"Good" globalization.

• Author: Braun, Joachim von
• Position: Unconventional: A Point of View

Globalization of agriculture has long progressed at various frontiers. It is a mixed blessing. Carefully designed policies adapted to regional conditions are called for to foster the potential benefits for people and the ecology, and to prevent risks. These benefits, especially for the south, are large and should be tapped. Globalization means integration of inputs and outputs into global markets, global sharing of information and knowledge, and global rules governing such integration.

An agriculture that promotes high productivity of labour is a rather capital-intensive sector, i.e. investment in technology, skills and organizations. Globalization generally entails more mobile capital and finance, as well as increased volatility, reflected in exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations. As much of agricultural investment requires a long-run planning horizon. The transformation of agriculture is not generally made easier from that angle of globalization. On the other hand productive agriculture is knowledge-intensive and could vastly benefit form a lowered cost of information and knowledge, bot private and public, under globalization.

Traditionally agriculture is local as much of it is bound to the cultivated land, farmed by people in communities that attempt to make the best of the local land and water resources under prevailing climate and technological conditions. While land, water and, to a large extent, people are not internationally mobile, some inputs (seed, fertilizer, feeds), outputs and knowledge related to agriculture are very mobile, even in a global sense. At the same time, globalization is also feasible and increasingly happening on the consumption side of agriculture as tastes, especially of urban consumers become more uniform. This gives impetus to the globalization of foods processing industries. In this sense, globalization of agriculture-on the output and input side of production, at the processing and consumption end of the food system, and in research and knowledge systems-is a fact and for several decades has been ever-deepening Global players in the widely distributed, not just in North America and Europe.

How are these globalization trends impacting on food security and the livelihoods of people? Are these tendencies making the world a less safe place for consumers and farmers?

The answer is no. Food security for people has generally improved over the decades. Hunger continues to be on the decline but not to the...