Nowadays food travels thousands of miles before reaching consumers. It affects the agriculture and economy of the destination country, and for this reason, people should prefer food produced by local farmers. Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answers and include examples from your experience. v.1

With globalization, food from one country is exported to other countries. Some people think that this impacts the local economy since imported food is often cheap and it leads to the drain of wealth outside the country. I agree with this view. Some countries have developed food as an industry and this enables them to produce it at a very cheap price. When this food is exported to countries whose farmers are not competent, it leads to lesser consumption of local food. As a result, local farmers suffer losses and, in some cases, commit suicide. For instance, in the United States, productivity of land, availability of machines, high quality seeds and farms of large size have enabled the production of cheap wheat. When this wheat is exported to countries like India, the local farmers lose money as they do not have the same facilities. This has led to farm distress in India. Moreover, the import of foreign food leads to higher income for foreigners at the expense of local people. When a country purchases foreign food, it pays the country’s money to others. This leads to the drain of weath which could have been used for numerous productive purposes in the local economy. China faced this situation in 1960s when it imported millions of tonnes of wheat and rice from western countries. This cost the local economy more than 100 million dollars and thousands of local jobs. This moneey could have been used to develop infrastructure such as irrigation canals. In conclusion, I strongly believe that the local economy suffers in terms of loss of wealth and jobs when a country imports food from others. Every country should encourage the consumption of local farm produce only.