How Does Food Dumping Hurt Local Farmers in Developing Countries?
As previously defined, food dumping occurs when a developing country receives an excess of food aid, so much that they are thrown deeper into poverty. When a shipment of food aid comes in to a developing country, the price of food decreases sharply at local markets. As a result, it becomes more difficult for local farmers to compete, and many have a difficult time continuing to produce while turning out very little in profits (Barrett, 2006). The video below from VOA News addresses this issue in the first minute or so, and includes an interview with a local farmer in Haiti.
Other Negative Impacts on Local Economies
- Dependency on food aid prevents developing countries from learning how to be self-sufficient (Barrett, 2006)
- Dependency on aid may be a disincentive for people to find work, thus decreasing production (Hancock, 1989)
- Limits the availability of agricultural jobs (Barrett, 2006)
- Overexploitation of local resources--for example to cook the large amounts of rice that are sent over, an increasing number of trees need to be cut down for cooking purposes, thus causing deforestation(Barrett, 2006)
Social Impacts of Excessive Food Aid
Food Dumping does not only negatively impact local economies in developing countries; it has also been proven to be negatively influential in a social context. Due to a reliance on outside sources, local people lose some of their sense of community (Kerwin & McMillan, 2007). Not only that, but in instances in some developing countries, local people have been found to sabotage agricultural products so as to continue to receive food aid. In Ethiopia, for example, a group of planters deliberately planted fruit trees incorrectly with the hopes of receiving more aid (Barrett, 2006).
Food Aid as a Political Pawn
While food aid should be an effort to help the less fortunate, it is often times used as a political pawn. As the quote from John F. Kennedy on the Food Aid section of this website mentions, food aid helps to build relationships between countries. In some cases however, it has been used as a punishment. The innocent people of numerous countries have been pushed to starvation when richer countries cut off food aid after disagreements with the governments of developing countries (Barrett, 2006). Food aid has been abused, and has given richer countries power over the well-being of people in developing countries. Click on the green button below to read about how the United Nations chose to cut off food aid to North Korea in recent years.