An interesting and frightening comparison can be drawn between the modern food industry and totalitarian political systems. Agribusiness or industrial farming is a form of monopoly capitalism that aggressively accumulates land internationally and undermines local economies in order to dominate them. Local farmers become enslaved though debt to the monopoly businesses. Agribusiness also often uses genetically modified seeds developed in "ideal" laboratory conditions not easily replicated in nature. The introduction of GM cotton plants in India was disastrous, resulting in many farmer suicides, since the weather was unpredictable, unlike the conditions in a laboratory. Indebted farmers whose crops failed were ruined. In a similar way, agribusiness undermined the diversity of varieties of rice in India, by forcing farmers to use the companies' own GM variety. (The Indian government had long resisted these companies but eventually allowed them to enter the country.)
A more interesting link to fascism than the monopolisation of power mentioned in the previous paragraph, is the uniformity of the crops of industrial agriculture. A field of GM crops has often been called a "green desert" since there is no diversity. In fact, industrial farming destroys biodiversity in its drive to cover the planet with mono-crops, much as human diversity in totalitarian societies were subordinated to a fascist ideal. Uniformity to this ideal was aggressively pursued and diversity was suppressed and even eliminated. One of the problems with mono-agriculture is that its dependence on a single variety of crop makes it very vulnerable to complete harvest failure. There is much talk about "food security" but GM mono-agriculture is not the solution. Survival of life depends on diversity and biodiversity. Industrial agriculture is the greatest current threat to biodiversity and, therefore, to life on Earth.
Agribusiness is a threat to food security in another way, in the sense that foreign food companies have an undue influence on countries dependent on them for food and agricultural technology. As Raj Patel points out in From Fork to Plate, certain food companies control almost all stages in the production, processing and distribution of food, hence ensuring an almost complete monopoly. Some GM companies even have private armies of "officials" ensuring that farmers adhere to the rules of the company regarding the use of their seeds. The companies also have teams of scientists developing fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides that only work with their GM seeds, thus forcing the farmers to depend on them further. Independent farmers struggle to compete with agribusiness's increasing monopoly of the means of agricultural production.
Despite their propaganda to the contrary, these companies do not want to feed the world but to make a profit. Nor are they the solution to world hunger, but one of its causes, since the poor cannot afford to buy their food. Agricultural surplus is used, instead, to produce more meat and dairy and even biofuels for people who do have money.
The militarist, totalitarian societies that lost the Second World War would have been impressed by the power of modern agribusiness, the slogan of which could be "Who controls the food, controls the world".
A more interesting link to fascism than the monopolisation of power mentioned in the previous paragraph, is the uniformity of the crops of industrial agriculture. A field of GM crops has often been called a "green desert" since there is no diversity. In fact, industrial farming destroys biodiversity in its drive to cover the planet with mono-crops, much as human diversity in totalitarian societies were subordinated to a fascist ideal. Uniformity to this ideal was aggressively pursued and diversity was suppressed and even eliminated. One of the problems with mono-agriculture is that its dependence on a single variety of crop makes it very vulnerable to complete harvest failure. There is much talk about "food security" but GM mono-agriculture is not the solution. Survival of life depends on diversity and biodiversity. Industrial agriculture is the greatest current threat to biodiversity and, therefore, to life on Earth.
Agribusiness is a threat to food security in another way, in the sense that foreign food companies have an undue influence on countries dependent on them for food and agricultural technology. As Raj Patel points out in From Fork to Plate, certain food companies control almost all stages in the production, processing and distribution of food, hence ensuring an almost complete monopoly. Some GM companies even have private armies of "officials" ensuring that farmers adhere to the rules of the company regarding the use of their seeds. The companies also have teams of scientists developing fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides that only work with their GM seeds, thus forcing the farmers to depend on them further. Independent farmers struggle to compete with agribusiness's increasing monopoly of the means of agricultural production.
Despite their propaganda to the contrary, these companies do not want to feed the world but to make a profit. Nor are they the solution to world hunger, but one of its causes, since the poor cannot afford to buy their food. Agricultural surplus is used, instead, to produce more meat and dairy and even biofuels for people who do have money.
The militarist, totalitarian societies that lost the Second World War would have been impressed by the power of modern agribusiness, the slogan of which could be "Who controls the food, controls the world".