Urban Farming’s Challenge to Corporate Agriculture

Grow Your Own

By Heather Gray and K. Rashid Nuri
Counterpunch – “America’s Best Political Newsletter”
Edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
February 17, 2010

Excerpt:

It seems everyone is questioning the implications of the most recent economic downturn. Then, of course, we’ve seen corporate America reap the benefits of its own disgrace with our tax dollars and, therefore, at the expense of all of us. Corporate America along with government support just keeps hitting us over the head. It’s too much! While, there’s been criticism of Wall Street and huge bonuses to the likes of AIG, one sector that’s not been the focus of attention lately is corporate agribusiness and it also should be intensely scrutinized. It seems, however, we’ve gone through a transition economically but we’re beginning to see some changes locally that are encouraging, perhaps partly in response to all this. The interest in urban agriculture and more attention to food issues in America is a case in point and a counterpoint to corporate agribusiness.

Understanding the history of agriculture in America and the advent of industrialized corporate agribusiness is important to help all of us understand where we are now and what needs to be done. We will touch upon it here, but only briefly. But how corporate agribusiness weaves into our lives at virtually all levels has been insidious. It’s time to turn this around.

The United States is an urban country. Recent demographics reveal that 81% of the U.S. population lives in cities or suburbs of cities. One of the realities of this, however, is that many of the folks living in urban areas are former farmers or families of farmers who have been forced off the land in the 20th century – particularly since post-Second World War. This has been the result of an industrialized and increasingly globalized agriculture in America.

Corporate involvement in agriculture has also largely been intensified since post-Second World War. Some refer to it inappropriately as the “green revolution” – it should instead be called the “corporate chemical revolution”. It has led to the industrialization even of the basics of the food system and that being seeds. Whoever controls the seeds controls agriculture and farmers have historically been the caretakers of this most important and invaluable resource. Corporate America, the likes of Monsanto and others, have patented and genetically modified many of these precious seeds and by doing so have taken farmers, as much as possible, out of competition and away from being the caretakers of our food system.

When making the above statement about seeds, however, it’s important to mention also that many farmers and community groups throughout the world have taken action to counter this trend by saving seeds and therefore protecting our heritage seeds as much as possible. Organic farmers will access this important resource or save the seeds themselves for the next year’s crop as farmers have always done historically and that corporate agribusiness has been trying to prevent.

See the rest of the article here.