The Rural Voice, 1993-12, Page 41period. So we and our partners will
maintain complete control of the
process."
This movement will turn farmers
into franchise operators, Kneen
maintains. This kind of operation has
dominated the chicken industry in the
U.S. for some
time and is
moving into pork
there as well.
Companies
provide the
restricted genetic
stock in the form
of chicks or
piglets, provide
the feed and other
inputs, let the
farmer raise them to their spec-
ifications, then take them back to
process and market them.
There is one aspect of the
production of the product that is not
controllable: cheap labour. Therefore
companies manage to find a way
around the problem by leaving this to
the "independent" farmer. "The
independence of the farm unit is itself
illusionary. The deed to the farm may
carry the farmer's name, but it will be
the bank or the Farm Credit
Corporation that holds the mortgage.
Farmers may buy their inputs in their
own name, but they may well be
bought on credit supplied either by
the dealer or by the purchaser of the
farm crop if they are not already the
same (as is often the case in
monoculture production like
potatoes, tomatoes, corn and even
beef.)"
Critics of Kneen will argue that
efficiency drives the changes in the
industry but he argues that the system
is only efficient in the bookkeeping
of large corporations. For instance
the companies have been successful
in getting others to pick up additional
costs. Because the Ontario Milk
Marketing Board, and the farmers
who are part of it, pick up the cost of
transporting milk to the plant, they
would like the plants as close to the
cows as possible. The companies,
however, would like the plants as
close to the people as possible, so
Ault Foods built its fluid milk plant
in sight of the Don Valley Parkway in
Toronto (the huge word "AULT" on
Brewster Kneen
Book Review
the storage towers is worth a lot in
advertising).
Similarly, at the other end of the
spectrum, milk companies have
managed to fob off the cost of
delivery of the milk to the consumer
by persuading the customer to drive
to the store to buy milk, instead of the
more convenient, home delivery.
Kneen questions whose interests
are being represented at the GATT
talks and other international trade
rule -setting negotiations. Between
1984 and 1987, he points out, David
Gilmore, a vice-president of Cargill
Ltd. was on loan, under an "executive
exchange" program, to Agriculture
Canada to assist in drafting the
Conservative government's ag-
ricultural policy. Was he acting in the
best interests of farmers, or of
Cargill? In 1986 another Cargill
employee, Phil de Kemp, was loaned
to the Grain Marketing Bureau and
later became an aide to Charlie
Mayer, then minister of grains and oil
seeds.
Kneen worries that the
industrialization of agriculture is
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resulting in too much envir-
onmentally inefficient long-distance
shipping of goods, reducing the taste
and nutritional value of food. He
worries biological diversity is being
hurt by specialization in too few
varieties or breeds, narrowing the
genetic base. He calls for reversing
the current logic that holds we are
heading in a straight line to
"progress". He calls for producing
food close to where it will be
consumed, for pursuing biological
diversity, for more self-reliance on
trade build on equity and fairness
rather than export based on taking
advantage.
It's a book sure to stir controversy.
Many in the agriculture and food
industry will reject Kneen's
arguments entirely. Everyone,
however, should read the book to
spend a little time thinking about the
industry they depend on, both for
living and for making a living.0
From Land to Mouth —
Understanding the Food System :
Second Helping, by Brewster Kneen,
NC Press Limited, $16.95.
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DECEMBER 1993 37