Agriculture v. The Market

The media coverage on one of the largest and most mobilised protests in history has been disappointing to say the least. Indian farmers are continuing to sit in and blockade the highways of Delhi in their hundreds of thousands against new agricultural laws imposed by the Government. The offending laws having been passed by Parliament in September as well as approved by the Indian President. The laws change 3 factors of agricultural life that give more power to large corporations, remove Government minimum pricing and support for key crops. In essence Indian farmers are being opened to the hands of the “benevolent” free market. Without the safety net of guaranteed prices, corporations can waltz in and buy crops at cheaper prices than the farmers would ordinarily receive for them. The Indian government claims it will improve the efficiency of a sector of the Indian economy that accounts for half of the country’s workforce and 16% of GDP. Efficiency though has often been the excuse given to hail the benefits of what privatisation would do to a state run body. Although delving into that might be out of scope of this article but privationsation’s efficiencies can be read as cutting workers wages below livable wages to trim expenses and changing their target from customer quality to profit at all costs. 

A free market for Indian farmers will mean that the wealthiest farmers and transnational corporations will be able to offer lower prices, push farmers out of their land (when it is no longer cost effective to survive), and buy up even more farmland. You end up with millions out of work with only the choice between migration to urban areas or working for poverty wages as slave hands for these wealthy tillage purchasers. In short these farmers are fighting for their livelihoods and the only work they have ever done. According to Oxfam, 75% of rural women in employment in India are farmers. Privatisation and market forces pushing their grubby hands into agriculture will devastate a country that already has one of the worst responses to poverty and child malnutrition rates in the world. 

It is very rare to see fully free markets in developed nations as they too know that if they stick their finger in that pie then it will wreak havoc and damnation upon them. Quotas and minimum pricing across the world ensure that farmers are able to sustain themselves where labour fluctuates so much season to season and produce life sustaining food for the populous. 

So what alternatives are there? The wicked witch of the west was always fond of confidently (incorrectly) claiming that there was no alternative to the free market. Market forces in relation to agriculture has only been a very modern idea in the last 2-300 years. For millennia agriculture was broadly communal with shared land and resources. This was more so out of necessity rather than improvements to output and quality.

Cooperative farming still continues namely in Latin America, the Lenin Sovkhovz, and right here in Ireland to name a few. The Lenin Sovkhovz continues to provide high wages, child care, health care and generally a higher standard of living especially compared to farm hands toiling under large corporate farms. They achieve this by putting any profits back into the collective farm itself. Bosses and managers don’t take hefty chunks and workers don’t make a dime to their dollar, or kopeck to their ruble I should say. That isn’t just addressing the market issue though, in this regard the collective farm is able to act like a union when it comes to negotiating contracts and payment of surplus. This far exceeds any power a single farmer could wield against corporations looking for an easy profit. This is also the same technique employed in Ireland featuring our own cooperatives. Milk coops being a big player in the game where farmers can become members, have a say in the running of the coop and see their farms and their standard of living rise each year. Farmers in coops are more likely to feel connected and want to achieve what is best for the coop. The Farm Relief Services even found that 94% of young farmers consider cooperatives important for the future. 

One of the worst things I see in modern media is how a lot of channels, newspapers, organisations etc. are all owned by the wealthy, by the very people who benefit from the market running rampant over the lives of ordinary workers. The best thing we can do to combat this is to educate ourselves on the alternatives, they are definitely out there and closer than you might think. Millions of people benefit from collective farms, strong state farming measures and comradery. Agriculture is the base upon where we build our society, if you don’t fight for them when the market comes knocking on your door then there won’t be anybody to fight for you when the bell tolls for your life and standard of living.

Le Rian Mac Sheoinín