SPOTLIGHT 23/12/13 Climate change, corporations take toll on Korean agriculture

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Climate change, corporations take toll on Korean agriculture

Bad weather triggered by climate crisis, dominance of food import and seed companies worsen the plight of organic farmers

Workers stack freshly harvested kale leaves onto a wheelbarrow before they are taken to a sorting room for packaging at an organic farm in Icheon, Gyeonggi province, South Korea, on Oct. 19. (Photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP)

By UCA News reporter

Published: December 13, 2023 11:34 AM GMT

Last spring, farmers on Jeju Island in South Korea were shocked by something akin to a lightning bolt when they found their buckwheat crop affected with “sudden germination” — buds sprouting from their ears just before harvesting.

The unprecedented phenomenon ruined one-third of an estimated 900 hectares of buckwheat fields, devastating scores of farmers on South Korea’s largest island.

The distraught farmers, who also endured crop losses due to rain, hailstorms and frost, have blamed the abnormal weather triggered by climate change for their ordeal.

Due to bad weather, crops on 9,628 hectares of farmland were damaged in May, according to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture.

In June, hailstorms in Gyeongbuk, Chungbuk, and Gangwon provinces damaged about 3,089 hectares of cropland.

over the course of the summer, heavy rain submerged about 36,000 hectares of farmland and 969,000 livestock perished.

A heat wave then hit rural areas and by August, 9 people died due to heat-related illness.  

Food experts fear that such worsening changes in nature, coupled with an onslaught of agricultural products grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, would wipe out organic farming, leaving consumers with the only option of eating imported foreign food.

Due to bad weather and loss of crops, crop disaster insurance claims also increased significantly.

Due to this situation, insurance payouts also increased significantly. 

The number of crop disaster payouts in 2021 increased by approximately 133 times compared to 2015, according to compensation data analyzed by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI). The damaged area was approximately 230,000 hectares.

Decreased crop yields and poor quality due to the climate crisis have caused prices to rise, a survey found. 

On Aug. 24, the price of domestically produced apples traded at 5,311 won (US$4.1) per kilogram, a 56.8 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to a KREI survey.

Not only apples but the prices of many other agricultural products such as cabbages, radishes, peppers, and tomatoes, have also skyrocketed. 

The price of cabbage increased by 72.8 percent compared to the previous month, radishes increased by 29.9 percent, peppers increased by 14 percent, and tomatoes increased by 20 percent.

As the weather — the most important factor in farming — has become variable, farmers have become unable to predict the year's crops. 

This is because crops are often lost due to sudden natural disasters ahead of harvest, and even seeds cannot be planted due to slow germination. 

This has contributed to a decline in the income of families relying on agriculture, according to Statistics Korea's 2022 Farm Economic Survey.  

Income among farming households plummeted to 9.485 million won, below 10 million won, it found. 

Household income decreased by 26.8 percent in one year from 12,961,000 won in 2021.

The Jeju Island Federation of the National Federation of Farmers' Associations issued a statement to lament the loss of buckwheat crop this year,

“Farmers' lives are now miserable,” the federation said.

“Due to the abnormal weather in spring, the yield from various crops has decreased, and have no commercial value,” it stated.

The federation said farmers had to give up harvesting due to downpours in the rainy season.  

As the climate crisis and food crisis accelerate, calls to protect farmers' rights and food sovereignty are growing. 

The United Nations adopted the "Declaration of the Rights of Farmers and People Working in Rural Areas" at the 2018 General Assembly. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) designated 2019 to 2028 as the “International Decade of Family Farming” and emphasized the importance of family farming. 

“More than 90 percent of the world’s farms rely on the labor of individuals or families, who cultivate 70-80 percent of the total arable land and produce 80 percent of the food,” the FAO said in a statement.

“Family farms feed the world and protect the planet,” it added.

In South Korea, grain sufficiency is about 20 percent, according to official data.

Experts say the food scenario in Korea demands ensuring food sovereignty.

“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems,” according to Via Campesina, the international peasant movement.

The Korean Catholic Church launched a movement 29 years ago to promote organic farming.

Church leaders predicted at that time “our agriculture will be reduced and distorted due to the opening of imports of foreign agricultural and livestock products and inappropriate agricultural policies, which will rapidly damage the natural ecosystem and fill our tables with imported agricultural products full of pesticides.”

A Catholic Farmers' School was opened to publicize the importance of small-scale and ecological farming and to reflect on the Christian calling in an era of ecological crisis.

There are about 900 Catholic farmers who practice life (natural) agriculture. 

Though the number is small compared to the more than 2.1 million farming population, they are credited with reviving the land and setting examples with their natural methods.

In addition to organic farming methods that do not use pesticides and chemical fertilizers, Catholic farmers are also committed to securing seed sovereignty by preserving indigenous seeds.

However, the seed market is increasingly invaded by large seed companies.

The HYV (high-yielding variety) of agricultural products the companies promote are heavily dependent on chemicals and fertilizers, degrading the land the more it is planted. 

The US-based global agrochemical company, Monsanto, holds patent rights to 1,676 seeds worldwide.

The widespread use of Monsanto-improved seeds saw India lose its native cotton. Mexico also lost 80 percent of its native corn varieties. 

This has worsened the economic burdens of farmers who are unable to grow genetically modified crops as many are forced to buy seeds every year.

Christina Kim Min-jeong, a graduate of the Catholic Farmers' School, said the seed market is already dominated by companies.

“In our country, all crops except soybeans come from large seed companies,” she said.

“We need to reduce improved seeds that are not suitable for our land and pollute the land and preserve native seeds. I hope many people will be interested,” she added.

She also emphasized the importance of life farming.

“Natural farming improves the strength of the land and allows native seeds to grow well, which allows us to obtain food ingredients that are suitable for Koreans. It is a method of hope that can save everyone's lives,” she noted.

* This report is brought to you in partnership with the Catholic Times of Korea.