On his election, Pope Francis said in no uncertain terms that the Church must not forget the poor. He also stressed the responsibility of Christians to protect the natural environment.
The major cause of poverty is the increasing control of food production by a powerful elite
Both are intimately interlinked. Even a casual or indifferent observer must be aware of the unbelievable prevalence of poverty and environmental degradation that seems impossible to overcome.
But few realise that the major cause of poverty is the increasing control of food production by a powerful elite that have a stranglehold on the Western world’s decision-making institutions.
Governments in collusion with these corporations insist that only free markets, the removal of trade barriers and the spread of genetically-modified (GM) crops will solve the problem. Behind the free market rhetoric and emphasis on the virtues of level playing fields, the hard fact is that traditional farmers have had to compete with heavily subsidised industrial agribusinesses.
The impact of globalisation has crippled small scale farmers worldwide, particularly those in the southern hemisphere, with devastating consequences.
Food production strikes at the very roots and sustainability of life. The arrogance of technological advances cannot escape the fact that we depend on nature. Unfortunately, the logic of giant biotech companies has only one driving force. It is profit at all costs. Even if this poisons the food chain, puts farmers out of work and exhaust the soil that is the bedrock of life.
Brazil and Argentina have been two of the most severely affected. Pope Francis must have been aware of this when he said: “We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most, yet reduced misery the least. The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”
Argentina was the world’s granary. It once boasted a diverse agricultural sector. It has now been disproportionately transformed into a land of soya-bean monoculture. Between 1998 and 2002, farms in Argentina were reduced by a staggering 25 per cent. Now, over half the population live below the poverty line. The outskirts of cities are increasingly choked with shanty towns of disenfranchised farmers and agricultural workers.
Even the EU has a disgraceful track record on agricultural policies. These keep on operating in open defiance of an increasingly more informed public opinion that objects to policies that use our taxes to promote industrial farming.
The phenomenon of vanishing bees is another indication that we have overlooked the complexity of our environment and that something is seriously wrong.
Thankfully today, NGOs are gaining momentum in advancing small-scale farming, agricultural sustainability, reduction in pesticides and chemical fertilisers, fair trade, micro-credit, slow food, recycling and conservation.
Former German environment minister Klaus Töpfer warned us that “the sustainable use of soil is one of Europe’s greatest environmental, social and economic challenges”. Mediterranean countries are at most risk, and the unsustainable use of water for tourism aggravates an already dangerous situation.
The insensitive attitude to farming and the corruption of the environment by the ideology of so-called progress was recognised and challenged by people of the calibre of G K Chesterton, Rachel Carson, E F Schumacher and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
With remarkable foresight, Chesterton, after visiting the US in the early 1920s, noted that the American farmer tended to become industrial instead of industrious, and remarked that through some mutation, inherited the industrial mindset with its “blast of death and reek of rotten things”.
This prophecy has sadly come to pass, manifested in the increasing destruction of topsoil, the dependence on millions of tons of pesticides and herbicides and the cruel exploitation of man and animal alike.
Unless we restore the link between man and the land, our economic future is doomed. Now as never before, agricultural policies that promote unjust and destructive economic and political structures leading to destitution and ruin the ecosystem have to be vigorously questioned, challenged and addressed.
We owe it not only to ourselves but to our future generations.
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