to offer in mitigation of climate change through its emphasis on closed nutrient cycles, and is a particularly resilient and productive system for adaptation strategies. It also raises the issue of whether organic agriculture should be eligible for carbon credits under voluntary carbon offsetting markets and the Clean Development Mechanism.
18. The World Bank Group president announced increased support to improve the economic conditions of women in developing countries, including rural areas where they face rising food prices and discrimination: ‘….gender equality is also smart economics’ said Zoellick, World Bank Spring Meetings, 11 April 2008, Washington DC.
19. In contrast to the industrial/monoculture approach advocated by the biotech industry, organic agriculture is described by the FAO as ‘a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including bio-diversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity’.
20. Evidence from farming practice, monitoring and research – Networked Intelligence for Development and Rowan's Royale organic coffee farm, Blue Mountain, Jamaica.