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Updated Saturday, April 19, 2008 0:00 am TWN, By Douglas Southgate, Special to The China Post

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The U.N.’s latest study has told us to starve the poor

The IAASTD, however, argues that “business as usual” in agriculture cannot continue. But what policies “to alleviate poverty and improve food security” does it recommend instead? Agro-ecological approaches and organic farming. But phasing out chemical fertilizers would massively decrease yields, driving up prices still further. It would also increase the amount of land needed to support the world’s food demands, resulting in a huge loss of forest and other pristine land.

The report further claims that “the poorest developing countries are net losers under most trade liberalization scenarios,” — but fails to recognize that most of the world’s poor have never had access to free markets.

High import tariffs on agricultural goods — averaging 33.6 percent between Sub-Saharan countries — mean that consumers are paying more than the market price of food. Government meddling in food markets has also made agriculture unprofitable for many producers, preventing them from selling on global markets. In Africa, for example, government intervention in the form of heavy taxes, quotas and marketing boards saw per capita food production fall 35 percent between 1960 and 1985.

If the vast majority of the world’s 850 million hungry people are to be adequately nourished, their earnings will have to rise and food will have to become cheaper. For many of these people, the best solution is to raise agricultural productivity. For this to happen, governments need to remove the economic barriers that currently make it more expensive for people to buy food and for farmers to buy fertilizers, seeds and machinery. Free trade in food would see producers responding efficiently to rising demand and would allow food to reach those in need quickly.

Before issuing unrealistic recommendations on agriculture, the IAASTD report’s authors should have considered where people’s priorities lie. While rich Westerners may be able to spend money on feel-good, but pointless, gestures like organic food and “fair trade,” most people need cheaper food, and fast. Bureaucracies don’t create food — people do: Governments can improve food security mainly by getting out of the way of free-trading farmers.

Douglas Southgate is professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State University and author of ‘The World Food Economy’ (Blackwell Publishing, 2007).

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