Journal #8

Farmers face a lot of problems in order to keep the production of crops going. They have to take

in consideration the threat of climate change, oil prices and other factors like pesticide.

Furthermore, according to the BBC Documentary about the future of the global food supply at

risk, there is still another factor that prevents farmers from participating in processes that concern

food security, it is those people who want to control the whole agricultural sector (2014). Control

in a way that they can monitor the seeds we plant to the crops we grow.

For many years, farmers have saved seeds that helped them lowering their cost of production. This

has been a practice for farmers in many generations. However, when multinational companies

recognized how much wealth can be generated by gaining control of the seed, they realized how

they can also have control of the food system as well as how food can be produced (BBC

Documentary, 2014, 3:01).

Due to the intervention of these companies, this industrialization of agriculture has profoundly

changed the way farmers do their work. According to an article about the challenges of farmers,

they claimed that feeding a growing population, providing a livelihood for farmers, and protecting

the environment are the three challenges that the agriculture sector face (2019). They also added

that solving one of these three challenges, can pose negative consequences for at least one of the

other two challenges. For example, by creating a policy that address to increase environmental

sustainability could result to increased costs on farmers and lead to higher price for consumers

(Brooks, Deconinck, & Geiner, 2019).

Despite farmers being the forefront of food security, they are still not given the right recognition

and protection in order to help aid the processes that concern food security. They have natural
threats given by the changing environment, as well as threats from the industrial sector for the sake

of control.
Reference List:

BBC Documentary. (2014, August 2). BBC Documentary The Future of The Global Food

Supply at Risk (Full Documentary).mp4 [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IgAe2bdoAc&ab_channel=BBCDocumentary

Brooks, J., Deconinck, K., & Giner, C. (2019, June 6). Three key challenges facing agriculture

and how to start solving them - OECD. Oecd.Org. https://www.oecd.org/agriculture/key-

challenges-agriculture-how-

solve/#:%7E:text=These%20three%20challenges%20%E2%80%93%20feeding%20a,pro

gress%20in%20any%20of%20them.