Hello my name is RBL. Welcome to this blog! In my spring class Food for Thought, we've been talking about older civilizations and how they've been impacted by slavery. For example, at first many European civilizations grew only certain kinds of agriculture themselves. They did not know what existed outside of their civilizations. These civilizations began taking voyages where they conquered other indigenous people's lands. We've also learned about different country's slave maps and how they've evolved using google my maps. We researched different civilizations and how they enslaved African people. We learned the history of how food was grown and produced historically and how it is produced today. We took a trip to Uncommon Ground where we learned about a lot of different crops that farmers like to grow. Now it's time for our action project, where we are supposed to make a speech where we explain our claim about a specific SDG in SDG 2. After making our decision about which topic we have chosen to focus on, we have to then make a video explaining our claim to the world. I chose to focus on claim SDG 2.3 which is to double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers. I think this is extremely important because there are many small farmers who are doing hard work but aren't getting the credit they deserve for their efforts. Here's my video with the link below:
Script:
The issue of inequity in farming is an important one, “Small family farms (less than $350,000 in 45) accounted for 90 percent of all U.S. farms. Large-scale family farms ($1 million or more in GCFI) make up about 3 percent of farms but 44 percent of the value of production.” The SDG’s (sustainable development goals) are goals that the United Nations made to try to help change the world for the better. The SDG, Target 2.3 which measures the income of smaller food producers who are disrespected and disregarded because of their sex or indigenous status. Right now this is a major priority because everyone in the world needs food to survive and it is unfair that small food producers are not getting the money they need to survive or thrive.The purpose of this paper is to ask, how can we solve SDG 2.3 and give these small farms the resources they need. Here’s a solution, increase the income of the smaller farms by increasing the distribution of their product.
This paper will explore ways to increase the income, capacity, and sustainability for underfunded farmers. This matters because some farmers are underpaid and don’t even get the chance to spread their crops around the world. “About half of U.S. farms are very small, with annual farm sales under $10,000; the households operating these farms typically rely on off-farm sources for most of their household income. In contrast, the median household operating large-scale farms earned $350,373 in 2019 with most of that from farming.” Around the world there are many less income people that depend on farming to survive. “Small-scale farming provides both food and livelihoods for the vast majority of the global poor.”If small scale farmers have more resources they will be more able to support healthy lives for their communities.
“Increasing and stabilizing farm incomes and food production in developing countries is fundamental to reducing global poverty.”
It’s unfair that small scale farmers are not able to make a living that can fully support their families. According to the History Channel website, a place that faced a similar issue like this would be 1870’s United states. Why 1870? Because this was when sharecropping began, by that point there wasn’t anymore slavery in the United States. Even though this was true, there wasn’t really that much of a difference in the economic status of many black people. This being because black people would still work for whites but would make little money. The difference between slavery and sharecropping is they are getting paid for their work but the money they are paid is extremely low. Rimas from Empires of Food explains that “Grain, argued the friar, isn't like spices or bolts of silk, because people require grain to live. Due to the nature of markets however, grain merchants have an incentive to hoard during times of want, keeping food in reserve as prices rise and then selling it at the moment of greatest profit.” This quote explains a system that controlled the access of the majority of people to fair access to food. Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet who analyzed the issue in a bigger way in his poem The United Fruit; he writes that “The Fruit Company, Inc. reserved for itself the most succulent, the central coast of my own land, the delicate waist of America.” The quote supports the idea that the large company controlled the access to the best land in his land.
In the United States, this problem is connected to the history of slavery where the majority of workers had no access to wealth and when slavery ended, they had no access to land.
Globally, the issue seems to center around the fact that small farmers have less land. With small farms it is difficult to increase profits. “Steadily, a near-feudal society emerged in the South. At the top was the aristocratic landowning elite, who wielded much of the economic and political power. Their plantations spanned upward of a thousand acres, controlling hundreds—and, in some cases, thousands—of enslaved people...Below the elite class were the small planters who owned a handful of enslaved people. These farmers were self-made and fiercely independent. Small farmers without enslaved workers and landless whites were at the bottom, making up three-quarters of the white population.” We can learn when people are not able to control the land it limits their ability to make profit. Small farmers are limited by the size of their farms and what they are able to produce and sell.
By this point we’ve already seen how different people mentioned were able to combat issue 2.3 and how they were able to make small farming easier for them. Now it’s time we look at how we can try to make the same changes today. Brandon Youst, an author, and a teacher, who wrote about the farm to food truck model. The idea is that food trucks come to local farms every month to weigh the amount of crops they grow. The farmers would collectively own the trucks. Depending on how much they grow, it will determine how much money they’ll get back in return. After said trucks take their food, they’ll sell their crops out to community markets so when the markets sell the farmers crops, the market makes money for it and the farmers make more money from it too. Some major benefits from this are higher margins made but with less food waste, a lot more flexibility,extra hours that will give farmers good ways to grow more types of food, and markets with less risk.
Historically small farmers have struggled to make profits and grow. We are trying to develop ideas to increase the profits of small farmers. Small farmers around the world are limited by resources and by profit. In the United States this is connected to the history of slavery.
If we create ways to increase production and distribution it will help to create more profit for small farmers. Recommendations will increase production and distribution which will increase the amount of money that small farmers can make which will help to reach the SDG target. The impact of the lack of equity in food production by better understanding the challenges of small farmers is still affecting a lot of small farmers today, but with these ideas, you can help to fix the issue.
Sources:
Kassel, Kathleen. “Farming and Farm Income.” USDA ERS - Farming and Farm Income, www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/farming-and-farm-income/.
6th, By: ArrowquipPosted on: Jun. “Top Benefits of Buying Locally Grown Food.” Arrowquip, arrowquip.com/blog/animal-science/top-benefits-buying-locally-grown-food
Youst, Brandon. “The Farm to Food Truck Model – Mini Course.” Upstart University, university.upstartfarmers.com/courses/farm-food-truck-model-mini-course
“SDGs: Indicator 2.3.2.” Land Portal, 15 Mar. 2021, landportal.org/node/61293
Noack, Frederik. “The Contrasting Effects of Farm Size on Farm Incomes and Food Production .” Iopscience, 31 July 2019, iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2dbf.
Empires of Food book - Evan D.G. Fraser and Andrew rimas
“La United fruit co” - Pablo Neruda
How Slavery Became the Economic Engine of the South - GREG TIMMONS https://www.history.com/news/slavery-profitable-southern-econom
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