Introduction
The discussion about food, agriculture, and politics is nothing novel. There is ample evidence that people use food as a political tool. For example, President Jokowi uses lunch/ dinner invitations in Indonesia to achieve his goal. Some media called it “a dining table politic” as a way to do a political transaction, whether with its constituents or with its political opponent and its work, food can be a strong political tool. (Deretan ‘Politik Makan Siang’ Jokowi, dari Solo sampai Istana Halaman all – Kompas.com, no date) or in a new political policy on the free lunch program as the main program in President Subianto’s current cabinet.
A big question arises about food and power: Why is food such a powerful political weapon? Why is access to food so limited? Why, in a world that produces sufficient food to meet food demand globally (World Hunger: Ten Myths: Food First, no date), are more than 800 million people suffering from undernourishment? Moreover, in another part of the world, there are more than 1,3 billion people obese (Carr et al., 2016). Both conditions are rooted in the unequal food distribution and the emphasis on the policy problem.
This essay highlights how the unequal distribution happened, the power dynamics in food distribution, who has benefited from the current system, and how the global problem affects me. This essay will also explore the future scenario of food distribution, the approach, and the self-critique following scenarios.
Challenges: Food & Agriculture
The broader focus of this study is food and agriculture, and it will focus more on the distribution system because food access inequality results from poor distribution (D’Odorico et al., 2019). The global distribution of food and nutrients relies heavily on international trade (Clapp, 2013). The data estimates that around 10% of global trade and 40% of primary commodities are in food and agriculture. However, the international trade policy is working in favour of rich countries. For example, the subsidy for domestic farmers harms developing countries’ farmers while benefiting urban consumers in poor countries (Clapp, 2013). Another case is that the IMF and the World Bank pushed poor and developing countries to adopt more flexible exchange rates to make their commodities more competitive in international markets. They were also required to implement a liberal policy, such as market liberalisation and currency devaluation, to obtain a loan from the IMF and other wealthy countries. The policy results in a developing country paying more for imported goods. This shows the inequality of the trade system as a result of the power of rich countries over developing countries (Clapp, 2013).
There were many new and updated agreements from 1970 to 2006; however, the updated agreements were opposed or ignored by the powerful countries such as US and EU; meanwhile, many developing countries are negotiated under pressure and often without any power (Newell, 2012). Moreover, the global food regime, owned by powerful elites, exacerbates food insecurity and related diseases (Blay-Palmer, Sonnino, and Custot, 2016).
On the national level, food security and food sovereignty are linked with social inequality that underpins the distribution and access to food. Food security (ketahanan pangan) and food sovereignty (kedaulatan pangan) become popular jargon among government officials and politicians, only to justify protectionism and nationalist sentiment for industrial agri-food policy
and increased trade barrier (Dwiartama, Kelly and Dixon, 2023). While rice is still the leading staple food in Indonesia, data from 2018 shows that the consumption of rice per capita fell from 86,82kg to 81,60 in comparison to the previous year, along with the data from USDA that Indonesia will surpass the US as the top importer of wheat. That means the consumption in Indonesia is shifting towards imported wheat produce because the land conditions in Indonesia cannot grow wheat (Rozi et al., 2023). Many policies support food self-sufficiency; one of them is the food estate project, a land-grabbing implementation that received a lot of critique for the environmental damage effect (Maskun et al., 2021) and still failed miserably because of the land’s unsuitability (UGM Expert Explains Why Food Estate Policy Has Failed – Universitas Gadjah Mada, no date).
On the individual level, as a person who lives in an urban area, I am aware of the dependency on food distribution to have food access, as urban citizens have minimum access to agriculture, specifically land. Moreover, urban citizens do not have the “skill, time, or capacity to produce its food,” which pushes urban citizens to follow neoliberal narratives to be “responsible for alleviating their hunger by working and making more money” (Dwiartama, Kelly, and Dixon, 2023). The statement hinders equal food access for all, including no food security for poor communities.
Access to fresh and cheaper food is also a challenge for urban citizens, as the price of food in the traditional market is commonly lower. According to data from the Indonesian Statistics Agency, in 2020 there were 2696 supermarkets and only 151 traditional markets in Jakarta (BPS Provinsi DKI Jakarta, no date). The data shows that although some ultra-processed food is cheaper in the supermarket, the option for fresh but cheaper food access is limited.
Future Scenarios and the Approaches
The future scenario starts at the individual level. There would be easy access for citizens to get fresh and cheap food because, within one kilometer, there will be a community market, a small market available daily for everyone to purchase fresh groceries from vegetables, fruit, grains, oil, and proteins. The community market will also open early morning and evening for buyer convenience, and the seller will take their supply from the nearest farmers. The sellers can also choose and alternate the time of selling, and anyone can be a seller, even household that have their food garden or have extra product in their house can sell it in the community market. As Schulz explains, this direct provisioning where buyers do not procure food in the ‘Western’ norm is what I can do as an individual in the future (Schulz, 2021).
Additionally, those who can’t afford to purchase using money can do barter. Three eggs for half kilograms of orange, why not? In the community market, they detach from the robust structure of thought, the community, from the smallest scale, reinventing the economy by replacing it with something equitable and sustainable (Schulz, 2021).
At the national level, the government supports all approaches to decentralization, such as the concept of co-creation (Dwiartama, Kelly, and Dixon, 2023) between small sellers, individual buyers, business distributors, and farmers. The idea also gives the community the power to choose where to purchase food, especially fresh products (Blay-Palmer, Sonnino, and Custot, 2016).
The government also issued a regulation to enhance the education and implementation of dietary diversity. Respecting locally grown food and easing the citizens’ dependency on imported food
can help lower the risk of pressures from the global food regime (Blay-Palmer, Sonnino, and Custot, 2016).
Ensure the fresh produce close to the center is vital in the national distribution (Dwiartama, Kelly, and Dixon, 2023). To ensure that, the government needs to increase subsidies for farmers, including building physical access such as roads and reliable food storage systems. More cooperatives will be spread throughout the country to move the power of capital and divide it into smaller scales to fund community gardens, small and medium farmers, and all the supply chains in the community (Schulz, 2021).
States must transition away from fossil fuel-based production agro business export to the alternatives: strengthen local small and household-based agriculture local innovation. The emphasis on decentralizing agriculture for food production requires a firm policy, financial incentives, and the diffusion of agriculture technology (Altieri, Funes-Monzote, and Petersen, 2012).
Global trade can continue to play an essential role in food security because today or in the future, the food security problem is in the distribution, not production (Brown et al., 2017). Trade can lower food access inequality globally (D’Odorico et al., 2019). However, the trade policy must be reformed to ensure that special treatment for poor and developing countries is implemented. The UN must create a safeguard to ensure that rich countries do not strongly influence international trade (Clapp, 2013). Protectionism and subsidies in high-income countries must be banned to create fair competitiveness in globalization and to avoid the concentration of power and wealth. Trade must also support the diverse diet and divest into a similar diet culture built by the global food regime (Blay-Palmer, Sonnino, and Custot, 2016).
A movement from the farmers of poor and developing countries increases as a resistance act of powerful countries’ influence in the trade organization such as La Via Campesina who called for the adoption of countries make their own decision to make their agricultural priority or food sovereignty (Clapp, 2013)—more connectivity among poor and developing countries to move their surplus to less area or region. And prioritize the trade in the regional area as this can reduce costs and externalities such as transportation pollution.
Knowledge sharing is also a key to strengthening the collective response to the global food regime (Blay-Palmer, Sonnino, and Custot, 2016). Knowledge sharing between farmers can help sustain diverse crops and avoid paying a high price for patents of agricultural innovation owned by robust businesses (Brown et al., 2017). The development of technology and cloud computing can help farmers worldwide to share their best practices, technology, innovation systems, and live food demand and supply to strengthen connectivity infrastructure and food supply (Global food supply challenges demand local data innovations, no date).
Self-Reflection, Critique, and Next Action
Personally, food is one of my basic needs to survive and have a decent well-being. But what type of food I can afford and that is available to me is political. I do not have many options to get cheap and healthy food, as many of my purchases are from the minimarket that is less than 100 meters from my place. Having more community markets than minimarket in the city would help me to afford better access to food.. This module taught me that everything is related, from individual power to global distribution. I believe we can make a change by redistributing power through individuals, redirecting our power to buy, and demanding fair decentralization.
The learning journey also left me with a self-critique to my approach. First, that trade may reduce inequality in food access inter-country. Still, within the country, trade can increase disparities for the poor and vulnerable because of land and water grabbing for agricultural businesses (D’Odorico et al., 2019). For further implementation, states must ensure a democratic approach to agricultural land reform.
Second, this study has a limitation on trade liberalization, although it may be good in what the liberal economist says. The following research on food trade can be focused on the pros and cons of trade liberalization, especially if the country has fulfilled its national demand for food production.
Third, the distribution reform needs a lot of capital, especially at the community and infrastructure levels. At the same time, almost all financial aid comes from rich countries that benefit from the status quo. The next step would be to conduct excellent research to explore alternative funding.
Conclusion
Food is political, and the powerful decide who and how food is distributed. Although the world can produce enough food for everyone, there are people with undernutrition and obesity rooted in the unequal distribution system.
The global distribution system is unequal because of geography and is mostly only favorable to powerful countries. Meanwhile, Indonesia has also heavily implemented a centralized agricultural system. At the individual level, citizens, especially people experiencing poverty in urban areas, do not have enough power to choose their food because of the limited number of providers.
A redistribution of power is needed to create a future scenario of an equal distribution system. To change the system currently concentrating on the rich and elites into the power of people. At the individual level, individuals have the full rights to buy and sell food in their community. At the national level, more community markets and food supply from the nearest farmers area are important to ensure security. The government ensures decentralization and builds a decent infrastructure for efficient agricultural transport.
Lastly, at the global level, safeguarding poor and developing countries must be implemented perfectly.
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