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I had seen in my travels through southern Africa, India, and Mexico that [pesticide- and fertilizer-] intensive agriculture was failing to increase productivity in a way that could rebuild depleted soils, make small farms more resilient to climate change, or reduce rural hunger. I wanted to understand where that model came from, and Iowa seemed to have it all: vast expanses of corn and soybeans dotted with an occasional hog farm or ethanol refinery.
There was scarcely a farmer in sight, never mind what one might call a vibrant rural community. Iowa has a system that everyone claims is “feeding the world,” with high productivity feeding export markets. But family farmers are struggling with low prices from that overproduction, and contract farmers are heavily exploited. Meanwhile, neighbors complain of air pollution and the stench of manure lagoons, and the excess nutrients and chemicals [running off] from farms are polluting the water.
This did not seem to be working well for most Iowans. It certainly wasn’t working in Africa and Mexico. Yet somehow this was the model of agriculture our government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Iowa’s own World Food Prize were promoting as the solution to feeding a “hot, crowded, hungry world.” It was very hard to find any significant way in which growing more Iowa soybeans would help feed hungry people in southern Africa. Maybe some cheaper pork for the meat-eating middle class in China, but not for hungry Africans.
full: https://civileats.com/2019/03/07/how-farm-policy-and-big-ag-impact-farmers-in-the-u-s-and-abroad/
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