Sweet Globalization

By Fr. John Rausch
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 2/10/05)

"Ever feel dumped on?" Singer Michael Stipe got drenched in milk, actor Antionio Banderas nearly buried by corn and musician Nitin Sawhney pelted by peanuts. Oxfam International staged a demonstration with celebrities from music and film at this year’s World Social Forum in Brazil to highlight the plight of millions of farmers in developing countries unable to sell their produce because of dumping by rich nations.

At play remains the process of globalization and the giant corporations’ power over public policy and their quest for profits even at the expense of small farmers, the environment and even personal health.

The U.S. and Europe spend $1 billion a day on agricultural subsidies with surplus production sold on world markets at artificially low prices. This dumping makes it impossible for farmers in developing countries to compete. More than 900 million farmers worldwide now risk losing their livelihoods.

Take sugar, for example. The current EU sugar policies allowing dumping cost Brazil $494 million per year in sales, Thailand $151 million and South Africa and India approximately $60 million.

In addition, a World Wildlife Federation report, "Sugar and the Environment," claims "sugar may be responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other single crop." The report cites the loss of habitat, the intensive use of water for irrigation, heavy use of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, plus runoff of polluted effluents. It estimates that 5 to 6 million hectares of crop land are lost annually worldwide because of severe erosion and degradation from the intensive production of sugar.

Besides the economic and environmental dimensions of the sugar industry, the increased consumption of sugar is contributing to people growing fat. Two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight and nearly a third is obese. Yet, obesity is not necessarily a disease of affluence. The same trends occur in poorer countries and in poorer populations in richer countries.

Some guilt must rest with corporate globalization. Corporations are the ones that developed processed foods and promoted ways for distribution. Patterns of food purchases everywhere have moved from local markets to more dependence on supermarkets. Brazil in the decade of the 1990s saw supermarket share of food retail jump from 30 percent to 75 percent. China in 6 years went from no supermarkets to 6,000. Supermarkets depend on pre-cooked meals and processed foods that frequently have sugar added as a preservative. In the U.S. convenience foods now account for a greater source of our sugar intake than traditional bags of sugar.

Health-wise, with obesity come related problems. Nancy Appleton in her book, Licking the Sugar Habit, cites a litany of health concerns associated with over-consumption of sugar: asthma, headaches, osteoporosis, heart disease, tooth decay, inflammatory bowel disease, hypoglycemia, diabetes, chronic constipation, cancer, multiple sclerosis, canker sores, gall stones and cystic fibrosis. While the USDA recommends a maximum of 12 teaspoons of sugar per day, the average American consumes four times that much.

For the past few years the National Catholic Rural Life Conference has promoted the principle that "eating is a moral act." The NCRLC asks that our eating patterns respect the sustainability of our crop lands, the livelihood of farmers growing our food and our own bodies living in the web of life. By focusing too narrowly on profits, global food and agricultural corporations too easily put these concerns at risk. If people of faith took the morality of eating more seriously, more people might resist the candy bar produced by a global corporation and snack on a locally grown carrot purchased at the nearby farmers market.

Fr. Rausch is a Glenmary priest who writes and ministers in Appalachia.

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