Total War: Agri-Business Style

[Charleston Chew]

Run time: 04:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43rv7yl2tUY   Posted on YouTube: May 14, 2009 By YouTube Member: bignoisetactical Views on YouTube: 10353   Posted on DU: February 02, 2011 By DU Member: Charleston Chew Views on DU: 184

 
The End of Farming in the Fertile Crescent

If you can't read the subtitles:

My father passed this farm down to me.
Back then, farming used to be affordable.
Since the invasion, prices have skyrocketed.
I don't know why.

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So many farmers have stopped farming - they can't afford to any more.
Now, the price of fertilizers is high.
And seeds have become five times more expensive.
With all the imported crops here now, farming doesn't even break even.

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I've been working here for 22 years.
Before the invasion, most of the produce came from Iraq.
It used to be 100% Iraq. We imported less than 25 of our fruits and vegetables.
We only imported apples bananas and apples. That's it.
There is very little Iraqi produce here. Less than 25% of the produce here is Iraqi.
Farmers tells us that prices don't even cover their costs.

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Wheat, rice, soybeans and other crops aren't grown here any more because of the imports.
In short - the costs of farming aren't worth it.

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Even if I lose money on the farm, I will spend my retirement savings to keep it alive.
The land is precious - even if we are losing money, we won't give it up.

More

Before the war, 97% of Iraqi farmers produced their own seeds.

After the way, as the result of "Order 81" that became illegal.

Iraq, one of the world's breadbaskets, was food independent before the war, but now is not even remotely able to feed itself.

Half of its arable land has done fallow due to failure and destruction of its irrigation systems.

Cheap food imports and rising input costs (seeds, fuel, fertilizer - all supplied by the West) have ruined the economics of local farming.

Just about everything - short of cold blooded murder - the US has done to Iraqi farmers it is doing to its farmers and home.

Now the corporate controlled Federal government would like to get into the business of regulating your backyard garden.



Do you think you know what the invasion was all about?

Oil?

Sure, but that's not all