The images are haunting: entire malnourished families pour into makeshift camps, on the verge of starvation, desperate to avoid the famine that has spread in parts of Somalia.
The UN says that the worst drought in 60 years has killed tens of thousands of people and threatens millions more. More than half of Somalia’s children are now in dire need of food.
Predictably, the images have led to a flurry of donations and promises of goodwill from developed countries like the United States and those in Europe. We’re here for you in your time of crisis, they say.
But they’re missing the point.
While donations certainly do help relief efforts, they do not address long-term causes. If global powers are serious about tackling famine for good, they must start by helping farmers in the developing world succeed.
Yet the fact remains that wealthy countries continue to cut poor farmers off at the knees, leaving them unable to feed their own countries and making them more vulnerable to crisis—like drought.
They do this by subsidizing rich Western farming conglomerates to the staggering tune of $300 billion every year. Those conglomerates use that money to produce much more than they need, which is then dumped into global markets at artificially low prices.
When those subsidized goods land in developing countries, they undercut local prices. That makes it impossible for local farmers to compete, so they go out of business.
According to former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, lavish Western farm subsidies and the unlevel playing field they create cost developing countries a staggering $100 billion a year in lost income.
Farming is a key sector in many developing countries, including Somalia, so the growth of sustainable agricultural infrastructure is essential. When farmers fail, entire economies do.
Yet the subsidies continue. In Japan, for example, farmers receive roughly $7 a day from the government for each of their cows. Cattle are treated to imported food, cold beer, soothing music and even massages.
Ironically, and sadly, that’s far better treatment than most Somali people will ever get. It doesn’t seem to matter in Washington though, or in European capitals, where the farming lobby is big business.
In 2006 alone, U.S. agribusiness lobbyists spent more than $90 million pushing for subsidies and other perks. Half that money went directly to Congressional candidates and party committees during that year’s mid-term elections.
Two years later—when Congress introduced the farm bill that’s still in place today—no one was surprised to see it full of subsidies. Then-President George W. Bush even vetoed the bill, saying it was too “bloated” with handouts. But he was promptly overridden by rather keen members of Congress.
Back in Somalia and across the developing world, where farmers struggle just to stay afloat, people are starving. Even before the current famine, a child died of hunger every six seconds.
Of course, that’s not to say we are solely to blame for Somalia’s famine. Climate change, rampant political instability and poverty have all played a role. But we have not been bystanders either.
Clearly something needs to change.
Until developing agricultural industries are allowed to compete in their own markets, instead of being drowned out by subsidized foreign imports, farmers and the economies they support will remain weak, unstable and dependent on others.
But for that to happen, we must first stop treating food as just another political commodity to profit from and begin seeing it for what it really is—a necessity of life and a human right.
Because when it comes to growing enough food to feed ourselves, there should be no winners and losers.
