Peter M. Rosset. Food is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture (Halifax, Nova Scottia: Fernwood Publishing, Bangalore: Books for Change, Kuala Lumpur: SIRD, Cape Town: David Philip, and London & New York: Zed Books, 2006, ISBN 1- 84277-755-6, 1-84277-754-8, pp. 194)

✍ Scribed by Eswarappa Kasi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 39 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/jid.1591

✦ Synopsis

In the book, 'Food is Different: Why we must get the WTO out of agriculture', Peter M. Rosset thoroughly discusses the issues which are essential in the processes of Trade and Development, focusing on trade, globalization, and development in the nations of the south, which are directly linked to the question of 'food' and 'agriculture'. He says that 'food is not just any merchandise or commodity. Food means farming, and farming means rural livelihoods, traditions and cultures, and it means preserving, or destroying, rural landscapes. Farming means rural society, agrarian histories; in many cases, rural areas are the repositories of the cultural legacies of nations and peoples. Food can give us pleasure, it can taste good or bad, it can be good for us or it can be bad for us' (Rosset, p.9).

Critically, Rosset argues that if food is different, it should not be treated as any other merchandise in our global economy. He further stresses that what we are really talking about is development. One path contributes to broad based and inclusive local economic development. The other path leads to social and economic devastation. In fact, it is proved from the different studies around the world that smaller farms are more productive and efficient, generate more employment and contribute more to social welfare and economic development as revealed in Rosset study. In my earlier research also, it is found that small farms of sericulture activity do generate employment for large number of people in rural areas of South India.

Keeping this in mind, Rosset sees food and agriculture as a global issue and he feels it is a global controversy. Hence, he says, 'food and agriculture have proved to be the most significant stumbling blocks along the way to re-structuring the global trading system' (Rosset, p.13). The goal of the book, according to Rosset, is to sort out the confusion in the debate over farm trade and subsidies. Further, he aims to look at possible alternative, common sense policies that might offer a way out of the puzzle.

The first chapter of the book takes a quick look at trade negotiations and trade liberalization, placing them in historical context and reviewing some of the most familiar recent events such as WTO meetings in 1999 and 2003. The second chapter of the book looks critically key issues such as market access, domestic subsidies, export subsidies, dumping, market concentration, and other issues with an impact on food and agriculture. Recent debates over cotton subsidies are critically examined in chapter 3, opening up a discussion of some common misconceptions over issues such as subsidies and dumping.

Chapter 4 takes a closer look at examples such as Mexico, which is widely seen as a laboratory for trade liberalization and in which to study the impact of trade agreements, since it falls within the North American Free Trade Area, and Africa, which is the new border line for the next generation of trade agreements.

The final chapter touches on a series of alternative policies for food and agriculture. Rosset tries his best to explain the policy options such as market access and protection, supply management, market concentration, and public sector budgets in the book. For the purposes of proposing those alternatives, and presenting a critique of prevalent policy prescriptions, Rosset argues that we must share common