goes, “Who controls the food supply controls the people”. Now, whether or not Kissinger

actually said that doesn’t take away from the fact that food, like water, can be a powerful

bargaining tool for people and governments alike, despite being considered a human right

by the UN. So, just how powerful is food?

The biggest agricultural exporters in the world are the EU and the US, which together

account for roughly 300 billion dollars a year. Each nearly doubles Brazil's exports,

and triples China’s. The EU’s high ranking, however, is almost entirely due to the Netherlands,

who are the second largest food exporter in the world, after the US. Additionally, many

staple foods are overwhelmingly produced by a single country. For example, as much as

40% of the world’s corn is grown in the United States, and just over a quarter of

the world’s rice is grown in China. With only a few players controlling the world’s

food, they end up wielding a great deal of international power .

In 1976, the US Secretary of Agriculture said, “Food is a weapon”, alluding to the use

of food as in promoting US goals, and as a tool against difficult countries,  For example,

in 2012 the US offered North Korea some much needed food aid in exchange for suspending

their nuclear program. Then, after North Korea attempted to launch a long range rocket later

that year, the US rescinded their aid offer. However, attempts at food embargoes since

the 1960s have mostly fallen flat, as the global economy has made it possible to maintain

supply, and international pressure has criticized the ethics of restricting food. On the flip

side, Russia’s recent ban on food imports in response to EU sanctions has had a strong

effect on food producers. In Germany, pig farmers, who alone supply a quarter of Russia’s

pork, are expected to lose out on 40,000 euros per farm this year.

The status and control of food on an international level cannot be understated. But using food

as a political tool has been met with mixed results, and restricting access to food has

regularly been frowned on and legislated against.  So how powerful is food? Powerful, but not

always for the right reasons.   

Changing climates are threatening a number of important crops across the world, and chocolate

is an interesting example. To learn more about how the industry is being threatened, check

out this video from AJ+. Thanks for watching TestTube, please remember to subscribe!