Food Is Different Why the WTO Should Get out of Agriculture

Peter Rosset argues that what is at stake is the very future of our global food system, of each country's unique agricultural and farming systems, and the livelihoods of rural people in both the rich industrial countries and the South. He unravels the complex ways in which agriculture in the North is supported, subsidized etc. and argues for the future of agriculture to be taken completely out of the WTO's ambit since food is not just another commodity, but something which goes to the heart of human livelihood, local cultures and national security.

Peter M. Rosset is based in Oaxaca, Mexico, where he is a researcher at the Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano and co-coordinator of the Land Research Action Network, or LRAN.

Overview: Trade versus Development? * Trade Negotiations and Trade Liberalization * Key Issues, Misconceptions, Points of Disagreement and Alternative Paradigms * The Confusing Case of King Cotton * Current Status of the WTO Negotiations * The Impacts of Liberalized Agricultural Trade * Policy Alternatives for a Different Agriculture

Overview: Trade versus Development? * Trade Negotiations and Trade Liberalization * Key Issues, Misconceptions, Points of Disagreement and Alternative Paradigms * The Confusing Case of King Cotton * Current Status of the WTO Negotiations * The Impacts of Liberalized Agricultural Trade * Policy Alternatives for a Different Agriculture