Day 241 - 26 Apr 96 - Page 33


     
     1        me that the country has the most unequal system of land
     2        distribution in Central America (two per cent of the land
     3        owners control over 70 per cent of the land, including
     4        almost all of the fertile land, while 85 per cent of its
     5        mainly indigenous and small farmer population are living in
     6        abject poverty) as well as one of the most serious problems
     7        of deforestation and rainforest destruction.
     8
     9        "These two problems are, of course, interrelated and made
    10        worse by the intervention of fast-food giants such as
    11        McDonald's in the Guatemalan economy.  In a nutshell,
    12        here's how the multi-national beef industry is harming
    13        Guatemala and its people.  Since the rich ranchers and
    14        plantation owners monopolise all the good land (leaving
    15        most of it idle, or in many cases raising cattle more for
    16        status than for actual profitability) the landless poor are
    17        forced to till unsuitable highland areas or else migrate to
    18        uninhabited (i.e. rainforest) areas where they slash and
    19        burn the forest, plant a few crops of corn and beans, and
    20        then move on (since rainforest land is poor agricultural
    21        land) to cut down more forest.
    22
    23        "Since 1984 I have observed that after the campesinos
    24        abandoned a deforested area the cattle ranchers often move
    25        in, making use of the land but enjoying 'plausible
    26        deniability' (along with their clients such as McDonald's)
    27        that they weren't the ones who cut it down.
    28
    29        "Although imported beef is only a small portion of the
    30        total consumed in the USA (approximately 1 per cent) USA
    31        beef imports account for 10 to 15 per cent of all Central
    32        American beef production.  Central American beef (which
    33        becomes anonymous as to its point of origin once it arrives
    34        at a US point of entry and is stamped 'US inspected and
    35        approved') is used generally for hamburgers and fast-food
    36        patties.
    37
    38        "Contrary to popular myth, Central American beef is not
    39        imported by the USA beef cartels because there's a lack of
    40        supply (for decades the US has produced a surplus of beef)
    41        or because it's cheaper; but rather because the cartels
    42        (Cargill, Iowa Beef Processors, Con-Agra) use alternative
    43        suppliers (Argentina, Australia and Central America) as
    44        'blackmail' to keep the prices which they pay to US family
    45        ranchers as low as possible.
    46
    47        "My first hand experience has shown me that cattle ranching
    48        of course is not the only practice which is destroying the
    49        Central American rainforest.  Unsustainable forestry,
    50        corporate banana plantations, other agro-export crops and 
    51        inappropriate tourism development are just as bad, if not 
    52        worse, in some instances. 
    53
    54        "Although Costa Rica has a reputation for being
    55        ecologically conscious and progressive, my travels
    56        throughout the country have shown me that it is suffering
    57        from the worst rate of tropical deforestation in the world,
    58        which is also the conclusion of a recent study by the World
    59        Resources Institute.
    60

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