Topic: Impact of War on Agriculture
Country: Cuba
Delegate Name: Sara Adelman
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Cuba position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
War can ruin the agricultural integrity of the land, cause poverty, hunger, and famine in countries involved in war. The Republic of Cuba recognizes this repercussion of war around the world and at home. Cuba has faced the consequences of a political war, and is now unable to trade with wealthy nations. This has caused shortages of many useful and necessary goods and services to Cuba and its people.
When a war is fought on any nation’s soil, the agriculture becomes injured. Farmers may either flee for their and their family’s lives to a safer area, or be forced off of their own land by war officials. Or, some may join the fight, leaving behind their families and crops, to stand up for what they believe in, although some are forced unwillingly into an army. In any war there are fatalities, which then result in a smaller population, therefore there are less people in the agricultural business. Chemicals left behind from bullets and bombs can permanently alter the earth, tainting all crops that are grown from it. In war, people may become reckless, polluting the soil with trash that hurts the environment. Some wars result in the intentional contamination of the land. All of the above can cripple agriculture, and therefore the economy, of a country for years.
In the past, war has completely annihilated arable land and stripped it of agricultural integrity, this continues into the present time, and will happen in the future, unless the global community cooperates through the United Nations, while still retaining and respecting each country’s national sovereignty. War does not affect just one group of people or one country, but the entire world population, so it is important to reiterate the consequences of careless, devastating war.
