The Hijacking of Food and Farm Policy

Diet For a Small Planet, that I made my way from Vermont to California to volunteer for her Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First. There has been a lot to celebrate since then. In every corner of the country, demand for locally and sustainable grown food is rising, with farmers and ranchers growing more chemical-free, healthier food for our nation’s schools, universities, restaurants and supermarkets.

Since 2005 the number of farmers markets has doubled, with more than 8000 markets open for business round the country. New local ownership and distribution structures are popping up everywhere, including more than 200 food hubs that are working in innovative ways to get more local, sustainable food to market. More than 180 local food policy councils are transforming food systems from the bottom up. The organic sector, with more and organic acreage has been growing steadily In recent years.

More Information on these Impressive trends can be found In the slides that I presented during my keynote speech to the Women Food and Agriculture Network Conference in Iowa earlier this month to a wonderful crowd of mostly women farmers, landowners and loathe food system advocates. As great as these accomplishments are, the tens of thousands of projects and farms that are building a healthier, more sustainable food system around the country cannot grow quickly enough to counteract the tremendous damage to public health and the environment caused by the existing profit-driven Industrial food system.

Two key messages In Lap©’s book remain more relevant today than ever. The first?and the basis for my lifelong commitment to eating low on the food chain— is that it is inefficient and resource-intensive to rely on meat as our primary rotten source. It is clear that we cannot solve our global water, energy, climate change and public health challenges without changing how we produce meat and drastically reducing how much of it we eat.

While we still have a long way to go, we are making slow but steady progress in reducing Americans’ meat consumption?which is down four years in a row?mostly driven by consumers’ concern for health and animal welfare. Yet It’s clear that we wont achieve the far-reaching reforms needed to Improve the way produce feed and raise animals?until we fix the bigger problem plaguing our DOD system?a problem that struck me as the second and most important message not caused by scarcity of food but scarcity of democracy.

Nearly forty years later, the lack of democracy not only continues to be a fundamental cause of hunger, but also a source of many other serious problems in our food system. Big food and industrial farming interests are hijacking our democracy and public policy at a huge cost to public health and the environment. And sadly, the Obama administration is complicit in this hijacking scheme.

On several fronts, the administration is ignoring civil society calls for reform on several fronts and is giving rarity to industry financial interests over those of public health, the environment and welfare of animals, workers and consumers. Despite a clear and compelling need, it has failed to ban antibiotic use in well animals, pass effective factory farm regulations, or enact federal labeling and stricter regulation of genetically engineered food. No recent example of the administration’s failure to put the public interest ahead corporate interests is clearer than the U.

S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed poultry rule. This rule would reduce the number of USDA inspectors in poultry acclivities by 75 percent, accelerate assembly lines pace to 175 birds per minute and intensify the use of toxic chemicals to clean the birds being processed. Who profits from this appalling proposal? No surprise there. As Tom Philter reported in Mother Jones magazine, Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, Purdue, and Sanderson, the nation’s leading poultry companies, stand to gain more than $1 billion over the next 5 years.

As well, Congressional lawmakers are ignoring the public interest as they hash out a farm bill that will continue to give away billions to wealthy, profitable farms and agribusiness while slashing programs that promote nutrition, conservation, healthy food and organic agriculture. Because the good food movement lacks political muscle, there is far too little investment and effective federal policy to support?and help scale up good food projects and organic farming.

And because big food and industrial agriculture companies have so much power, the federal government has too many bad policies that are doing far too much to support and enshrine the status quo, making it harder for sustainable agriculture to compete. The proposed farm bill is a perfect case in point. The bill currently being negotiated n conference committee would channel more than $13 billion a year to support and promote chemical-intensive, diversity-destroying monocots that mostly provide feed for animals and vehicle fuel, with less than $200 million annually going to support local and organic diversified agriculture.

The dominance of corporate and large-scale commodity interests in our political system is nothing new?but as the economic power of these industries has become more concentrated, their political clout has grown stronger, and the consequences, Just recently, the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published an in-depth analysis to assess the status of industrial farming five years after the publication of the seminal Pew Commission Report on Industrial Farm Animal Production.

It found that the problems have actually gotten a lot worse. When Civil Eats asked Ralph Logics, an author of the Pew Commission report, to explain the lack of progress, he blamed ” the overwhelming influence and power of the animal gag industry… Whether it’s affecting members of Congress, whether it’s denting and nearly breaking the regulatory process, or whether it’s too much influence over academics. Everywhere you look there’s too much influence by the industry. In order to counteract that influence and put the public interest back into policy- making, the good food movement must channel more of the energy it devotes to building a healthy food system into blunting the power of industrial agriculture and building a healthier democracy. Otherwise, we will fail to make our vision for a healthy, Just and sustainable food system a reality for everyone. Stay tuned for Part 2, in which I explore the steps that are needed to blunt the power of industrial gag and build greater food democracy.

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Agribusiness – Essay

The word agriculture indicate plowing a field, planting seed, harvesting a crop, milking cows, or feeding livestock. Until recently, this was a fairly accurate picture. But to days’ agriculture is radically different. Agriculture has evolved in to agribusiness and has become a vast and complex system that reaches for beyond the farm to include all those who are involved in bringing food and fiber to consumers. Agribusiness include not only those that farm the land but also the people and firms that provide the inputs (for ex. Seed, chemicals, credit etc. ), process the output (for ex. Milk, grain, meat etc. , manufacture the food products (for ex. icc cream, bread, breakfast cereals etc. ), and transport and sell the food products to consumers (for ex. restaurants, supermarkets). Agribusiness system has undergone a rapid transformation as new industries have evolve and traditional farming operations have grown larger and more specialized. The transformation did not happen over night, but came slowly as a response to a variety of forces. Knowing something about how agribusiness came about makes it easier to understand how this system operates today and how it is likely to change in the future.

Initially agriculture being the major venture it was easy to become a farmer, but productivity was low. Average farmer produced enough food to feed just four people. As a consequence most farmers were nearly totally self-sufficient. They produced most of the inputs they needed for production, such as seed, draft animals, feed and simple farm equipment. Farm families processed the commodities they grew to make their own food and clothing. They consumed or used just about everything they produced. The small amount of output not consumed on the farm was sold for cash.

These items were used to feed and cloth the minor portion of the country’s population that lived in villages and cities. A few agricultural products made their way into the export market and were sold to buyers is other countries. Farmers found it increasingly profitable to concentrate on production and began to purchase inputs they formerly made themselves. This trend enabled others to build business that focused on meeting the need for inputs used in production agriculture such as seed, fencing, machinery and so on. These farms involved into the industries that make up the “agricultural inputs sector”.

Input farms are major part of agribusiness and produce variety of technologically based products that account for approximately 75 per cent of all the inputs used in production agriculture. At the same time the agriculture input sector was evolving, a similar evaluation was taking place a commodity processing and food manufacturing moved off the farm. The form of most commodities (wheat, rice, milk, livestock and so on) must be changed to make them more useful and convenient for consumers. For ex. consumers would rather buy flour than grind the wheat themselves before backing a cake.

They are willing to pay extra for the convenience of buying the processed commodity (flour) instead of the raw agriculture commodity (wheat). During the same period technological advance were being made in food preservation method. Up until this time the perishable nature of most agriculture commodities meant that they were available only at harvest. Advance in food processing have made it possible to get those commodities all throughout the year. Today even most farm families use purchased food and fiber products rather than doing the processing themselves.

The farms that meet the consumers demand for greater processing and convenience also constitute a major part of agribusiness and are referred to as the processing manufacturing sector. It is apparent that the definition of agriculture had to be expanded to include more than production. Farmers rely on the input industries to provide the products and service they need to produce agricultural commodities. They also rely on commodity processors, food manufactures, and ultimately food distributors and retailers to purchase their raw agricultural commodities and to process and deliver them to the consumer for final sale.

The result is the food and fiber system. The food and fiber system is increasingly being referred to as “agribusiness”. The term agribusiness was first introduced by Davis and Goldberg in 1957. it represents three part system made up of (1) the agricultural input sector (2) the production sector and (3) the processing-manufacturing sector. The capture the full meaning of the term “agribusiness” it is important to visualizes these there sectors as interrelated parts of a system in which the success of each part depends heavily on the proper functioning of the other two.

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Poverty Reduction Strategy

Introduction With one-fifth of the world’s population not owning land or possessions at all. Very little land. They may have no legal rights to the land they farm, or they may work as hired labor on large farms. Low incomes and rural poverty are often the result. Taking into consideration by the world’s standard the average person in the world lives on less than a dollar a day. In recent years, poverty reduction continues to be a challenge in Nigeria. 69 million people, or 54% of the population, lived below the poverty line In 2004. He Nigerian government has promoted agricultural growth wrought several policies noting that agriculture “outperforms all other sectors In reducing poverty” as it is the sector responsible for the most employment, especially among the poor. These policies including; the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS) and II, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAD), the National Food Security Program (NSF), and initiatives for crops including cassava and rice. Partly as a result of these programs, agricultural growth rates Jumped from 3. % annually In 1990-1999 to 5. 9% annually In If several agricultural subsection reach official growth targets, Nigeria will experience 9. 5% annual agricultural growth and 8. 0% annual GAP growth. Moreover, the poverty rate will be halved by 2017 Recommendation 1 Land Reforms Redistributing land to small-scale farmers can do much to reduce their poverty. When rural families have land, and secure control over that land, they are likely to grow more food and see their Incomes rise. Land security can mean food security. Land reform can increase both employment and Income.

Small farms employ more people per hectare than the larger units, often to the benefit of the landless and unemployed. And owning land means that family farmers often secure the bank credit that was previously denied them. Nonetheless, land reform is achieving much, especially when it is community-driven and tailored to local conditions and when it puts the poor at the forefront of the process. The Rural Poverty Report 2001 stresses the particular Importance of Glenn women more control over land as this would give them more power in the community and reduce their vulnerability within the household.

Dividing large farms into smaller units often means that more food is produced per hectare. This is happening in a number of countries and Nigeria is no exception. Gender disparity in legal rights: exacerbating women’s vulnerability In both the indigenous customary law, women are considered minors. This means that women?in law, and often In practice?do not control or own major assets, particularly land. This fundamental Imbalance In the property rights of men and women leads to gender differences in the pattern of poverty. De facto female headed households (I. E. Here a male co-head is nonresident for large parts of the year) have the highest core poverty levels of any household type. Labor-intensive Labor-intensive agriculture has significant growth and poverty-reduction potential: The small plots under present yields and methods of cultivation cannot provide earnings from farming, households may find it advantageous to switch to higher valued crops, such as market vegetables or perennial products, instead of cultivating predominantly maize, as at present. Those who stay in maize can also achieve higher yields than at present.

Research elsewhere in Africa has produced evidence that the growth potential from smallholder centralization and exploitation of comparative advantage can also generate considerable multiplier effects on local incomes. As more small farmers commercialism they create demand for small farming implements, hired labor (backward linkages) and trading services, small transport, local consumer goods, and so on (forward linkages) which stimulate local labor demand. Both the initial and subsequent rounds of growth through demand linkages are labor-intensive and can be accessible to poorer households. Improved equity and efficiency in public education spending Country-wide, over 50 percent of the people who live in households headed by people with no education live in poverty. In contrast, the poverty ratio is halved for people in households whose heads have obtained some secondary education. This suggests that higher incomes are related to more education and that ensuring affordability of primary and secondary education for the poor is thus an investment with high returns for society and the household.

Improved equity and efficiency in public education spending will lead to better outcomes?at a lower cost?for both poor households and the Government. 4 Enabling the Growth of Smallholder Agriculture: Smallholder agricultural centralization will need to be a central element of the poverty reduction and growth strategy of Nigeria. This emphasis is consistent with Insignia’s comparative advantage in labor-intensive sectors and location near a major port.

There is scope for expansion, diversification and intensification to access export markets, through centralization of agriculture into high value crops such as vegetables, perennials, etc. And through the related multiplier effects and demand linkages. The capacity of rural areas to boost incomes is expected to increase, educing pressures on urban labor markets and services. Focusing public efforts on removing impediments to agricultural growth is thus a priority for reducing poverty in all of Nigeria.

This bottom-up development approach is critically contingent, however, on cataloging and protecting investments for small farmers on Sways Nation Land. This requires: Rural land tenure reform to assure more secure property rights to small farmers. Promoting more sustainable cattle grazing management. Promoting small-scale financial savings and credit mechanisms in rural areas. Implementation of Policies l. Outlining a Poverty Reduction Strategy A new, equitable and dynamic pattern of growth and human development is required for a serious poverty reduction agenda in Nigeria.

Unless public action is undertaken to remove major structural constraints to labor-intensive development, however, livelihoods are expected to continue stagnation and poverty to worsen further. The analysis of poverty can be used to identify priority areas for action. This agenda for reform will require courage, vision and sensitivity on the part of the country’s leaders. Basic themes of a poverty reduction strategy for Swaziland are reposed below: 2 Ensuring Effective Human Development Investments: productive assets in which a country can invest.

To facilitate higher productivity of labor, lower fertility and greater mobility of labor in these changing labor markets, the quality, relevance and affordability of basic education and health levels of service most accessed by the poor needs to be improved. A structural shift in the public spending pattern is needed to focus on primary and secondary education levels rather than academic tertiary levels, and on preventive, core health services rather than curative services.

Priorities should focus on: Parameterization of education spending towards quality and efficiency at primary and secondary levels. Improving skills matching to labor market needs. Expanding early childhood development programs for poor communities. Emphasizing a primary and preventive health service. 3 Insuring the Poor against Major Risks: Nigerian poor continue to be highly vulnerable to major shocks and to be locked in poverty traps because of excessive uninsured risk.

Public action needs to be selective, preventive and targeted where possible to reduce the economic limitability of the poor to the major risks. A public social protection program with the following priorities could have the most cost-effective impact in reducing the vulnerability of the poorest of the poor in Nigeria: Cross-sectarian, multi-level response to AIDS; Drought preparedness; Legal reform to provide equal rights to women; and Safety nets which are primarily work-based and self-targeted. Accountability, Information and the Poor A more coordinated approach to local development efforts?based on accountability of local government structures to the community and better monitoring of poverty information?is essential for improving economic management and poverty reduction efforts.

Poverty information is very limited The Government, Nags, donors, and others have identified the lack of data on poverty trends and their determinants as a major constraint to establishing greater poverty focus in policy formulation. There is also no clear institutional framework for coordinating data generated by different institutions. Such data and an institutional structure to channel information to policy-makers and community organizations could facilitate social debate and prepare the groundwork for enacting reform.

Strengthening Institutions to Increase the Poverty Impact of Policies: Finally, the speed and effectiveness with which the public policy framework can orchestrate this transformation can be improved by governance structures which are accountable to communities and with ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the ways in which growth dynamics are affecting the poor?both positively and negatively. Priority should be attached to: Institutional mechanisms which ensure poverty planning at central level; Local level coordination and community participation; and Establishment and use of a poverty monitoring and analysis system.

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Settling the Rio Grande Valley

Settling the Rio Grande Valley The Rio Grande Valley consists of the southern most part of Texas, along the Texas/Mexico border. The population growth in this area was very slow until the 1900’s, when it began to skyrocket. From 1920 to 1930, the population in the Valley more than doubled. One of the main factors for this population increase was the railroad construction. The St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico railroads all were completed in 1904. This furthered the expansion of the already popular method of irrigation farming in this area.

The railroad system allowed for commercial production of different fruits and vegetables. Irrigation farming became extremely popular in this area and citrus orchards began popping up in this area. The farmers even discovered a tree that would thrive in the Valley climate. Irrigation farming became so successful that an amendment was added to the Texas constitution encouraging irrigation and drainage districts. Though it was becoming very popular, irrigation farming was far more expensive than the dry farming done in West Texas.

It was almost impossible for small farmers to compete with the corporate farms and wealthy land owners. The large, corporate farms required extensive staff and therefore increased the population. The railroads continued to encourage population growth into the 20’s and 30’s by running excursion trains. These trains transported people, free of charge, from North Texas cities into South Texas. The passengers would often times buy land in South Texas and a single excursion could generate up to one million dollars in land sales. The economy continued to thrive and population continued to grow.

Since most of the Valley consisted of large, corporate farms; the farmers relied on low paid laborers and the farms had their own cotton gins, stores, and employee housing. This created a wide gap between the wealthy and the poor, this gap was wider and more apparent than in other areas of the state because there were less small farmers to buffer the gap. Many of the low-wage laborers were African- American or Mexican-American. With that said, not only did rifts between classes become more evident, but also the racial tension became heavier.

Earlier, “tradition and a relatively static social and political order” made people more sympathetic with the Tejanos. But during the twentieth century, these wealthy land owners were far more unsympathetic to the Tejano traditions and culture than in earlier years. This made discrimination more rampant and people became more outspoken with their bigotry. There are many documented events, like the Brownsville Affair to shed light on the extreme racism. In 1906, a documented fight broke out between a black soldier at Fort Brown and a local merchant.

Since the soldiers arrived at Ft. Brown, the black soldiers were subject to extreme hatred and racism. With this particular incident, shots were fired and a white man was killed. This just goes to show the intense division between the classes and the hatred that was shown between the two groups. The railroads, the newly popular irrigation system, and the high land sales all contributed to the population growth, but because the corporate farms dominated the area, racial tension was very prevalent.

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Activity Based Costing And Agricultural Businesses

Similar to a food chain, all the consumers directly and indirectly depend on the producer. It maybe overlooked by the public but agricultural business are the starting point of all business and progress. These businesses are our producers. For that same reason that the government should aid in the development of agricultural businesses. One way to make moves on developing these kinds of businesses is to look at their management. Management not in the sense of who owns or who handles the business but it pertains to the system which businesses use.

Owners and handlers can be replaced or can be found lacking over time but a system for work flow of the business can be analyzed and improved for future use. This particular case, the John and Mary Farmer case study, simulates this need for a better system in an agricultural business so that it can be more productive and it can stay that way through generations. Improving the Farmer’s business and many agricultural businesses like it can be done using ABC or activity based costing. Activity Based Costing: What is it?

Reading through the details of the case study, the suggested solution for the Farmer’s problem is to make use of activity based costing also called ABC. The definition below is found from the article, Activty Based Costing method ABC approach: ABC is a costing model that identifies the cost pools, or activity centers, in an organization and assigns costs to products and services (cost drivers) based on the number of events or transactions involved in the process of providing a product or service.

Basically, ABC creates a system where the out flow of cash and other resources are allocated according to the activity or activities of the business which utilizes them. Activity centers or cost pools are some terms used to refer to resource consuming processes of the business. These centers come from transactions or events in the flow of the business where resources are involved. Activity centers are determined by cost drivers which are, from the name itself, things which driver or cause a cost. Behind every cost consuming activity of a business is or are cost drivers.

For one activity center there may be more than one cost driver but it greatly helps to determine what these drivers are. ABC is advantageous, for one, because all forms of resources and finances consumed by the activities of the business are accounted for. The standing of the business is not only determined by the amount of money used and gained but also on the number of other resources consumed and gained. Agricultural business like the one of the Farmers involves many steps in preparing the crops for sale and actual selling of the crops.

These steps do not always involve cash payments. As a result, the costs of the activities of the business will be more accurate, compared to traditional costing methods, since ABC takes into account all modes of payment. One difficulty found in using ABC is in the determination of activity centers. Majority of businesses have major costly activities and menial tasks that also cost the business. If a business has too many activities and the importance of these activities varies, it will be difficult to allocate the cost and to continuously update the data.

Collecting data will become more burdensome to the business if ABC is used than traditional costing methods. The activity based costing can make up for the downsides because it allows the management to better see how the business can be improved. All the resources consumed by each activity are shown using ABC so the management can be able to determine how to minimize the costs or at least control the costs. In addition, once cost drivers are determined, minimizing costs would be possible by manipulating the cost drivers.

For large businesses, where there are numerous activity centers and a number of cost drivers, identifying which driver causes which cost maybe difficult. This is because some cost drivers maybe involved in causing the need for more than one cost and activity center. The increasing number of cost drivers and activity centers may also increase the errors in presenting and recording data. ABC in Agricultural Businesses Theoretical knowledge of activity based costing can be applied to the case of the Farmers and other agricultural businesses like it.

Although the business has been in the Farmer family for generations, the same problems have remained in the business for generations as well. With the introduction of a new management system, such as activity based costing, there is a chance that the problems being encountered can be solved. First of all, the Farmers have been using their own management system on the business for a long time. John’s first worry is that the current system is insufficient for the business since he believes it can still be improved. He wants to bring some changes into the system for the time when his son takes over the business.

There are many processes involved in agricultural business which makes use of different resources and equipment. As mentioned above, ABC allocates a business’ costs into separate activity centers. These activity centers are resource consuming transactions of the business. An advantage given by ABC is that the cost is accounted for in all types of payment and consumption. If this was not the case and traditional method was used in accounting for costs, it is highly possible that the cost will be understated or overstated.

Using ABC also answers two more of John Farmer’s dilemmas. Since ABC focuses on the activities of a business, it can be used to differentiate the costs of producing soy from corn crops. As shown in figure 1, the activities concerning soy and corn of individual farms are separated. John can therefore determine the separate costs of the two crops and the costs and yield of each farm. Although the figure has a set back, the salability and the profits of the crops from individual farms are not shown in the final stage in the diagram.

Even if the crops come from farms side by side, there will be some differences when they come out as crops. These differences may influence the consumer on which crop he or she would by. All the crops are bunched together and then sold; however, this could be fixed. The crops can be sold in batches when it reaches the market. Separating the crops when selling them would be quite taxing but it would help determine the efficiency of each farm in producing quality crops. There were two basic designs of the proposed solution diagrams.

Both of these solutions make use of activity based costing but different styles of identifying and allocating the costs to the activity centers. The first method shows a detailed and sequential allocation of costs (refer to Figure 1. Central Schema). The many arrows and boxes may seem confusing but every activity center is individually connected to each other depending on the owner or tenant who is acquiring the cost. The graph also shows a sequential flow of cost allocation.

The cost flows starting from the preparation of materials needed, the processes in preparing the end product, up to the end which is the selling of the end product. In other words, it is a step by step allocation based on the chronological order of activities. The second suggestion shows a simpler looking diagram (refer to figure 2. ). The activities are clumped together in larger or more generalized categories. The case study already mentioned that the alternative solution may not fit perfectly with the wants of John Farmer but the centers are too generalized.

This maybe applicable to large scale operations where being very detailed would be more costly than saving. Since the Farmer’s troubles are not isolated problems, other agricultural businesses maybe facing the same problems as them. Although for the case of the Farmers, using ABC in their business would be a good choice it would not be the same for all businesses. Management systems are like shoes which fit only one size of feet. Careful analysis of the circumstances determines the kind of system that should be employed.

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Farm workers

Symbolizing the low regard for welfare of farm workers in various ethnic groups by the agricultural industry was el cortito, the short-handled hoe, known too as el brazo del diablo or “the devil’s arm”. In conjunction with hand weeding, it was useful in singling out lettuce, celery and beet starts, which were planted in heavy rows to guarantee that sprouts would survive the ravages of birds, bugs and weather. Use of the how required the worker to fold over at the waist, constantly raising and lowering the hoe while walking sideways down the row of plants.

Abundant medical evidence established that the hoe led to severe back injuries when used over a substantial period (Bender, 2003). In medical terms, the hoe caused abnormal degeneration of the spine, resulting in permanent disability and chronic back pain. Symptoms of short-handled hoe use included not only crippling injuries to the back but also nosebleeds, kidney malfunction, headaches, runny eyes from dirt, fever, acid urine, kidney pains, arthritis, exhaustion, wrist swelling and poisoning from inhaling pesticides.

A 1970 study found that the short-handled hoe caused health problems in 87 percent of respondents, and of workers age thirty-one or older, 91 percent complained back pain. Despite these figures, however, 50 percent of injured farm workers never saw a doctor due to intimidation, bureaucracy, inaccessibility of medical services and language barriers (Jain, 2006). Although replaced in most farming states by the long-handled hoe, growers in California continued to insist that their workers use the short-handled hoe in their lettuce fields (Bender, 2003).

For decades the growers had required field workers to use this tool that demanded its user bend over while working. Thousands of farm workers damaged their backs and spent the rest of their lives in disabling pain (del Castillo and Garcia, 1995). The short hoe is generally thought to have been introduced to California agriculture late in the nineteenth century as intensive crop farming took hold. When Japanese workers first came to California, they organized their own farms and thus had the freedom to use tools on a rotating basis and regularly change body position.

A change in appellation from what was then known as “squat labor” to “stoop labor” reflects the change in farm work itself. If at one time workers could kneel or squat while intensely cultivating an area, a stooped position allowed a worker to make his or her way hurriedly down crop rows. This change in working postures was one indicator of the loss of control over working conditions more generally, as the economic and political persecution of the newly organized Chinese and Japanese immigrants was supervened by Mexican immigrants (Jain, 2003).

Unlike their predecessors, the new immigrants were typically not from farming backgrounds. However, controllable labor was more attractive than skilled labor during those times. Consequently agricultural production underwent a reorganization. The reorganization of labor established a labor contractor or “crew pusher”, who made sure that farm workers were working as productively as possible. An increasing division labor established which was known as “factories in the field”.

The short-handled hoe was an instrument of mass production and due to the needs of agricultural mass production, it was used for hours and days without recess. In addition to this, it allowed crew pushers to watch over large fields to see “malingerers” who stood up to rest their backs. A stream of labor was available to compensate for workers who left the job due to injury or fatigue (daily turnover in short-handled hoe gangs was as much as 85 percent). The short hoe remained a standard tool of agriculture in California through most of the twentieth century (Jain, 2006).

El cortito, although barely mentioned in the literature on California agriculture, became a story that matters precisely for the ways that the suit both framed and forced articulations (articulations that are astonishingly frank in their racist underpinnings) about how sociohistoric events such as imported labor racialized bodies and how dangerous tools would be acted on and remembered (Jain, 2006). In “Abolition of El Cortito”, an exploration of “how social problems are solved within the state arena and how state policy affects the sources of social conflict” was made (Murray, 1982).

In 1887 to 1893 or during the time of incipient landholding consolidations, Chinese immigrants formed the bulk of farm labor and they virtually taught crop farming to the large farm owners. With increasing Chinese immigration, exclusion became the foremost issue of California politics. The white laborers saw the Chinese as stealing jobs and assisting large farm holders in monopolizing agriculture by helping them make the transition to crop farming. When the Chinese began to organize themselves by opening small businesses, employers’ interests allied with labor and attempts to restrict immigration began (Jain, 2006).

In 1882, 1892 and 1902, exclusion laws were passed in addition to the Nationality Act. The Nationality Act specified that only “free whites” and “African Aliens” could apply for naturalization in a country that was, by design, to be one of “Nordic fiber”. Thereafter, the Chinese who were excluded from farm and public works labor, land ownership, access to business licenses, testifying in court for or against a white man, public education, citizenship and naturalization, were confined in urban ghettos and faced vicious racism, violence, murder and expulsion.

In addition to this, they were given extra financial burdens in the form of taxation and specifically anti-Chinese laws and ordinances (Jain, 2006). Unfortunately, this cycle of using cheap labor and then maliciously dispossessing groups when they organized themselves was typical in California agriculture. South Asians, Japanese, Filipinos and Armenians had similar experiences to those of the Chinese. “My ancestors or great grandfathers were farmers in California, and they suffered the same treatment”.

Growers’ strategies ensured ethnic factions and a chronic oversupply of labor in a market that was already only seasonal. These tactics have been supported by the state government. One author notes that “confronted with an increasingly organized and militant agricultural work force, the state response typically has been to help promote the migration or immigration of a replacement supply” (Jain, 2006). As the Chinese tried to find better employment away from the fields, the growers looked elsewhere for workers to tend fields and harvest crops.

During the early 1990s, immigration laws were changed to make it easier for Mexican workers to enter the United States. Between 1917 and 1921, more than 23,000 Mexicans legally entered the United States. By the end of the 1920s, more than 70,000 Mexicans were living in California at least part of the year. The new migrant workers also suffered racism. Even though the farming industry could not exist without the migrants’ labor, many growers looked at the workers as lesser beings.

A California sheriff said, “The Mexicans are trash (and) they have no standard of living (so) we herd them like pigs” (Davis, 2007). Each day that the minority groups worked continued working, they noticed how they, the poor farmers, were mistreated. Day by day, they become willing to stand up to the injustices that they saw (Davis, 2007). They made protests and boycotts against the growers. After noticing Latino farm workers walking with a rigid gait, a California Rural Legal Assistance lawyer began a seven-year struggle in the late 1960s to bury the short-handled hoe.

The legal battle, on behalf of several ethnic groups, particularly the Latino farm workers, to outlaw the short-handled hoe eventually reached the California Supreme Court, which ruled the division had misinterpreted its regulation. Consequently, the use of el cortito or the short-handled hoe was abolished and somehow, social discriminations or racism towards ethnic groups decreased (Bender, 2003).

References

Bender, Steven. (2003). Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law and the American Imagination. New York: New York University Press.Davis, Barbara J. (2007) The National Grape Boycott: A Victory for Farmworkers. USA: Compass Point Books. del Castillo, Richard Griswold and Richard A. Garcia. Cesar Chavez: A Triumph of Spirit. USA: University of Oklahoma Press. Jain, Sarah S. L. Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety in Law in the United States. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Murray, Douglas L. (1982) The Abolition of El Cortito, the Short-Handled Hoe: A Case Study in Social Conflict and State Policy in California Agriculture. Social Problems, 30:1, 26-39.

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Indian Farmers Agony

Genesis extricated from the globe because of unavailability to sate their vital need. Existence of human life extremely depends upon agriculture. Food is inevitable for human life. Numerous record and vocal famines in human history, have accounted millions of millions premature deaths.

Therefore, foodstuffs have ever been primary concern of humanity. Therefore, our dependence upon agriculture is of utmost importance. Golden epoch of farmers and career Agriculture; backbone of economy: Farmers is an axle, around which all agricultural and industrial activities revolve. There is higher correlation between agriculture and developmentwhether it be household consumption, industrial, and governmental utilization or need to earn foreign cash to import national necessities.

Nervous farmer; of late, nobody wants farming as profession cheerfully. It is very unfortunate to know that ‘ANNADATA’ (Provider of food) under arrest of serious financial stress, many farmers in India, have committed suicide owning to debt. Crime Records Bureau of India in its 2012 annual report acknowledged 13,755 farmers suicide (11.2%) of overall suicides committed in India. Although The National Mental Health Association of the USA States ”No matter the race or age of the person; how rich or poor they are, it is true that most people who commit suicide have a mental or emotional disorder”.

Suicide is not a matter of economics. Same inference drained by the data released by World Health Organization in 2011.whereas agrarian country ,India’s suicide rate was 13 per 100000; at the same time as that of industrialized nations,were often higher or comparable, South Korea 28.5, Japan 20.1.,etc. All above reports seems to be partially true; only to small extent. It is practical, financial stress can fetch not only mental agony but also in various cases, emotional stress as well. Financial paucity is core cause of, numerous political- socio-economical -psychological disorders. It is just a matter of time when these theories diminish and go to a nightmare.

Climate change; price – output paradox: Most of the farmers in India are marginal farmers. Government of India’s annual report 2016-17 Estimated average size of holding, 1.15 hectare. Farmer’s heavy reliance on weather brings uncertainty of yield. Weather plays vital role for especially marginal farmers. If typical weather is friendly, harvest is good; otherwise, almost poor output is predictable. Most suicide of farmers had reported from water- scarce states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh etc.

Increasing input cost of production: Agriculture input cost is increasing, rather than output revenue. Management and hiring laborers and latest tools and techniques is costlier to the farmers. Apart from this, usual seeds and crop protecting insecticides and machineries to grow crop and harvesting, such as-tractors to plow, tube- wells to irrigate are nightmare for farmers. Thus, horrific scenarios worry farmers.

Marketing of agricultural production: Majority of farmers are still illiterate. They are neither strong enough to fight with strong gamut of intermediaries, traders and corrupt marketing machineries nor organized to do so. Their crop in the mandis or market place sold manipulatively before their eyes and they are mere spectator.

Thus, primarily twist their arm and force farmer to rush localized moneylenders for debt and fulfill their urgent need of time. Climate change plays vital role in farmers well being. Dilemmas of farmers been portrayed as…. Influence of population; there is very crucial correlation between agriculture and population. Condorcet and Godwin produced such works, which promised to create heaven on earth. Mercantilists as well as Physiocrate, Mirabeau, had always regarded numerous population advantageous .

Godwin was so confident and optimistic that he proclaimed, “Government even in its best state is an evil”. He anticipated such a society in which after breaking the bonds of property, of passions and marriage would live happily on only half a day’s work. Such optimism have some force, and hold true even after a long time. After a rapid growth in the population over the years, there is plenty of food grain in the world, if managed , distributed, skillfully and impartially, keeping humanity above all cast, creed and beyond geographical boundaries , to the needful of every people of the earth.

Farmers have always obtained either semi- crop, due to several explicit and implicit factors. Semi- prices due to socio- economical and political reasons. He is always lagging behind in the facilities of education, health and transportation even after a long time of independence. Meanwhile tries to minimize input cost of labor, this comes at the cost of engaging whole of his family members for the sake of survival of the family, resulting uneducated, unskilled progeny.

During the next cycle of division of farms among the heir of farmer’s, descendants work either as manual labor or just a marginal farmer to be anxious, wait and watch, hoping government help and waivers. In Such a horrible scenario, after toiling day and night, it becomes very burdensome to earn bare- bread without butter .Coming out from the vicious cycle of poverty is not possible without welfare and sensitive government. Thus, government intervention to revive farmer’s economic condition is urgent need of time and always solicited.

Government efforts and intervention: Our government has ever been reacted positively on farmer’s woes and wounds.Relief packages; As and when required government-provide relief packages to the needy farmers. Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, or Gujarat or any states of India all helped sometimes or any other.

Debt- waiver schemes: At the time of crop failure, due to any natural calamities, such as over pouring and scanty precipitation or drought, respective state governments and Indian government or both many times waived off farmer’s loan.

Soil health card: For better productivity, soil health card issued to the farmers for their farms.Integrated scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM) effective since 01.04.2014National Agriculture Market (e-NAM)Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS)Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS)

As discussed above, it is obvious that, farmers suffer a lot, from vicious cycle of climate change and price determination mechanism of input and output. If Climate favors, brings fortune in the form of good productivity and yield of crops. All together, due to weaker retaining power of their farm product; bring their bumper crops at a time in the market increase supply, resulting poor pricing; due to application of demand and supply laws of economics; connivance of intermediaries, scheming traders and bureaucracy; what is the outcome of this all-copious crop? Farmers bitter experience of unproductive farming, securing semi price for abundant crop. Half- baked price for full- baked rice. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address farmer’s despair in India.

Following measures may taken to embalm their miseries:

  1. Rainwater should be harvest with full vim and vigor on large scale. Rainwater harvesting tools and techniques should be subsidized and easily available to the farmers.Education and advertisements, Should imparted among the citizens of India to save even single drop of water. Although, this is herculean task and need a lot of finance, yet would prove very fruitful in long run.
  2. Twenty -four hours subsidized electricity for irrigation should be provided to the farmers
  3. Dependence on chemical fertilizers should gradually mitigated and be substituted with organic fertilizers to sustain fertility and productivity of land.
  4. Ceiling of minimum farm size norm, for cultivation should be determined. Below this farm size limit, cooperative farming should be mandatory.
  5. Farmland must be saving essentially from any misuse. Every possible attempt should carry out to save agricultural land. High- rise buildings in place of independent dwellings be preferred and permitted like China, to save extra land. Agricultural land should not utilize rather saved from industrial and residential land misuses.
  6. It is evident ,due to unawareness and self esteemed.

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