Abstract:
This dissertation discusses the concepts of Food Security and Food Sovereignty and
the introduction of biotechnology into the international agricultural sector. It
specifically focuses on the effects of the introduction of Genetically Modified seeds
and Intellectual Property Rights.
By discussing the effects of biotechnology and the concurrent implementation of neoliberal
market-oriented economic policies, this dissertation aims to highlight
international Food Regime developments during the last half century. In South Africa,
the case study, these developments have bifurcated the national agricultural sector and
strengthened the relationship between Agricultural Trans National Corporations and
subsequent governments. This has led to the promotion of large-scale commercial
farmers in the formal market sector, at the expense of the food sovereignty of smallscale
traditional farmers in the informal market sector.
A substantial portion of this discussion concerns the role and behaviour of the United
States, as the dominant economic power post World War II. Strategic agricultural
support given to individual nations during the Cold War, shaped the contemporary
international Food Regime. In addition, the United States' Food Aid program (an
attempt to resolve its overproduction) and its promotion of neo-liberal policies
through supranational institutions have created an environment in which Agricultural
Trans-national Corporations have emerged, consolidated and become increasingly
influential. By embracing biotechnologies and lobbying governments to assist in their
introduction and protection, these Agricultural Trans National Corporations have
substantially altered the relationship between farmers and their crops.
This dissertation analyses the South African agricultural sector in the light of the
international Food Regime, taking into account its domestic legacy. A legacy
characterized by: Centuries of discriminatory policies; a close relationship between
the governments of the United States and South Africa; neoliberal friendly economic
policies; the adoption and promotion of biotechnologies; Intellectual Property Right legislation; and a heavily bifurcated agricultural sector in which small-scale
traditional farmers are effectively losing their Food Sovereignty.
