Cultural Impact
Transnational Corporations are enormous companies which maximise buying power resources and are able to undercut traditional modes of manufacture and agriculture.
Traditional communities, dependant on subsistence farming, have been marginalised as governments seek returns from cash crops. These cash crops reflect the consumer demand from dominant markets. Many fertile areas, which were the main food production zones, are sown with crops for export.
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These children from Africa (above) may not have as many opportunities growing up as children from other regions of the globe. However, the high availability of agricultural resources in their area will make their countries necessary players in the years ahead. Many other portions of the world follow similar patterns. |
As the population increases, it is likely that most developed nations will have insufficient agricultural products to support their populations. The developed world is likely to be increasingly dependent on 3rd world food supplies. Additionally, many developed nations have experienced declining profits for their agricultural sectors. Consequently rural people have been forced to relocate to urban areas producing rural decline. Young people are the first to leave rural areas because there are fewer educational and professional opportunities provided.
This has produced a net aging in the agricultural workforce , and few of the current farmers are encouraging their children to remain in agriculture. Most farmers can no longer afford extra labourers. What work they cannot do themselves, is often left undone. Often farmers have high debt burdens, because of erratic seasonal conditions and the high cost of required equipment. These financial problems are exacerbated by fluctuating product values and currencies.
The profitability of agriculture is increasingly threatened by climatic change induced by greenhouse emissions from the developed world's energy consumption. Greenhouse gases include carbon-based compounds, which are generated by fossil fuel combustion. Major sources of emissions include motor vehicle exhaust, industry, and electricity production from coal based plants. Levels of greenhouse gases have been rising since the Industrial revolution. The development of advanced nations has been achieved with the side effect of climate change. Despite rigorous scientific evidence given by the IPCC, some developed nations are unwilling to modify these emission levels. The largest producers of greenhouse emissions per capita today are the USA and Australia. Australia has been unwilling to sign the Kyoto Agreement on Greenhouse Emissions, because it has already exceeded the suggested target by over 16%, largely because of the reliance on thermal energy.
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The increasing use of fossil fuels in the modernised world may one day render developed countries incapable of producing their own food supply. Motorised vehicles (above) and other power-generating devices will gradually inflict profound evironmental effects that will soon find their way to affecting global economy. |
Small changes in rainfall and temperature will quickly alter the successful production areas for crops. It is likely that agricultural production will have to alter crops and production methods.
Horticultural and botanical scientists have demonstrated that as carbon dioxide levels increase, many plants alter their growth patterns. These include decreased levels of protein and increased stem and leaf areas with smaller fruit size. Most plants will go actually grow larger but be less nutritious. Although the increased growth may benefit some growers, such as sugar cane, it is probable that many crops will be decline in quality.
Climate change has begun to be felt in many areas around the world. Those areas most distant from the Equator have experienced the greatest changes. The Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts increases in mean temperatures by 5 degrees C, in the next 50 years. This will increase frequency of extreme weather events, which have enormous potential for crop and livestock damage. The elevating temperatures will slowly heat the oceans. The deep ocean currents, or gyres, will alter as their temperatures increase. These currents are believed to be the source of many of the global climatic patterns, such as the El Nino, La Nina Southern Oscillation. Computer modelling suggests that these changes will reduce rainfall to many of the Pacific's agricultural areas. However these experiments may not have included all the variables, which modify climate. It should be expected that outcomes could be more extreme, and widespread.
Declining agricultural conditions in Australia will be further exacerbated by the spread of salinity. A shallow sea covered Australia during the Ordivician and Devonian geological eras. This has left high levels of salt in the lower soil horizons. The introduction of intensive agriculture, which removed native trees, reduced transpiration of water from the root zone. Slowly water tables raised, carry salt solutes upward. These salts accumulate on and in the soils, are washed into rivers and streams, slowly increasing the riverine salinity. Irrigation accelerated these salt movements and has degraded much of the fertile land in Australia. 15-17million hectares are expected to be non-productive due to salinity by 2050. No solutions for this enormous problem have been found as yet, which demonstrates the need for prevention rather than reliance on technological solutions.
Altered climatic conditions will also alter the distribution and life patterns of microbiotic, invertebrate and larger flora and fauna. This will alter the spread of pests and diseases, eg Malaria and Ross River Virus. These are spreading into Southern Australia as mosquitoes occupy new niches. Native pollinators and other natural services may be restricted in new ways. It is likely that much of the pastoral areas will experience desertification, like that already seen around the Sahara.
Although many scientists are working on individual parts of these challenges, very few have examined the combined effect. It seems likely that areas for profitable agriculture will be severely restricted and altered.
As temperatures climb, sea levels will rise because of glacial and ice cap melt. Many low lying and coastal areas are likely to be submerged. Rivers will have marine intrusion increasing upstream, altering the available niches for flora and fauna. Coastal marshes and wetlands will be altered
Every area of the globe is likely to face dramatic changes, like those of Australia. The form of those challenges will reflect the underlying geology and nature of climatic shift at the local scale.
This scenario of substantial change will restrict available crops; reduce volumes and their nutritional value. This major issue has yet to be debated seriously by developed world leaders. Most politicians are so focused on their short-term electoral chances, that the problems looming in the future are receiving little attention. However it is likely that maintaining food production will be a significant focus of global resources in the near future.
In South America, productive land is now growing tobacco or other export crops, while the agricultural community farms traditional food crops on unstable hillsides, leading to landslides and mudslides, contributing to tragic loss of life. This practice of marginalizing food production, while with preferential production of other cash crops, particularly tobacco, is receiving critical attention. Despite the industry's strong allegiances within the political and finance sectors, this type of crop substitution has received attention from human rights, environmental and Indigenous peoples support groups.
Agricultural land has also been taken over for mineral exploration and mining. Often there is little site remediation after these activities, and there is little provision for the future of the indigenous people who are the traditional owners. The Kalahari bushman of Botswana have no land rights, and have faced a program of removal, fragmentation and genocide, aimed to remove them from their diamond-bearing land.
Indigenous people throughout the world have suffered repeated hardships from colonial exploitation, and recently from transnational exploitation. There are Humanitarian and Indigenous organisations across the globe identifying common issues, methods of protests, and finding improved solutions for the local people. Often these measures avoid lengthy expensive court battles, and while they may not be an ideal solution to the loss of rights and territories that has commonly occurred, they provide some compensation and redress for Indigenous communities