Global Food Trade

Trade in food has increased rapidly in the twenty-first century. Total agricultural exports from all countries have increased from $448 billion in 2000 to $769 billion in 2016 (Figure 9-52). Exporting countries benefit from the revenues, and importing countries meet the food needs of their people. However, increased food trade is generating challenges for both exporting and importing countries.

Agricultural Exports

Agricultural trade has increased steadily over the past half-century.

Europe was the only major food importing region prior to World War II. Historically, European countries used their colonies as suppliers of food; after they became independent countries, the former colonies sold food to Europe. East Asia and the former Soviet Union became net food importers in the 1950s, Southwest Asia & North Africa during the 1970s, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa during the 1980s, and Central Asia in 2008. Food production was unable to keep up with rapid population growth in these regions, and as they embraced international trade, agriculture was increasingly devoted to growing export crops for sale in developed countries. Japan is by far the leading importer of food, followed by the United Kingdom, China, and Russia. The United States remains the world’s leading exporter of grain, including nearly one-half of the world’s maize exports.

On a global scale, agricultural products are moving primarily from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere. Latin America, led by Brazil and Argentina, is by far the leading region for export of agricultural products; North America, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific are the other major exporting regions (Figure 9-53). The overall share of exports accounted for by the United States has fallen sharply, from around 18 percent of the world total in the 1970s to around 10 percent in the twenty-first century. Agricultural exports from the United States have continued to increase, but developing regions—especially Latin America and Southeast Asia—have had more rapid increases.

Trade in Agriculture

The principal flow of agriculture in the world is from the Western Hemisphere to Europe and Asia.

Trade Challenges for Developing Countries

To expand production, subsistence farmers need higher-yield seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and machinery. Some needed supplies can be secured by trading food with urban dwellers. For many African and Asian countries, though, the main way to obtain agricultural supplies is to import them from other countries. However, subsistence farmers lack the money to buy agricultural equipment and materials from developed countries. To generate the funds they need to buy agricultural supplies, developing countries must produce something they can sell in developed countries. The developing countries sell some manufactured goods (see Chapter 11), but most raise funds through the sale of crops in developed countries. Consumers in developed countries are willing to pay high prices for fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be out of season or for crops such as coffee and tea that cannot be grown in developed countries because of the climate.

In a developing country such as Kenya, families may organize the work between traditional subsistence agriculture and cash crops based on gender. Women practice most of the subsistence agriculture—that is, growing food for their families to consume—in addition to the tasks of cooking, cleaning, and carrying water from wells. Men may work for wages, either growing crops for export or at jobs in distant cities. Women may generate income for the household by making clothes, jewelry, baked goods, and other objects for sale in local markets.

The sale of export crops brings a developing country foreign currency, a portion of which can be used to buy agricultural supplies. But governments in developing countries face a dilemma: The more land that is devoted to growing export crops, the less that is available to grow crops for domestic consumption. Rather than help to increase productivity, the funds generated through the sale of export crops may be needed to feed the people who switched from subsistence farming to growing export crops.

In response to the increasing global demand for food imports, the United States passed Public Law 480, the Agricultural, Trade, and Assistance Act of 1954 (referred to as P.L.-480). Title I of the act provided for the sale of grain at low interest rates, and Title II gave grants to needy groups of people.

Drug Trade

The export crops grown in some developing countries, especially in Latin America and Asia, are those that can be converted to drugs. Cocaine is derived from coca leaf, most of which is grown in Colombia or the neighboring countries Peru and Bolivia. Cocaine abuse is estimated at 18 million people worldwide, and most consumers are located in developed countries, especially in North America. The principal shipping route is from Colombia by sea to Mexico or other Central American countries and then by land through Mexico to the United States.

International Drug Trafficking, 2017

The main routes for heroin are from Afghanistan through Southwest Asia to Europe and through Central Asia to Russia. The main routes for cocaine are from Colombia to North America through Mexico and to Europe by sea.

As explained in Chapter 1, the term opioid encompasses opiates, which are drugs, such as heroin, derived from the opium poppy plant. The term also encompasses synthetic substances manufactured into pain-management medications. Worldwide, 19 million people are estimated to be opiate users, and 34 million to be opioid users.

Afghanistan is the source of nearly 90 percent of the world’s opium; most of the remainder is grown in Myanmar and Laos. Most traffic flows from Afghanistan through Iran, Turkey, and the Balkans to Western Europe, where the largest numbers of the world’s users live. A second route goes through Central Asia to Russia.

Marijuana, produced from the Cannabis sativa plant, is cultivated widely around the world. Around 182 million people are estimated to be cannabis users. The overwhelming majority of the marijuana that reaches the United States is grown in Mexico. Cultivation of C. sativa is not thought to be expanding worldwide, whereas cultivation of opium poppies and coca leaf are.

Pause & Reflect 9.4.1

Why does most consumption of cocaine and heroin occur in developed countries?