[Radix] A spoonful of history with your metric ton of rice

[George Kent]

Firoz, the food system has been dominated by corporate interests for a  
long time. The new development is that nutrition assistance programs  
are now increasing dominated by corporate interests, through  
foundations such as Gain and Gates.

Isn't it interesting that discussions about malnutrition, like that  
going on in Rome, focus so much on agriculture, and give so little  
attention to the corporations? Most economic value-added is done in  
factories, not on farms. And while there is concentration of control  
on farms, there is far greater concentration in the manufacturing side.

Sen's explanation made some sense for sudden-onset famines, but not  
for chronic malnutrition. India itself provides clear evidence for that.

Also, we should acknowledge that China and Cuba have have wonderful  
success in reducing malnutrition. The main food agencies seem to avoid  
looking at those successes.

Your thought that malnutrition might be addressed through democratic  
reform is interesting. However, notice that you talk about doing this  
work in nations. How about in the world as a whole? While some  
powerful countries seem to be very interested in pushing for democracy  
in other nations, they are very uninterested in global democracy, or  
in equality across nations.

Aloha, George


On Jun 3, 2008, at 3:18 AM, Firoz Verjee wrote:

> Hi Ben - thanks for sharing your thoughts surrounding the meeting in  
> Rome, it certainly appears that the discussions may have been  
> hijacked by corporate interests - not just the ones you've  
> mentioned, but also the powerful farm lobbies in the US, Europe and  
> elsewhere.
>
> I believe it was Amartya Sen who pointed out that famines don't  
> occur in democracies - he observed that famines were not caused by a  
> general lack of food, but by inefficient markets and poor governance.
>
> Do you or other Radix members believe that the folks in Rome should  
> be exploring how famines can be addressed through democratic reform,  
> or have the failures of the Bush Administration muzzled attempts to  
> advocate for socio-economic and political liberalization in famine- 
> prone nations? Obviously democracies cannot be imposed upon  
> countries with authoritarian or tribal cultures....even if those are  
> clearly the cultures that predominate the nations now experiencing  
> famines.
>
> Firoz
>