Feed the world, 2009 global food crisis signaled need for a turning point in global food system, experts say. In accordance with a new agroecology initiative within UNs FAO, by using agro ecological methods, small farmers are key to feeding world, Nafeez Ahmed notes. Modern industrial agricultural methods can no longer feed the world, due to impacts of overlapping environmental and ecological crises linked to land, water and resource availability. Stark warning comes from new UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof Hilal Elver, In her first public speech since being appointed in June. “Food policies which do not address the root causes of world hunger are bound to fail,” she told a packed audience in Amsterdam. One billion people globally are hungry, she declared, before calling on governments to support a transition to agricultural democracy which would empower rural small farmers. New direction: Agroecology “2009 global food crisis signalled the need for a turning point in the global food system,” she said at event hosted by Transnational Institute (TNI), leading international think tank. “Modern agriculture, which began in the 1950s, is more resource intensive, fossil fuel-dependent, using fertilizers and based on massive production. This policy has to change. “We are already facing a range of challenges. Resource scarcity, increased population, decreasing land availability and accessibility, emerging water scarcity, and soil degradation require us to rethink how best to use our resources for future generations.” UN official said new scientific research increasingly shows how ‘agroecology’ offers far more environmentally sustainable methods that can still meet the rapidly growing demand for food: “Agro ecology is a traditional way of using farming methods that are less resource oriented, and which work in harmony with society. New research in agro ecology allows us to explore more effectively how we can use traditional knowledge to protect people and their environment at the same time.” Small farmers “There is a geographical and distributional imbalance in who is consuming and producing. Global agricultural policy needs to adjust. In the crowded and hot world of tomorrow, the challenge of how to protect the vulnerable is heightened,” Elver continued. “That entails recognising womens role in food production – from farmer, to housewife, to working mother, women are worlds major food providers. It also means recognising small farmers, who are also the most vulnerable, and the most hungry. “Across Europe, the US and the developing world, small farms face shrinking numbers. So if we deal with small farmers we solve hunger and we also deal with food production.” And Elver speaks not just with the authority of her UN role, but as a respected academic. She is research professor and co-director at the Project on Global Climate Change, Human Security, and Democracy in the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. She is also an experienced lawyer and diplomat. A former founding legal advisor at the Turkish Ministry of Environment, she was previously appointed to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Chair in Environmental Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta. Hinting at the future direction of her research and policy recommendations, she criticised the vast subsidies going to large monocultural agribusiness companies. Currently, in the European Union about 80 per cent per cent of subsidies and 90 per cent of research funding go to support conventional industrial agriculture. “Empirical and scientific evidence shows that small farmers feed the world. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), 70 per cent of food we consume globally comes from small farmers,” said Elver. “This is critical for future agricultural policies. Currently, most subsidies go to large agribusiness. This must change. Governments must support small farmers. As rural people are migrating increasingly to cities, this is generating huge problems. “If these trends continue, by 2050, 75% of entire human population will live in urban areas. We must reverse these trends by providing new possibilities and incentives to small farmers, especially for young people in rural areas.” If implemented, Elver’s suggestions would represent a major shift in current govt food policies. But Marcel Beukeboom, a Dutch civil servant specialising in food and nutrition at the Ministry of Trade and Development who spoke after Elver, dissented from Elver’s emphasis on small farms: “While I agree that we must do more to empower small farmers, fact is that big monocultural farms are simply not going to disappear. We have to therefore find ways to make practices of industrial agribusiness more effective, and this means working in partnership with private sector, small and large.” New UN food rapporteur’s debut speech coincided with a landmark two-day International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutrition Security in Rome, hosted by FAO. 50 experts participated in symposium, including scientists, the private sector, govt officials, and civil society leaders. A high-level roundtable at the close of the symposium included the agricultural ministers of France, Algeria, Costa Rica, Japan, Brazil and the European Union agricultural commissioner. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said: “Agroecology continues to grow, both in science and in policies. It is an approach that will help address the challenge of ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms, in the context of the climate change adaptation needed.” Letter to FAO signed by 70 international food scientists congratulated the UN agency for convening agroecology symposium and called for a “UN system-wide initiative on agroecology as the central strategy for addressing climate change and building resilience in face of water crises.” Scientists described agroecology as “a well-grounded science, a set of time-tested agronomic practices and, when embedded in sound socio-political institutions, most promising pathway for achieving sustainable food production.” A social movement! A signatory to the letter, Mindi Schneider, assistant professor of Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, said: “Agroecology is more than just a science, its also a social movement for justice that recognises and respects the right of communities of farmers to decide what they grow and how they grow it.” Several other food experts at the Transnational Institute offered criticisms of prevailing industrial practices. Prof Sergio Sauer, formerly Brazils National Rapporteur for HR in Land, Territory & Food Agroecology is related to the way you relate to land, to nature to each other - it is more than just organic production, it is a sustainable livelihood. In Brazil we have the National Association of Agroecology which brings together 7,000 from all over country pooling together their concrete empirical experiences of agroecological practices. They try to base all their knowledge on practice, not just on concepts. Generally, nobody talks about agroecology, because its too political. Simple fact FAO is calling a major international gathering to discuss agroecology is therefore a very significant milestone.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 04:30:00 +0000
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