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Eat Your Heart Out
Jun. 16th, 2008 11:26 amAn excerpt on The Guardian from the upcoming book Eat Your Heart Out: Why the Food Business Is Bad for the Planet and Your Health by Felicity Lawrence explains why the previously unknown soya bean is now king of agricultural commodities:
The US came out of the second world war with its agricultural base intact, but the farming lands of its European allies and of Germany had been devastated. With millions desperately hungry, the US announced its Marshall plan to help rebuild western Europe with financial aid. But it had another crucial role: the removal of tariff barriers that might hinder US access to foreign markets was made part of the new terms of trade with the non-communist world. Of the $13bn in financial aid paid under the Marshall plan between 1947 and 1952, more than $3bn was spent by European countries on imports of US food, animal feed and fertiliser.
As Europe recovered, soya exports to other countries were supported by other US food aid programmes. In 1967, 86% of all US soya oil exports were subsidised under its food aid law. Meanwhile, in the Kennedy round of talks for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the mid-60s, the US insisted that if Europe wanted to keep its agricultural protections, it must open up its markets to more US soya exports.The excerpt describes just how efficient the soya bean is: its oil used to fry or make fast foods, its lecithin for processing, its bean meal as feed. Combined with the high amount of US subsidies for this crop, the profit margin becomes irresistible. It is one of the reasons why plenty of the Brazilian rainforest is being cut down for soya fields.
Amazingly, it is stated there are only a few companies that populate the soya and other cheap grain commodities field. Cargill, for instance, is thought to control 45% of the world's grain trade and has operations everywhere from salt to oil to fertiliser to cotton. It's important to note their influence isn't limited to just the cash crops itself, but to the crops' many uses in various industries: the garment industry, the home furnishings (carpets, home insulation etc), the biofuel industry...
Absolutely fascinating, and seems a little scaremongering. I shall definitely be picking up the book as soon as it makes the transatlantic journey.
The US came out of the second world war with its agricultural base intact, but the farming lands of its European allies and of Germany had been devastated. With millions desperately hungry, the US announced its Marshall plan to help rebuild western Europe with financial aid. But it had another crucial role: the removal of tariff barriers that might hinder US access to foreign markets was made part of the new terms of trade with the non-communist world. Of the $13bn in financial aid paid under the Marshall plan between 1947 and 1952, more than $3bn was spent by European countries on imports of US food, animal feed and fertiliser.
As Europe recovered, soya exports to other countries were supported by other US food aid programmes. In 1967, 86% of all US soya oil exports were subsidised under its food aid law. Meanwhile, in the Kennedy round of talks for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the mid-60s, the US insisted that if Europe wanted to keep its agricultural protections, it must open up its markets to more US soya exports.The excerpt describes just how efficient the soya bean is: its oil used to fry or make fast foods, its lecithin for processing, its bean meal as feed. Combined with the high amount of US subsidies for this crop, the profit margin becomes irresistible. It is one of the reasons why plenty of the Brazilian rainforest is being cut down for soya fields.
Amazingly, it is stated there are only a few companies that populate the soya and other cheap grain commodities field. Cargill, for instance, is thought to control 45% of the world's grain trade and has operations everywhere from salt to oil to fertiliser to cotton. It's important to note their influence isn't limited to just the cash crops itself, but to the crops' many uses in various industries: the garment industry, the home furnishings (carpets, home insulation etc), the biofuel industry...
Absolutely fascinating, and seems a little scaremongering. I shall definitely be picking up the book as soon as it makes the transatlantic journey.
