Justice

What a big word. 

I spent the last 6 weeks traveling throughout Germany and Switzerland discussing agriculture and food matters with lots of people. Today I finally enjoyed reading the sunday times over my coffee again and found this article: A Global Need For Grain That Farms Can´t Fill

Well, looking at the latest developments in agriculture and food industries "justice" is pretty stressed all over. Justice for farmers who finally get better prices for their commodities, justice for developing countries who finally develop at least in parts and seem more able to gain access to resources and food. But how do we really feel about it watching our food prices to speed up? Milk, butter, bread ... everything has nearly doubled. Now agriculture and food ind. is accused to drive the inflation and heat social matters. Let me put it this way: a VW Beetle used be around 2000 € now it is around around 20000 € whereas a piece of butter used to be 2,50 € and at it´s lowest last year it was less then 50 cent. You simply can´t produce a piece of butter for that. Not even when you leave out risen energy prices and an all other speeding costs. 

Farmers also now have the weird choice of producing energy or food on their fields. Whatever pays them more will be it, of course they are not doing this for the romantic farmlife, they are economists themselves who have been mistreated big time the last years. So don´t expect them to be overly concerned with  your prices. And the need for energy is biiiig. We are in the weird position where energy and food are growing to the same value.... But I am wondering: corn that is growing for energy-production doesn´t need to be "safe" as in food-standards. One reason why farmers don´t use pesticides and fertilizers (not to mention monocultures or GMO!!) as much as they used or would to is because of food safety issues (and environmental concerns). Well .... corn that´s been fermented to gas which then is been burned to energy doesn´t need these standards for food security.

The other thing that concerns me is, that last year in europe the fallow grounds were opened for production already, that is land put out of production to rest for revitalization (and to lower production) and now there are even voices who claim to put more land to work. More land from where? Nature reserves of course! To feed the current demand (and make the most profit out of it) people would put anything at risk. Once a land has been used for intense agriculture it cannot be transfered back easily. It takes a lifetime to reestablish a young forest and a young forest doesn´t provide anything that an aged forest does in terms of CO2 conservation and water reserve. Not to mention the biological habitat. 

Food is a much undervalued and underestimated product. It has its own rules, doesn´t work like industrial goods and depends on global rules of climate and nature. It is something that doesn´t fit into economic rules. It is something we seem to only need a certain amount of, but that is crucially substantial. We tend to forget that.

We are exporting most of our grain and meat yet have a self sufficiency rate of over 100% for everything but fruits and veggies. Don´t worry, we will be fine, we just have to pay a higher price for food. A more reasonable price and it hurts me as much as you. So making this a sustainable long term "justice" for everyone, I guess we need to cut back and let others have some to. Cut back on cars and energy consumption, cut back on food (just think of how much you throw away) and cut back on demanding the world for ourselves. As a society we need to realize that we are still depending on nature. And there is nothing eco-romantic about it... crucial reality if you follow the  climate changes.