Since the emergence of industrial agriculture, we’ve been asking the wrong question: “How do we make the most possible money; rather than how do we produce the most appropriate food?”
Our food system has problems in every aspect. The system we have today is to produce and market food for the benefit of businesses. However, if what we, as customers, want is to be able to eat healthy, safe, and affordable food, then what we need is a system to try to achieve that goal.
Sustainable is the agriculture issue that concerns me the most. How can the distribution of food for humans and livestock be met without the continued exploitation of natural resources? How to deal with the so-called meat culture? How to make the agriculture system sustainable?
There is a ginormous amount of land being mined for growing commodity crops e.g., corn and soybeans because they have a high production rate and they can shorten the growth time of food animals reaching the slaughtered weight. However, the most serious issue of cultivating monoculture is that it massively destroys biodiversity. Many species have disappeared and more and more of them are listed as endangered species. Habitat destruction, exploitation, and climate change have killed half the world's wildlife. According to Earth Day Taiwan, there are one to five species disappearing each year on average. A study by the National Parks of Taiwan also shows that up to 1/3 of the world's species will be extinct or endangered by 2050, and 1/3 may be extinct by the end of the century.
Soil is the source of life. Only healthy soil can produce fine crops. We all should think of soil when thinking of biology or life, however, most of us don’t have gratitude for it. People mostly think of soil as something that dirty our hands or clothes. Just like how the food system treats farmers. Most people have forgotten the fundamental purpose of growing crops which is to produce food that is both healthy and filling, rather than allowing big companies to squeeze farmers for profits.
I’d like to share a story from <Stuffed and Starved> by Raj Patel about a coffee grower, Lawrence Seguya, from Uganda. He can’t afford the necessities of life, education for his children, or to buy food. His family is desperate. “The coffee people drink is at the root of all the problems.” Seguya said, “We plant hard, but we get nothing in return…” He said that every kilogram of coffee must sell at least 34 cents USD in order for him to have a little profit to continue cultivating and supporting his family; however, today's food system has enabled multinational coffee merchants to purchase coffee from small farmers like Seguya with only14 cents USD per kilogram, and then sell the final products to consumers at 200 times the price, which is 26.40 USD per kilogram. For Seguya, the profit from growing coffee is so low that it's not even worth harvesting. This story brings out another issue of the output under industrial agriculture, farm slavery. The direct consequence of low incomes of farmers is terrible self-exploitation, which makes them can only wander around in poverty. How many farmers are working to live instead of working to survive? The reality is that most farmers, like Seguya, are working only for the meager income. Let's think about how many farmers are “forced” to cultivate in the world today?
Soil gives birth to live. Farmers provide us food. Without them, we cannot stay alive. The first stage of human motivations, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is to satisfy physiological needs. One of the most important needs is food. How can people be self-actualized without a full stomach? However, farmers have become one of the weakest groups in the world. Poverty gives them no ability to fight for rights. The current food system has made them miserable.
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