The Origins and Continuation of First World Import Dependence on Developing Countries for Agricultural Products

Abstract

This article puts forward two main propositions which have been discussed at length in earlier papers and supports these with historical and current data, which have not been presented before. The first proposition is that the origins of Third World food dependence lie in the First World’s dependence on developing countries for both food and non-food imports. The second is that the advanced countries’ dependence has not declined, on the contrary the list of products imported from developing countries has become much longer in recent years, since air-freighting has permitted imports of highly perishable products, not possible earlier.