Food for Thought: Towards a Future for Farming

by Patrick Herman, Richard Kuper

Overview

The original Changeons de politique agricole (2002, Mille et une nuits, Paris) was produced for the Confédération Paysanne, Europe's most important radical farmers' trade union. Herman and Kuper trace the root of such problems as mad cow disease, fertilizer contamination of water, and obesity and associated illnesses to what they call productivism in agriculture: the drive to increase output without limit, and the consequent search for ever more efficient methods of production. They describe and defend the set of saner policies proposed by the Confederation. Distributed in the US by Stylus. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745320779
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Publication date:	12/20/2003
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	4.92(w) x 6.97(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Patrick Herman, a long-time member of the Confédération Paysanne and a full-time farmer, is a trade-union activist in the department of the Aveyron. He was responsible for editing the original French edition of this book.Richard Kuper has been a publisher, university lecturer and trade-union and political activist. He spent much of the last four years farming in France in the department of the Drôme where he was a member of the Confédération. He is now politically active back in Britain.José Bové is a global leader of movements to save family farms. He is also a leader of the international farmers' movement Via Campesina.

Table of Contents

	List of boxes	vii
	List of abbreviations	viii
	Translator's note	x
	Foreword	xiii
	Introduction	xv
1	The industrialisation of farming	1
	1962: the birth of productivism	2
	Exporting and free trade	5
	From stockpiling to commercial war	9
	The logic of free trade	12
	Europe's export vocation	22
2	Reforming the CAP	26
	1992: the topsy-turvy CAP	26
	The Marrakech shambles	32
	1999: From Berlin to Seattle	40
	Headlong to disaster!	45
3	French agricultural trade unionism: the long march of the Confederation Paysanne	47
	The FNSEA (the National Federation of Farmers' Unions)	48
	The rumblings of opposition	50
	The birth of the Confederation	54
4	Major principles for changing international policies	64
	An overview of the 'givens'	64
	Reaffirm food sovereignty	65
	Make dumping illegal	67
5	Fateful choice for the CAP	77
	A false opposition	78
	Towards a reform of the CAP in 2003	82
	A real revolution	87
6	Towards a solidaristic citizens' and farmers' CAP	96
	End the supposed export vocation of the EU	96
	Supply management	99
	A policy founded on equitable prices	101
	A de-intensified agriculture	105
	A genuine policy of rural development	106
	Giving answers to farmers while awaiting CAP reform	109
7	Conclusion	113
Appendix 1	L'agriculture paysanne: a charter for small farming	116
Appendix 2	Campaign for an immediate change in the direction of the CAP	124
Appendix 3	Resources	130
Appendix 4	The CAP reform of 26 June 2003: last orders	143
	Notes	146
	Index	152