THE GLOBALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE: IMPLICATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF SMALL HORTICULTURAL FARMS

Abstract

To globalize means to make worldwide in scope or application. We live in a global ecosystem; in this, we have no choice. Increasingly, all nations of the world share a global culture, a consequence of past choices. And, the economy has become increasingly global as well. However, within the global ecosystem are boundaries, which give form and structure to natural systems. Within the global culture are boundaries, which define different human values and perspectives of reality. And within the global economy are boundaries, which allow nations to reflect the differences in their natural ecosystems and social cultures in the structure and functioning of their economies. The World Trade Organization (WTO) appears committed to removing all “barriers” to international trade, to achieve “free trade,” and thus, to removing all “economic boundaries” among nations. Once the economic boundaries are removed, cultural boundaries will become further blurred, and ecological boundaries will be left open to economic exploitation. Cultural and ecological diversity are considered obstacles to economic progress. A truly global economy will allow greater geographic specialization, greater standardization of processes and products, and thus, will allow global corporations to achieve even greater economies of scale. In a global agricultural economy, small farms will be replaced by large farms, which in turn will be controlled by giant multinational corporations. Small farmers quite simply will not be able to compete in a “free market” global economy. Many small farmers of the world rely on horticultural crops for their viability. Thus, the implications of globalization may be even more dramatic for horticulture than for most other agricultural sectors. But even more important, ecological and cultural boundaries are essential to the long run sustainability of agriculture. Thus, if all economic boundaries are removed, human life on earth, at least as we know it, will not be sustainable. Over the past decade, globalization has become a major public issue. Most of the recent controversy has centered on the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO was established in 1994, with authority to oversee international trade, administer free trade agreements, and settle trade disputes among member nations, replacing the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). However under the WTO, authority was greatly expanded to cover trade in services as well as merchandise – including protection of intellectual property rights. And, intellectual property rights have been interpreted to include the genetic code of living organisms. Also, the WTO has far greater authority over trade in agricultural commodities than had existed under the GATT. The implicit, if not explicit, objective in forming the WTO was to reduce and eventually remove all restraints to trade, in order to achieve a single “global free market.” “Globalization,” as a concept, is far broader in meaning than is the concept of a “global free market.” To “globalize,” according to Webster’s dictionary, means “to make worldwide in scope or application.” The objective of the WTO is to create a single geographic market that is worldwide in scope, with a single set of trading rules that are worldwide in application. However, we cannot change the global economy without Proc. XXVI IHC – Sustainability of Horticultural Systems Eds. L. Bertschinger and J.D. Anderson Acta Hort. 638, ISHS 2004 Publication supported by Can. Int. Dev. Agency (CIDA) 400 simultaneously affecting global ecology and global society. This is the crux of the current WTO controversy. What are the implications of a “global free market,” not just for the world economy, but for the world community and for the world itself? We live in a global ecosystem, regardless of whether we like it or not. We have no choice; such is the nature of “nature.” The atmosphere is global. Whatever we put in the air in one place eventually may find its way to any other place on the globe. Weather is global. The warming or cooling of the oceans in one part of the world affects the weather in another, which in turn affects the temperature of oceans elsewhere on the globe. All the elements of the biosphere are interrelated and interconnected, including its human elements. We are all members of the global community of nature. We have no choice in