Poverty and the globalization of the food and agriculture system

Supporters of globalization argue that the process offers opportunities for poor people in developing countries to improve their livelihoods and grow out of poverty, whereas skeptics claim that globalization poses new risks to the well-being of poor people. The globalization of the food and agriculture system is at the center of this debate, because so many of the poor depend on agriculture as an income source and because the poor spend a large share of their resources on food. Assessments of the relationship between globalization and poverty vary dramatically, ranging from catastrophic to rosy, owing to the different scales at which assessments were made, different temporal perspectives, and different views on how well markets and other institutions (like democracy, transparency, and participation) function for poor people.