Page 58 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 21

Food Health
Food Health

BIG FARMS DON’T FEED THE WORLD

They feed the pockets of investors and commodity traders

by GRAIN | 9 Feb 2022

https://grain.org/en/article/6792-big-farms-don-t-feed-the-world

controversy has erupt- false assumptions that their report they also protect biodiversity better,
ed over who feeds the contains, and maintaining that small produce more diverse and more nu-
world. It has been gen- food producers continue to feed the tritious food, create more jobs and
A eral accepted knowledge world. keep more people on the land.
that small scale farmers, fisherfolk
and pastoralists feed the vast ma- If it were true that small food But apart from the productivity
jority of the people on earth. This producers only feed a third of the debate there is another question that
was recognised by the UN FAO and population, then that means that big often goes under the radar: what do
many other international agencies. farms feed the other two thirds. The big farms really produce? Big farms
But now the FAO has come up with argument used to sustain this as- produce agricultural commodities,
a report claiming that small farmers sumption is that big farms are more often for international markets.
feed only a third of the world’s pop- productive and efficient than small They focus on products from which
ulation. A group of NGOs, includ- farms. This is highly questionable. they can get the best profits. These
ing GRAIN, sent a letter to FAO Numerous studies have shown that include plantation crops that people
questioning that conclusion pointing small farms are not only more pro- don’t eat (cotton, rubber), crops
to the numerous omissions and ductive per hectare of land, but that used for animal feed and industrial

58 | we tell the true afrikan story