[asia-apec 954] APEC Food System: Hard to swallow

[PAN Asia Pacific]

The 1998 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Statement
says, "we also welcome the recommendations by ABAC and instruct our
Ministers to study ABAC's proposals, including the APEC Food
System." 

THE APEC FOOD SYSTEM: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?  

I first heard about the "APEC Food System" in August in a speech by
the New Zealand Minister for International Trade.  Supposedly, the
Food System will be high on New Zealand’s agenda for APEC next year.
Originally, I thought that the Food System may have emerged from the
APEC conference on Food, Energy, and the Environment (FEEEP) held
last year in Canada, which APEC and government officials like to
speak about as an example of successful NGO engagement with APEC.
Evidently, this is not the case. 

In September, I asked a member of the APEC Secretariat about the
Food System.  She said she knew little about the Food System, only
that it was originally proposed by a single American corporation. 
She said that this was how things often happen in APEC. So much for
FEEEP! 

It reveals a lot about APEC that something so unknown, could make
its way onto the Leaders’ Statement within a few months of its
proposal.  When I asked the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
and the Minister of International Trade about it on November 13,
1998 (just days before the Leaders’ Meeting), both said they’d
never heard of it. 

Out of nowhere, the development of an APEC Food System became one of
the APEC Business Advisory Council's (ABAC) key recommendations in
its 1998 report to APEC Leaders.  Well, not exactly.

As it turns out, the APEC Food System is the strategic work of some
of the largest TNCs of the agribusiness industry and its major
promoters, including the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).  

AGRIBUSINESS TNCs INVADE APEC

Non-governmental organisations are rarely permitted to participate
within APEC, and, when they do, their input is limited and their
recommendations are given little consideration.  For TNCs, however,
APEC gives them direct access to the leaders and senior officials
through various channels.  One of those channels is the Pacific
Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). It claims to be "the only
nongovernmental organization among the three official APEC
observers. PECC representatives attend APEC Ministerial Meetings,
Senior Official Meetings, and working group meetings."  PECC
strongly influences ABAC's recommendations as well. 

In November, PECC presented its "Pacific Food Outlook: 1998-1999" to
the APEC Leaders in Kuala Lumpur. The sponsors for the Food Outlook
include Rabobank International, the Farm Foundation, Cargill Asia
Pacific Ltd., Colombian Coffee Federation, Danone Group, the Economic
Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture, I-Mei Foods,
National Pork Producers Council (USA), Winrock International, and
World Perspectives Inc. 

Carole Bookins is the Chair of PECC's Food and Agriculture Forum.
She is also the CEO of World Perspectives Inc.(WPI), one of the
Food Outlook’s sponsors.  WPI offers consultation services to the
American agribusiness industry.  Currently, it is developing a
project called International Food Strategies in partnership with
True North Communications—the sixth largest advertising corporation
in the world and masterminds of the "Milk Mustache" and "Pork: The
Other White Meat" campaigns. 

Before founding WPI in 1980, Bookins was the VP of the Commodities
Department of E.F. Hutton and Co. in New York.  She is currently a
member of the board of Terra Industries (a US agrochemical
corporation) and Winrock International (another of the PECC
sponsors).  She also has very close ties with the USDA.  She is a
member of the US State Department Advisory Committee on
International Economic Policy and was appointed by US President
Bush to the President’s Export Council.  Furthermore, WPI’s
Executive VP, Gary Blumenthal was Special Assistant to Bush for
Agriculture Trade and Food Assistance from 1991-1993 and Chief of
Staff to the Secretary of Agriculture during the same period. 

WPI’s President, Robert Kohlmeyer, before joining WPI, worked for 36
years with Cargill, one of the largest agribusiness companies in the
world and another sponsor of PECC’s Outlook.  During his time with
Cargill, Kohlmeyer was a key agriculture adviser for the US.  He was
deeply involved in the 1972 US-USSR grain trade negotiations, also
known as the Great Grain Robbery, in which Cargill and other big
American traders made millions while prices for consumers escalated.

The Coordinator of PECC's Food Outlook is Dr. Robert Thompson of the
World Bank. Thompson is also the President of Winrock International,
a non-profit development agency.  He is convinced that farming is no
longer a means to sustain rural communities and that communities must
adapt to meet this reality.  You can learn all about Winrock and how
"close" it is to solving the world's poverty problems on its home
page: www.winrock.org.  Winrock is based in Arkansas, USA of all
places.  Perhaps its location in Bill Clinton’s home state may
explain its massive US$35 million annual budget? Given Winrock's
policies, I was not surprised to learn that its major donors are the
USDA, the USAID, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.

The principle sponsor of the Food Outlook is Rabobank International
of the Netherlands. Much of its investment activity is concentrated
in the food sector, especially in the Asia- Pacific region.
Rabobank’s "Expert Forecaster", Dr. Anning Wei, contributed
"substantially" to PECC's Outlook. 

Another major sponsor is the Farm Foundation.  It claims to be "a
nonprofit organization . . . to improve the well-being of US
agriculture and rural people".  Its Board members include: Richard
Gady, VP of Public Affairs and Chief Economist of ConAgra, Inc.;
Donald Jacoby, VP Sales of Novartis; and William Kirk, VP and
General Manager of DuPont Agriculture Products. 

All of PECC’s coordinators for the Food Outlook are Americans with
close links to the USDA and US TNCs.  In fact, they all work with
or for the USDA.  Only one of the sponsors is based in Asia-- I-Mei
Foods, a Taiwanese Company that proudly states: "For 64 years, the
I-Mei brand has been recognized as the equivalent of 'premium
quality'. This explains why most world-famous fast-food chains in
Chinese Taipei, such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried
Chicken, persist in buying its hamburger buns and dairy products.” 

The concentration of TNC and USDA interests in PECC is a clear
indication that the big guns of agribusiness are heavily involved in
APEC.  The biotech and agrochemical industry is also there.  Monsanto
is an active participant in the APEC Agricultural Technology
Committee (ATC), especially in its Biotechnology Workshops.  So much
so, that a reporter from the New Straits Times (Malaysia) reported
that the recent ATC workshop in Kuala Lumpur was a Monsanto meeting.
And, as the APEC Leaders’ Statement reveals, it does not take much
for these TNCs to get their interests directly onto APEC’s agenda.

The 1998 ABAC Report to APEC Leaders now makes a lot more sense.  It
states: 

"ABAC proposes an APEC Food System as a comprehensive and equitable
approach to action in the food sector.  The APEC Food System is a
vision of a far more robust regional food system, which efficiently
links together food producers, processors, and consumers.  A regional
food system which harnesses the resources of the region to more
securely meet consumers' food needs will maximize the contribution
of the food sector to the wealth and prosperity of all economies. 
The APEC Food System calls for cooperative action (in parallel) in
the following areas: rural infrastructure development,
dissemination of technological advances, and promotion of trade in
food products." 

ABAC's three areas for cooperative action fit tightly with
agro-industry strategies.  "Rural infrastructure development"
actually means publicly subsidized transportation systems that
allow long-distance corporate food systems to retain competitive
prices.  It is not surprising that the PECC Outlook highlights
infrastructure development as its major priority area for next
year.  "Dissemination of technological advances" can be read as
protection of intellectual property and opening markets to
genetically engineered crops and foods.  And, "promotion of trade in
food products" means more business for the largest TNCs, which
control nearly 80 percent of the global trade. 

This food system is enough to make you ill.

By Devlin Kuyek