What is the core set of agricultural-related conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank?
Mittal: Both the IMF and the World Bank helped pave the way for the liberalization of agriculture through conditionalities. These conditions include mandates that borrowing countries focus on cash crops, promote industrial agriculture and remove subsidies for poor farmers. Dismantling of the safety net, for example public distribution systems, has left poor commmunities dependent on the vagaries of an open market. MM: How have these affected farmers and farm communities, including with regard to land and wealth concentration? Mittal: Both industrial agriculture and liberalization of agriculture have further concentrated land holdings with the rich landlords, displacing small farmers around the world. Displaced from their lands, farmers have been forced to eke a miserable livelihood in cities where they form the core of cheap labor for the sweatshops. In India, we have witnessed poor farmers consuming pesticides to end their lives. In the U.S., a comparison between the 1930s and today t
