31 Oct 2014

Critical Food Sovereignty in Venezuela

Brenda Noemi Laguarta
ISFD N° 41
Teacher: Stella Maris Saubidet Oyhamburu
Language and Written Expression IV

Critical Food Sovereignty in Venezuela
It cannot be denied that government policy regarding food distribution in Venezuela is nowadays generating great controversy. Although the government has included Food Sovereignty in national laws, Food Shortage seems to have no solution for the time being. This is the reason why national authorities decided to ration the amount of food that each person is allowed to buy, since there are not enough supplies for the whole population. All this has a negative impact on common citizens, who day after day have to manage to cover their basic needs.
Queue outside a Maracaibo supermarket in Venezuela
“At 09:00 outside a downtown supermarket in Maracaibo, Venezuela, the temperatures are already stiflingly hot - close to 40C (104F) in the shade, if you can find any shade”. (Butler, 2013)

Long queues at the entrance of every single supermarket, empty shelves, and lack of essential food supplies are only vague attempts to describe what food-shortages really imply for Venezuelan people. An international journalist travelled to the country and reports his findings as follows (Antolínez, 2014):
In one Bicentenario branch in the Plaza Venezuela people were practically rioting to get chicken, a staple product that has become scarce (...). It is normal in Caracas to have to visit several stores to obtain basic foods. All shoppers are familiar with buying what you find, not what you want. Some housewives are visibly pleased when they find a container of milk, after three or four hours searching.
He also summarizes the critical situation of the country pointing out that ‘the shortage index has reached 28 percent’, which means that 28 of every 100 products such as chicken, milk, sugar, corn or wheat flour, butter and meat cannot be found in the shelves. And the panorama turns even worse when we take into account low wages. CENDA, a Caracas-based research institute, reports that ‘each Venezuelan now needs four minimum wages  to meet basic expenses for food, clothing, and health care’ (Cohen, 2014). "Right now I have to go to five or six supermarkets to buy everything I need," says Gerardo Araujo, an accountant. "Every day my salary is worth less and I lose my capacity to buy goods," he says, blaming the government's inefficiency for the current economic situation (Caselli, 2013). Taking into account the gloomy and undeniable present state of things in Venezuela, an obvious question arises: How can this be happening if Food Sovereignty is now part of the National Constitution and laws of the country?
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/510300b96bb3f7701e00000f/venezuela-is-struggling-with-a-historic-food-shortage.jpg
“Venezuela Is Struggling With A Historic Food Shortage” (De Abreu, 2013)
When approached from a superficial perspective, Food Shortages and Food Sovereignty are simply a contradiction in terms, one not being related to the other in any respect. However, a deeper consideration of these issues in addition to an analysis of the historical background reveals the beginning of the conflict. Heidi Chow, a campaign officer at World Development Movement -an international organization fighting for economic justice and the end to global poverty-, declares (Chow, 2012):
As Venezuela struck oil in the 1920s, it became easier and cheaper to use oil money to import foodstuffs and so many small farmers lost their livelihoods and poured into the capital in search of work. Years of agricultural neglect followed leaving Venezuela dangerously reliant on multinationals for their food supply and distribution.
This led Hugo Chavez to include in 2008 the radical concept of Food Sovereignty into the country’s new constitution. The term was coined by La Via Campesina, a movement of peasants, at the World Food Summit in 1996, and it makes reference to ‘the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems’. Although this concept places people’s needs for food at the centre of policies, Venezuela is obviously facing serious difficulties in its application. This is due to the fact that the implementation of this new system required a reduction of imported products with the objective of promoting the growth of local economy. However, since the country economy was mainly based on oil exportation, there was a very limited number of local companies concerned with the production of food. All this provoked the existing food shortage that daily affects more than 30.400.000 people around the country.
The overall picture seems to be that Food Sovereignty can certainly affect a country in a positive way when applied after devoting careful consideration to it. It is definitely not easy to implement, but it is not at all impossible. However, when such a radical change is applied in order to change the economy of a whole country, as is the case of Venezuela, and the government decides not to consider the possible negative consequences for the people, millions of people undergo great suffering.



Works Cited
Antolínez, D. (2014) Hunger for Breakfast? Venezuela Facing Chronic Food shortages. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://www.iht.com/2014/03/10/hunger-for-breakfast-venezuela-facing-chronic-food-shortages/
Butler, E. (2013) Could Smuggling Be to Blame for Venezuela's Food Shortages? BBC News Latin American & Caribbean. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-23885377
Caselli, I. (2013) How food shortages are dividing Venezuela. BBC News Latin American & Caribbean. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22526622
Chow, H. (2012) Food sovereignty in Venezuela. World Development Movement. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://www.wdm.org.uk/food-sovereignty/food-sovereignty-venezuela
Cohen, B. (2014) Hugo Chavez, One Year On. Commentary. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://www.commentarymagazine.com/topic/nicolas-maduro/
De Abreu, L. (2013) Venezuela Is Struggling With A Historic Food Shortage. Business Insider. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-food-shortage-2013-1
La Via Campesina (2006) What is Food Sovereignty? USFSA. Retrieved on October 30, 2014 from http://usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/what-is-food-sovereignty/




No comments:

Post a Comment