Globalisation

Globalisation

The term globalisation’ refers to the increased in trade across the world enabled by more transport and lower trade barriers. This was in contrast to the setup after WW2 of organisations like the United Nations which help govern the world steering it through main concerns. The FAO was set up at the Hot Springs Conference at the end of the war, where all countries agreed to grow as much of the food they ate in their own country. When they had done that they were welcome to trade for other foods, like tea and coffee. However, over the years especially with encouragement from USA, many countries do not bother to produce as much food as they can but preferring to ship it in cheap encouraging globalisation. . The Middle East moved from local grains to rice only to be more vulnerable as occurred with the Arab Uprising. The UK dropped its own production from ¾ to ½ between 1980 to 2020.

It has had a range of effects on world soils over the last 30 years. There has been increased trade in agricultural commodities such as grains, fruits, and vegetables, that has led to increased pressure on soils in exporting countries to produce more crops to meet demand. Across the world the same techniques and chemicals are being provided, as the system become more uniform as they are determined by outside forces of agribusiness, rather than geared to local conditions as with more state research facilities. Most countries used to have massive agricultural departments, but they have declined across the world. There has been different emphasises from existing soil departments, where Western countries are still preoccupied with fertiliser use, while the developing countries focus more on how to deal without fertilisers.

“The neoliberal model, so widely adopted in the post-Cold War era, had substituted fiscal (central government earnings through taxation and spending) for monetary policy  (money supply and interest rates by central banks.) as the prime lever of economic management, diminishing the role of politicians in favour of central banks”[6] It meant that responsibilities for state agricultural research got lost. Government research institutes closed down all over the world. Research became dominated by multinational companies looking into their own patented products.

Despite problems with markets not working for health or people,  they have been promoted ever more. Over the years since the war, we have become ever more ‘global markets’ with more trade - especially food, being trading across the world.

Some claimed that ‘the central problem of depression-prevention had been solved’. No more boom and bust. But rather than cheering the monetary policy it may have been more due to the return of China and the deeper integration of developing countries into the world economy. “Coinciding with this globalisation was the biggest migration in human history, as literally billions of people left their farms for the burgeoning cities of the developing world.” That meant that millions who have previously lived closed to the land and worked the soil, now left; not for pastures new, but factory floors. The UN's World Urbanization Prospects report[7] says the world's urban population increased from 1.99 billion in 1980 to 4.23 billion in 2020, which indicates a significant migration from rural to urban areas during that time period. This was much more pronounced in Asia compared with Africa.

This would have affected soils massively. In terms of farmland conversion, much would have been converted to urban development. The results of this we see in terms of increased erosion, due to soil compaction and loss of organic matter, leading to increased flooding. Soil pollution in urban areas tend to be more polluted than rural areas due to increased industrial and transportation activities. Soil pollution can reduce soil fertility, decrease crop yields, and pose a threat to human health.

There is also the incalculable loss of traditional farming practices, abandoned when the young depart. Practices such as crop rotation and intercropping were often part of traditional methods, which we now know are vital to maintain soil fertility and prevent erosion. The migration from rural to urban areas has also led to the growth of urban agriculture in some areas, which can increase soil organic matter, reduce soil erosion, and promote the use of sustainable farming practices.

Considering how widespread this phenomenon is, it is strangely little studies from a soil point fo view. There was in the 1950s, ‘The Garden Controversy’ which looked closely at the impacts of urbanisation on good farmland in Britain in the 1950s. The authors, whom I knew at Wye College, decided that there was little decrease in food production on the new housing compared with existing farm practices,, particularly of fruit and vegetables, although there was a loss of grain production. This does not compare the loss of traditional cropping with widespread larger farm production techniques and effects on soil

Soil degradation occurs when proper soil conservation practices are not implemented. The expansion of chemical agriculture often relies on intensive use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation for water. This can lead to soil degradation, erosion, and loss of soil organic matter. There have been changes in land use patterns, with some regions converting agricultural land to other uses, such as urbanization or mining. This can result in soil degradation and loss of fertile soil. Increases in plantations have led to increased deforestation.

If you invest a lot of financial capital in the food process, you do not want to be beholden to the whims of the markets - now global markets. We have seen that Shakespeare knew that food prices plummet on a good harvest and rise in in times of shortage, yet we are told to believe markets will solve our food - and soil - problems. If you have a lot to invest in new capital, you do ot want the returns to be at the whims of the weather. Again something we have talked about for years. But now the markets are bigger and capital investment even larger, and mainly in the hands of a few massive multinationals. Three companies now dominate the agrochemical markets, and four the grain markets. Known as the ABCD group for the alphabetic convenience of their initials, ADM, Bunge, Cargill and (Louis) Dreyfus, account for between 75% and 90% of the global grain trade. They are now working together to “standardize and digitize international grain trades using technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence”[8]). That should keep those four in control of  the ‘free’ markets for years to come.

If you are a massive multinational company, you want to guarantee a return on your investments, which are now huge. There are three long term strategies. Get you to eat more, waste more,  and pay workers less. Overall, the food sector will try and get you  to eat more cheap food, helping to explain why there are now about 2 billion overweight people in the world. Another way is to produce too much so you waste more food, explaining why third of all food produced now ends up as waste. But the biggest ‘cost’ to cut is workers’ wages. You will streamline the operation by paying workers as little as possible - a well known characteristic of food and farm workers through history and across the globe. As well as reducing conditions for workers, so soil gets treated the same. The soil is treated as a substrate to be fed enough to grow crops as cheaply as possible. The soil suffers, as there is no attempt to build the natural capital in the soil.

It is noticeable that ‘soil’ is never mentioned in any trade deal. But all trade deals have implications for the soil - whether from the exporting end or the importing end. The recent ones signed by Britain to extol the benefits of Brexit, have all allowed imports of food at lowers standards of farming than carried out in the UK. It is important for policymakers and farmers to implement sustainable practices that prioritize soil health in the face of global trade and economic pressures. Yet soil doesn’t feature in any trade deal.