Today there was a moving interview with Jean Ziegler in the Austrian newspaper “DerStandard”. Unfortunately you can’t read it online. I’ll summarize it. Most things shouldn’t be new. But it’s good to know some numbers.

  • In 1973 88m people suffered from permanent malnutrition, in 2003 there were 201m.
  • Last year the OECD-countries paid $US 349bn in farming subsidies.
  • On a market in Africa a European tomatoe is a third to half cheaper than a domestic one.
  • The developing countries’ debts accounted to $US 2100bn as per Dec 31 2005.

So something must be wrong here. Neither me, as a European, nor most urban Americans want to see their tax money spent on supporting an outdated industry. The raw materials we need for our food industry could easily be produced on an industrial scale, as it already happens. There is no need for subsidies. In fact I would go as far as stating, that there is no need to have a big agricultural industry in the developed nations. Why not import from South America and Africa?

Gradually abolish farming subsidies now. The sooner the better.