A Thinking Reed

Europe exporting its overfishing to Africa?

Written by

Lee M.

in

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This is terrible. It looks like European fleets, with the help of African governments selling lucrative fishing rights, are overfishing African waters and destroying the livelihood of small fishermen to boot. As a further consequence, many of these people, now deprived of a way to make a living, are coming to Europe as illegal immigrants. (No doubt to be scapegoated by enterprising politicians as a cause of Europe’s ills.)

In his “open letter” to the next president Michael Pollan wrote something that seems relevant:

In the past several months more than 30 nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen. Should high grain prices persist and shortages develop, you can expect to see the pendulum shift decisively away from free trade, at least in food. Nations that opened their markets to the global flood of cheap grain (under pressure from previous administrations as well as the World Bank and the I.M.F.) lost so many farmers that they now find their ability to feed their own populations hinges on decisions made in Washington (like your predecessor’s precipitous embrace of biofuels) and on Wall Street. They will now rush to rebuild their own agricultural sectors and then seek to protect them by erecting trade barriers. Expect to hear the phrases “food sovereignty” and “food security” on the lips of every foreign leader you meet. Not only the Doha round, but the whole cause of free trade in agriculture is probably dead, the casualty of a cheap food policy that a scant two years ago seemed like a boon for everyone.

A similar point might be made about “fisheries sovereignty.” Free trade is supposed to benefit everyone, but Africans might be excused for thinking they’re getting a raw deal if Europe is reaping economic benefits by emptying out African waters.

(Link via bls)

Comments

One response to “Europe exporting its overfishing to Africa?”

  1. Carl Ramm

    I was in Capetown this summer, looking at Chinese fishing boats docked outside my hotel window… I don’t say this to justify the situation, but what Europeans and Americans won’t take from Africa, the Chinese will, and already are.

    As much as I like Pollan, there is one tremendous, naive assumption that shatters the integrity of his argument–the idea that most of the world _can_ grow enough food to support itself, at least if it weren’t for the economic policies of the developed nations.

    His argument may hold up for isolated regions, but the fact of the matter is that the world itself is much too populated. Many nations, including much of Africa, have nowhere to fall back to suport their populations. Not that the fuel/pesticide/water/policy regime that props up the North American bread basket is sustainable anyway. I would not want to underestimate the greed and shortsightedness of Western policy makers, but it is deeply naive to think that all of the developing world’s woes–agricultural or otherwise–can be put on their shoulders.

    When I was 2 years old Planned Parenthood gave Martin Luther King the Margaret Sanger Award. When I was in my teens conservationists, environmentalists, progressives and Christians walked away from seriously addressing population issues. There will be Hell to pay for this, one of the greatest acts of moral cowardice in history.

    http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/the-reverend-martin-luther-king-jr.htm

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