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Strong Roots, Fragile Farms
Strong Roots, Fragile Farms, is a made for television documentary produced by Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ and the National Council of Churches. Hosted by Willie Nelson with a music score written by Peter Buffett (Dances with Wolves soundtrack), the film explores the real life impact of globalization upon today's family farmer in the Iowa and North Carolina as well as in the Philippines, and Mexico. The film puts human faces from around the world on a complex problem that many believe is destroying the family farm—globalization.
What is Globalization?
Globalization refers to the increasing worldwide interconnection of the products, services and markets of all countries and peoples coupled with access to those markets by large multi-national corporations.
What's wrong with globalization? What impact does it have on the family farm?
The income of the basic family farm is not keeping pace with the growth of the American economy; the productivity of the family farm is also not keeping pace with that of large corporate farm competitors. The same is increasingly true around the world. This trend continues to force more and more farmers off their land each year. Each year, the cost of farming exceeds the income most farmers receive in the market for sale of their goods.
How significant is the impact?
According to recent government statistics:
- Since 1935 there has been a loss of 4.5 million farms in the US alone.
- Between 1993 and 1998, more than 104,000 farmers raising 500 hogs or fewer gave up pigs or left farming altogether; this represents a 55% percent reduction in only six years.
- In processing corn and soybeans and milling flour, the top 4 companies control between 57 and 80 percent of operations.
- About 89 percent of farms are family corporations, with more than 50 percent of the stock held by people related by blood or marriage.
- About 84 percent of the average farm operator's household income comes from off-farm sources.
- Farms with over $250,000 in sales account for less than 5 percent of all farms but dominate American agricultural output. These large farms sell over 65 percent of the nation's livestock and over 66 percent of the crops.
- Since 1984, the real price of a USDA market basket of food has increased 2.8 percent while the farm value of that food has fallen by 22.4 percent.
According to Bill Christison, president of both the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and the U.S. National Family Farm Coalition, in a speech presented at the RIAD International Forum July 5, 2000 Porto Alegre, Brazil, "As family farmers, many of the barriers to our profitability and survivability are the same—whether in Brazil, France, Canada, Mexico, or the U.S. The increasing role of the multi-national corporations in controlling both the inputs and the marketing of our commodities jeopardizes our very existence."
Today, 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world are not countries but multinational corporations—not subject to democratic rules and principles.
more information from UCC
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