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Conversation Cafe Discussions US subsidies = farmer deaths? 12-3-2003 Published on Friday, September 12, 2003 by OneWorld.net Suicide at WTO Meeting Highlights Farmers' Plight NOTE: Some sections of the article below were removed because of space restrictions. See the entire article at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0912-04.htm WASHINGTON -- When Lee Kyang Hae scaled a metal security fence and plunged a knife into his heart on the first day of the Fifth Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday, he was trying to speak for tens of millions of small farmers around the world who find themselves at the losing edge of economic globalization. Their work may decide the future of agricultural subsidies which many countries, particularly wealthier ones--including South Korea--use to protect domestic farm production against foreign competition. Just before his suicide, Lee, who staged a one-man hunger strike at WTO headquarters in Geneva earlier this year, distributed a statement to reporters and some of the 15,000 small farmers from dozens of countries who were marching to protest the meeting and the likelihood that decisions taken there may prove ruinous to their livelihoods and way of life. ''My warning goes out to all citizens that human beings are in an endangered situation. That uncontrolled multinational corporations and a small number of big WTO Members are leading an undesirable globalization that is inhumane, environmentally degrading, farmer-killing, and undemocratic. It should be stopped immediately.'' Free-market advocates argue that agricultural producers who can grow crops most efficiently--that is, at the lowest cost--should be permitted to export to other markets without tariffs or other trade-distorting barriers, such as farm subsidies in the importing country, in order to keep global food prices low and as affordable to as many people as possible. ''Since (massive importing of rice), we small farmers have never been paid over our production costs,'' Lee wrote. ''What would be your emotional reaction if your salary dropped to a half without understanding the reason?'' The plight of small farmers described by Lee is by no means confined to South Korea. Despite their professed devotion to free-trade principles, major economic powers--particularly the European Union (EU) and the United States--have used their influence in the WTO to retain the ability to subsidize their agricultural producers, which they continue to do at the rate of some US$300 billion a year. These subsidies have enabled the EU and the U.S., in particular, to flood much of the rest of the world with their food exports at prices that are far below the actual costs of production, making it even more difficult for small farmers in poorer countries, including South Korea--which has become the highest per capita consumer of U.S. farm products in the world--to compete. Similarly, since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which required Mexico to lower tariffs on a range of agricultural goods, corn imports from the U.S. have increased 20-fold, threatening, and, in some cases, destroying, the livelihoods of millions of small farmers, many of whom have migrated to the U.S. in search of work, since work is harder to find in Mexico itself. In a message to indigenous peoples gathered to protest in Cancun, the leader of Mexico's peasant-based Zapatista Front agreed, saying: ''The products we sell are not given a fair price, while their products' prices go up all the time. Everything the poor buy is more and more expensive, and only a few people benefit and live better, while millions of poor men and women and children die of hunger and sickness.'' Indian activist Vandana Shiva told the marchers that 650 farmers committed suicide in just one month. The protests, sombered by Lee's death, will continue through the end of the WTO meeting Sunday. Copyright 2003 OneWorld.net ### -By Posted by John Hartmann 12/03/03, johnhartmann@iglou.com |
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