Life Onboard LAST UPDATE  July 21, 2010
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June 28, 2010 The Dark Side of the Food Trade – Sakuma Tomoko
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Sakuma Tomoko has written numerous articles on the trade of food and water, and how this has affected human rights around the world.

There is enough food grown around the world to feed those who are malnourished and dying of starvation. But much of the world's staples like grain and corn are not going into the mouths of hungry people. Instead this food is being used as fodder for livestock or for biofuel. Sakuma Tomoko, the Director of the Pacific Asia Resource Center, travelled with the 69th Voyage from Ireland to Venezuela to give a series of lectures which included an assessment of how food distribution can lead to increased poverty.

"Developing countries import most of their staples from developed nations like the United States," she said. Many of these countries used to be self-sufficient because they had a large number of farmers. But Ms Sakuma said that the US policy of overproducing food to maintain agriculture throughout the country has had a crippling effect on some of the most vulnerable communities.
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Participants onboard the 69th Voyage will visit communities in Latin America that are extremely vulnerable to changes in food prices.

"The US has undercut local markets with free or very cheap exports which were given to countries such as Haiti," she said. This caused a collapse in the agriculture industry of many nations because local producers were unable to compete with such low prices. The loss of local farms means that these countries are now in a fragile situation where even small changes in the distribution of food can have a disastrous impact.

The US has recently made a huge shift in its policy towards excess corn, and is now diverting produce towards the nation's emerging biofuel industry rather than exporting it. This has had a dramatic effect on nations relying on corn exports. "In 2007, the price of corn in Mexico almost doubled because of increasing demand," Ms Sakuma said. This is not the only country where there has been a huge spike in the price of food. There are more than 60 countries which rely on US exports, Ms Sakuma said. "Now they will not be able to import these staples from the US and this has created a crisis in these countries."
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Global University students travelled with Ms Sakuma in Venezuela where they learnt about how food is distributed in the country.
Ms Sakuma held a series of workshops with students enrolled in Peace Boat's Global University (GU) Programme. This included seminars explaining how resources are being used by large companies and rich governments to exert influence over poorer nations. "I try to let the students think for themselves and help them to become interested in learning more information about these issues."

The lessons are an eye-opening experience for the students, who come from developed nations where food prices are low compared to the average salary. The United Nations estimates that between 13 and 20 per cent of income in these countries is spent on food. Other nations like Bangladesh spend much more, with expenditure on food taking up more than 60 per cent of the average wage, Ms Sakuma said. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this problem. Even redeveloping local agricultural industries in these areas could be extremely challenging. "Most hungry and poor people live where water challenges pose a constraint to food production," Ms Sakuma said.