There's too much food, too little justice - The Moral Economy

“WHERE there is too much, something is missing.”

This ancient Jewish saying seems apt when it comes to food in the Prairies. It challenges us to think about what may be missing.

There is clearly too much beef in this region. The BSE case discovered almost a year ago in Alberta provoked the United States to close its border to Canadian cattle. This has resulted in a backlog of cattle here in Canada. With too many cattle on the market, prices have plummeted.

The dramatic story of the cattle glut is like an action movie version of the book on bulk food commodities.

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Producers face the reality of shifting grain price expectations

Significant price shifts have occurred in various grains as compared to what was expected at the beginning of the calendar year. Crop insurance prices can be used as a base for the changes.

As farmers push hard to maximize production and remain competitive, the rewards for doing so continue to diminish. The long-term trend for bulk foodstuffs is downward. Grain prices, for example, have continued an unsteady but downward trend for many decades.

The standard explanation is that there is too much grain in the marketplace.

While the farm community is swallowing this “too much food” story, food banks continue to grow in number and use across the country.

The first food bank in Canada opened in Edmonton almost 22 years ago. Now we have some 639 food banks in operation, serving more than three-quarters of a million people per month. Thirteen percent of the users have jobs. About 40 percent are children.

These Canadians are experiencing food shortages. They live in households where food security is missing.

The prairie phenomenon of food insecurity in the midst of a food glut is being played out in many places in the world. A recent United Nations report estimated that 840 million people are undernourished despite the fact that there is enough production to feed the whole of the world’s population.

An author of the Right to Food report, Jean Ziegler, criticized the current organization of the food system. While liberalized trade in agriculture products under the World Trade Organization has increased some kinds of production, this free market skews both food and job markets. The result is a growing wealth gap – and increased hunger.

Ziegler notes the WTO undermines food security and that “models of export-oriented agriculture that threaten the livelihoods of millions of peasant farmers should be reviewed.” Canadian cattle producers could be added to the ‘threatened’ list.

The UN report urges that its 146 member states deal with the hunger problem by moving to a strategy of food sovereignty, a concept developed by the small-scale farmer and peasant movement, the Via Campesina.

This would allow states to implement policies protecting key production for domestic consumption and encouraging self-sufficiency in food.

Where there is too much food, the something that is missing for farmers is market accountability and a fair price. Where there is hunger in the midst of too much food, the something that is missing for the hungry is their human right to food.

And the something that is missing for all of us is a morally just economy.

Nettie Wiebe is a farmer in the Delisle, Sask., region, an NDP candidate for the Saskatoon Humboldt riding and a professor of Church and Society at St. Andrews College in Saskatoon. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Western Producer.