Myth of Development, Banana republics n starvation

Realise this isn't in the blog yet, and becoming more relevant all the time...

Firstly the wholly inadequate article from Wikipedia: Banana_republic

Why is it that third world economies that are based on agriculture are the first to feel the pinch of rising food demand?

What have international conditions got to do with their own food production?

I imagine it is because of the Banana Republic problem. "developing" countries are not really developing, they are being taken over by an economy that suits export and the interests of investors. That way "developed" countries can get richer and buy things cheaper at the same time.

Thus labour intensive traditional farming is replaced by mechanised monoculture. That is to say the once small land owners who grew the local varieties of foods for local consumption, are pushed off the land by industrialists who create crops for export. Massive unemployent is created and the mass of people seeking a way to feed themselves fuels the growth in industry, and the development of cities. The country is gradually stolen from the people.

It happened here in the UK during the 16 to 19th centuries. Most people have forgotten about it. We think here that the dependent, passive economic existence we have, the fixed 9-5 job, the worries about money are normal because we have forgotten the days when we could simply feed ourselves from our own land however we wished. There are still "commons" here where we can do this without hassle from the economy or the government.

Now the problem with crops for export is multi-fold. Firstly it is less efficient! True it provides more food per hectare and employs a fraction of the workers and makes huge profits for the farm owners. But, mechanical agriculture can only farm flat land, and economics means that only the best land is worth farming. Farmers are put out of business, tradional low productivity methods are lost and local varieties are lost. The total food productivity actually falls!

Secondly the crops produced - being of only a few international desired types (maize and wheat especially) - are quite possibly badly suited to the climate, and if there is a problem (like disease, or cyclone) then a huge percentage of the productivity is lost (as is happening in Africa as I write). The country becomes extremely vulnerability to famine.

Thirdly the country's food is now bought in from the international community. This is fine for rich countries with international muscle like the G7, but makes the country very vulnerable to starvation and dependency on G7 otherwise. Plus in times of food scarcity like now it is the food producers ironically who are the last to get food on their tables, if at all!

So the problem of third world starvation, and dependency upon Western AID is more than anything created by the system of development and AID in the first place. I work with a number of Nepalese and even they who come from a "developing" country seem blinded by the mirage of riches being promised them. They keep walking into the desert of poverty pulling the cart of Western slave drivers behind them.

Like it seems everything in this topsy turvy world things are really the opposite of what they seem. The ones who look like they are helping are really causing the problems. The ones who are claiming they have been attacked are really the ones doing the attacking. The ones who are in control are really the vulnerable who survive only on lies and tricks. Hopefully the World will learn and we will simply wake up from this self imposed bad dream of "government" and "authority". It also follows that the ones who look like they know what they are talking about (for example the government or me) probably don't - so don't believe what you read, think it through!

Freedom is our own choice. Slavery is our own choice also.