Research

Harriet Friedmann. Photo: Stephen Uhraney

Although food prices have disappeared from the news after last year’s soaring prices, hunger continues to rise. According to Harriet Friedmann, sociology professor at U of T Mississauga and one of the country’s foremost experts on the economy of food, instability has been with us since the 1980s.

Friedmann explains countries experience periods of about 25 years of relative stability in food systems – with certain patterns of political power, land use, technology, diet and consumption – followed by another 25 years of instability in which accepted practices no longer work as they once did. For instance, export subsidies – almost universally criticized today – were widely embraced from 1947-73. The world is now in an unstable phase.

“We had cheap food for so long because of the rules in place,” says Friedmann who cites farm subsidies, food aid and cheap fossil fuels, which promoted industrialization of the food system, among these rules. “Now more sectors, and in particular energy, have become deeply integrated with agriculture. So as soon as energy prices go up, food prices go up.” The rapid shift to diverting grains to ethanol, she notes, closes the circle between food and fuel. “Before, we were competing only with our animals for grain, but now we’re competing with our cars and airplanes too.”

Friedmann’s research, which focuses on the history of food regimes, international trade, scientific assessments and the implementation of standards, examines how societies can achieve sustainable, socially just agriculture. Farming, she notes, could actually improve the environment. To do so, the knowledge of farmers must be part of a fundamental redirection of science and technology to support sustainable forms of production, she says.

As one of the scientists on the latest United Nations-led Expert Panel Friedmann agrees with the conclusion of The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology “Business as usual is not an option” if farming systems are to enhance rather than undermine ecosystem integrity and food security.

“We can question the rules, many of which are unwritten, that determine the relative prices of food and other commodities. We can then create the incentives and public policies that work best for agriculture, the environment and the needs of people.”

Source: UTM Magazine

Tags: Featured Researcher, food, Harriet Friedmann, politics, Society, U of T Mississauga