Imagine a world that is equal and where People use exclusively, organic foods are produced locally! Imagine a world where the air is free from industrial pollution and where everyone is his own boss!
What a wonderful and idyllic vision of the world, do not you think?? The earthly paradise, whatever!
But wait a minute!
In this world that is so wonderful, life expectancy does not exceed 30 years, many children died at a young age and people are constantly faced with famine! In this world that is so idyllic there, or doctors or dentists, or buildings which are sanitary!
If this enchanted world is egalitarian, because everyone is poor! If the air is pure, it is because there are no industries to employ people! If the food is organic, it is because there are no pesticides and still less of agricultural technology!
consequence: people s'éreintent in fields to produce food that is sufficient only to feed their families!
This world is spooky, or at least it has already existed: it was the past! Our past! The past of a civilization that was nutritionally sovereign, of course, but that was mired in a miserable existence!
Fortunately, technological progress brought us out of the doldrums in which we were entangled, but now there are people who want us back in the same doldrums !
With the rise in food prices experienced by the world in spring 2008, many states have decided to limit or even ban the export of their agricultural production, by imposing tariffs that are prohibitive to farmers wishing to sell their goods abroad! If the movement was gaining momentum, we can see easily, the following things: agricultural exports are limited, it will force countries to produce all the food that is necessary for their people!
other words, we will implement the absurd concept of sovereignty Food !
What a wonderful and idyllic vision of the world, do not you think?? The earthly paradise, whatever!
But wait a minute!
In this world that is so wonderful, life expectancy does not exceed 30 years, many children died at a young age and people are constantly faced with famine! In this world that is so idyllic there, or doctors or dentists, or buildings which are sanitary!
If this enchanted world is egalitarian, because everyone is poor! If the air is pure, it is because there are no industries to employ people! If the food is organic, it is because there are no pesticides and still less of agricultural technology!
consequence: people s'éreintent in fields to produce food that is sufficient only to feed their families!
This world is spooky, or at least it has already existed: it was the past! Our past! The past of a civilization that was nutritionally sovereign, of course, but that was mired in a miserable existence!
Fortunately, technological progress brought us out of the doldrums in which we were entangled, but now there are people who want us back in the same doldrums !
With the rise in food prices experienced by the world in spring 2008, many states have decided to limit or even ban the export of their agricultural production, by imposing tariffs that are prohibitive to farmers wishing to sell their goods abroad! If the movement was gaining momentum, we can see easily, the following things: agricultural exports are limited, it will force countries to produce all the food that is necessary for their people!
other words, we will implement the absurd concept of sovereignty Food !
Sorry, but me, "food sovereignty", I do not care!
Quebec is not sovereign in several areas: we must import energy, cars, industrial machinery, as well as products that are finished! We will not fare worse for it!
How does rely on imports for food, is so different, huh?? In 2011, we no longer live in autarky and that's just fine! It is trading with our neighbors, we import what we need and we export what we have too! I do not see the same problem and it is excellent, especially when it saves us, by importing goods at a lower cost than that produced here!
Everybody wins: here, we save and it creates employment elsewhere!
If his purchase is equivalent to voting, then, I vote for whoever gives me the most in their pockets at the end of the month!
We know now that the opening of industrial country markets to imports of agricultural products can help create economic activity in countries that are developing! More generally, American economist Jeffrey Sachs and his colleague Andrew Warner reached into their work, a correlation between the annual growth of GDP and the openness of the economy, which told the Swedish essayist Johan Norberg it is foolish to claim that countries become self-sufficient !
To understand how this concept would be detrimental to a company, apply it to the people! Would you like to be "food sovereign", huh?? In other words, is what you would be interested in producing all the food you eat??
All the people, I hope my answer is no, because it would not be advantageous for them to sacrifice their jobs or to sacrifice their education, to plow a field, in order to get a pittance! Some will say it is, by far more profitable to leave that job to farmers or to a workforce that is highly specialized and is able to produce, effectively, a wide variety of foods !
Not being forced to be "food sovereign" individuals have, therefore, the ability to specialize in a task that appears to be more profitable! Some of them will become engineers, while others become nurses, or even plumbers!
is only by giving up food sovereignty that these occupations are then possible, because in a society where people must be "food sovereign", no one has the opportunity to specialize, to become a doctor!
If the concept of food sovereignty is completely absurd, at the individual level, it is the same across the country! People / countries that are "food sovereign" will sacrifice specialization, for a pittance! It is better to leave agriculture to the people / countries that are specialized, what gives, people / countries, the ability to perform tasks that are more productive!
I shall be told that countries that are not "food sovereign" is to thank you exporting countries! True, just like the doctor is to thank you for the farmer, if he wants to eat three meals a day! We will all agree to say that a society where people have abandoned their food sovereignty, to become doctors, is preferable to a society that has no doctor, because everyone wants to be "food sovereign "!
Effects applying a policy of food sovereignty are by far more harmful than the rise in food prices that we experienced in spring 2008 !
At the time, in several regions of the world, the price of food has seen a dramatic increase! It was not uncommon to see increases that were greater than 100% !
Yet in Canada, the situation was completely reversed! In March 2008, the price of food experienced deflation, accusing a decline of 0.2%! The rising dollar that has prevailed at the same time, has certainly played a role, but it does not explain everything! United States, where the currency was constantly devalued, the price of food had increased by only 0.2%, again in March 2008 !
Why is that, while food prices did not seem to limit, eh??
economist of CIBC said that the fierce competition that engage supermarkets explains this paradox! To the glory of mankind, this competition was initiated by the opening of Wal-Mart Supercenters, which are stores where you can do the grocery !
say that there are some who do the dance of bacon before the next arrival of Wal-Mart Supercenters, Quebec , whereas if they did not exist, the price of food was, surely, at a price that would be inaccessible for many people here and what would surely worse for countries that are poor, like those of Africa which was the epicenter of the global food crisis of 2008!
short, in Canada and the United States, free-market acted as a brake on the rising price of food ! Also at that time in Egypt, where the government subsidizes bread, in addition to the distribution, prices have exploded !
Again, science, technology and free trade are the future of Humanity! Let us stop being afraid! Why would someone buy strawberries from Quebec, while, for example, those of Costa Rica are less expensive, besides being less toxic, eh ??
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