Social and political causes of hunger 233
Green Revolution farming methods
Ever since the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s, corporations and international
agencies have claimed they can “feed the world” with “improved seeds,”
chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. While they have succeeded in gaining
control of farm land, seed supplies, marketing and distribution systems, and so
on, they have failed to stop world hunger, and have often made hunger worse.
Poor access to water
Crops need water to grow. As large farms use more and more water, less and
less is available for smallholder farmers. When water is polluted or privately
owned, the right to water is threatened (see Chapter 6). There are many ways
to manage soils and water to preserve water resources (see Chapters 9 and
15), but these methods must be protected and promoted by governments and
international agencies supporting
people’s right to water.
Loss of land
When most of the land is owned by a few people or corporations, this causes
many food problems. Many smallholder farmers are forced to leave their land
and migrate to the cities, or work on plantations or in factories. Because they
no longer have land to grow their own food, or money to buy healthy food, they
become victims of hunger and malnutrition.
Usually larger farms and corporations will plant just one crop, employ fewer
people, use more machinery, more chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides,
and sell produce far from where it is grown, often sending it to other countries.
This creates less variety of food, poorer nutrition, less income for farm workers,
more environmental damage, and less food available locally. This also harms
local cultures because people can no longer maintain their traditions of growing
food and taking care of the land.
Poor access to credit and markets
Because farming depends on the weather and on market prices, farmers
sometimes need to borrow money until harvest time or until the market
improves. Banks often refuse to lend money to smallholder farmers while lending
money to larger, more powerful farms. This causes smallholder farmers and
their families and communities to go hungry. In many cases, it also forces
them to give up their land.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012