Only by working together can farmers stand up to transnational corporations and ensure their voices are heard in the future, an Australian dairy farmer has told delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference.

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Commenting on the findings of the OFC-commissioned report, Power in Agriculture, which reveals “the current water intensive, fertiliser intensive and energy intensive agricultural practices of European countries are unsustainable in the near future,” Mr Hehir said, “If we accept the paradigm that modern agriculture must consume vast amounts of non-renewable natural resources, the future of mankind is utterly dependent on finding better ways to farm,” but warned that this may be made difficult by those who wield economic power and, therefore, influence.

He suggested that an effective counter-measure for farmers, after Defra Secretary Caroline Spelman effectively admitted to a high level of collaboration with transnational corporations (TNCs) in the policy making process at government level, is to organise into cooperatives. Ms Spelman said earlier in the day, “The UK government understands the power of these organisations and how we both need to influence them and draw on their expertise. So we are working closely with them.”

However, the Australian speaker took a different viewpoint to the government. He warned of the entrenchment of power in the hands of a few powerful players, using several Australian sectors as examples of the dangers which follow farmers giving up their power.

Power in global agriculture risks leaving the hands of farmers

Mr Hehir illustrated his warning with the example of the dismantling of the Australian Wheat Board, which existed to maximise returns for producers, under pressure from the WTO led to wheat growers becoming beholden to a few large corporations. He also said tomato farmers who supply the processed tomato market have suffered the same fate. Mr Hehir said one leading grower had commented that he is now little more than a “specialist irrigator who strictly observes the planting and growing regime prescribed by the TNC.”

He repeated several times that “The only beneficiaries of transnational corporations are the shareholders themselves,” as caution against the ensconcement of power in the hands of a few corporate actors.

Figures on seed ownership offer a sobering picture of the oligarchic landscape of modern agriculture; 70 per cent of the global seed market is now in the hands of three companies and 80 per cent of the land planted with major field crops in the USA is owned or licensed by agribusiness Monsanto. Mr Hehir said this situation is incompatible with sustainable practices such as saving and replanting seed.

He also said that the interplays of power between TNCs and retailers, between whom farmers feel the squeeze, unable to pass on costs down the food chain, have affected agriculture’s ability to compete with other sectors; in Australia, agriculture cannot compete with the mining sector, which requires a similar skill set but can offer much higher pay.

Voices within UK farming have already warned that supermarket pressures and rising input costs are putting unsustainable pressures onto farmers. Many farmers are unable to take on or support apprentices due to costs; the latest figures from the EU statistics office Eurostat show that, for many of the bloc’s producers, increases in income have risen slower than inflation.  

Cooperative organisation only way to compete with corporate muscle

Mr Hehir suggested that the only way to effectively combat this is by organising into cooperatives. He used the example of several successful dairy cooperatives from Europe, the USA and Australasia. He said that by organising to promote common aims and interests, farmers could withstand the pressures of the TNCs and retailers.

The agriculturalist cautioned, however, that successful cooperatives become targets for take-over by corporations and that producers’ greed should not affect their sense; surrendering control for short-term financial gain irreversibly affects the balance of power.

He stated that a cooperative must be equipped with constitutional checks to ensure that successful coops cannot easily surrender their power, which would inhibit any opportunistic member prepared to “’Cash the co-op family silver’ without respect for the economic power of future farming generations.”

He concluded that, “Farmer cooperatives are the only logical structure to address the power imbalance as agriculture journeys further down the path of TNC domination.”    

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