A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
Today, 3 billion 140 million people live on less than $2.50 a day. Of these, about 44 per cent survive
on less than $1.25 a day, according to a new World Bank report issued on 2 September 2008. Every
day, more than 30,000 people die of malnutrition, avoidable diseases and hunger. Some 85 per cent
of them are children under the age of 5.
The top 10 per cent of the world’s people possess 84 per cent of the world’s wealth, while the rest
are left with the remaining 16 per cent. Yet we have the technical and productive capacity to
adequately feed the whole planet. It is a matter of reorienting our priorities.
Ways forward
Global proposals
The World Food Programme
This 2008 report was prepared by the International Assessment on Agricultural Knowledge, Science and
Technology for Development. It is a truly independent assessment. The process used to create this report
was “path-breaking” in the sense that it was truly inclusive and embraced governments, major research
institutions, industry and NGOs or civil society groups and stakeholders from all over the world. Its work on
GM, for example, involved hundreds of scientists and experts whose rigorous work was peer-reviewed. It has
been widely accepted, approved by 57 governments in somewhat watered down form. It took three years to
complete and involved analysis of 114 projects in 24 African countries. However, Canada, Australia, UK and
USA did not sign the formal report and USA claiming it unbalanced. GM companies, though initially involved,
withdrew their support because of its conclusions.
The report called for rich countries to contribute $500m (£255m) to address a growing global food crisis in
which staple food prices had risen up to 80% in some countries and there were riots in many cities. According
to the World Bank, 33 countries are in danger of political destabilisation and internal conflict because of
rising food prices. The authors said the world produces enough food for everyone, yet more than 800 million
people go hungry.
The general message is that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provide the way forward to
avert the current food crisis and meet the needs of local communities. More equitable trade policies,
increased investment in science and technologies and sharing knowledge that support agro-ecological
approaches in both small farm and larger scale sectors are needed. For the first time, it says, there is an
independent, global assessment that acknowledges that farming has diverse environmental and social
functions and nations and peoples have the right to democratically determine their best food and
agricultural policies.
In his article Organic farming 'could feed Africa', on the Third World Network site, Daniel Howden says:
“Conventional wisdom among African governments is that modern, mechanised agriculture was needed to
close the gap but efforts in this direction have had little impact on food poverty and have done nothing to
create a sustainable approach. ……The research conducted by the UN Environment Programme suggests that
organic, small-scale farming can deliver the increased yields which were thought to be the preserve of
industrial farming, without the environmental and social damage which that form of agriculture brings with
it. The study found that organic practices outperformed traditional methods and chemical-intensive
conventional farming.”
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