A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

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Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com Robert Watson, director of IAASTD and chief scientist at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "Business as usual will hurt the poor. It will not work. We have to applaud global increases in food production but not everyone has benefited. We have not succeeded globally.” Governments and industry focus too narrowly on increasing food production, with little regard for natural resources or food security. "Continuing with current trends would mean the earth's haves and have-nots splitting further apart. It would leave us facing a world nobody would want to inhabit. We have to make food more affordable and nutritious without degrading the land." General conclusions Protection of soils and habitat Science and technology should be targeted towards raising yields but also protecting soils, water and forests. Investment in agricultural science is urgently needed to find sustainable ways to produce food. Incentives for science to address the issues that matter to the poor are weak. Little role for GM as currently practised. The short answer to whether transgenic crops can feed the world is ‘no’. They could contribute but we must understand their costs and benefits. The global rush to bio-fuels was unsustainable; diversion of crops to fuel can raise food prices and reduce our ability to alleviate hunger; negative social effects where small-scale farmers are marginalised or displaced from their land. Individual members and NGOs comments Failure of industrial farming A sobering account of the failure of industrial farming; small-scale farmers and ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis and meet the needs of communities. Small-scale farmers and the environment lose under trade liberalisation. Developing countries must exercise their right to stop the flood of cheap subsidised products from the north. Fossil fuels We need an agriculture that is less dependent on fossil fuels, favours the use of locally available resources and explores the use of natural processes such as crop rotation and use of organic fertilizers. Bio-energy bio-fuel crops compete for land and water with food crops, are inefficient and can cause deforestation and damage soils and water. Bio- fuels from renewable sources that do not compete with food or damage the ecological system and re-using spent fats are no problem. Biotechnology The use of GM crops, where the technology is not contained, is contentious, the UN says. Data on some crops indicate highly variable yield gains in some places and declines in others. Climate change While modest temperature rises may increase food yields in some areas, general warming risks damaging all regions of the globe Trade and markets Subsidies distort the use of resources and benefit industrialised nations at the expense of developing countries. Sources: Organic farming could feed Africa, Howden, D, Third World Network; Change in farming can feed world – report, by John Vidal, environment editor, The Guardian, Wednesday 16 April 2008 The United Nations Environment Programme study - A Green revolution could feed the world The United Nations Environment Programme study entitled “The Environmental Food crises: Environment’s role in averting future food crises” issued in February 2009, added to the picture. It found that yields more than doubled when organic or near organic practices, which improved soil quality, were used yields jumped by 128 per cent in East Africa. This report also favours organic methods for feeding the world proposed by the World Food Programme and it cites the evidence of successful small-scale farms 170
Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com in Africa. It predicts that organic agriculture will continue to grow, despite the economic crisis, and that sales of certified organic produce could reach close to $70 billion in 2012, up from $23 billion in 2002. “There is evidence within the report that the world could feed the entire projected population growth alone by becoming more efficient while also ensuring the survival of wild animals, birds and fish on this planet.” Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director. He continues: “We need a Green revolution in a Green Economy but one with a capital G”. Increasing the use of fertiliser and pesticide-led production methods of the 20th century is not the answer. “It will increasingly undermine the critical natural inputs and nature-based services for agriculture such as healthy and productive soils, the water and nutrient recycling of forests, and pollinators such as bees and bats.” Bottom-up Initiatives Common themes All over the world, initiatives are emerging that put the emphasis on local food. The Hunger Project - Empowering women and men to end their own hunger. The Hunger Project (THP) began in 1977, triggered by the first Rome World Food Conference. It has initiated projects in many countries, constantly re- inventing itself and learning from experience. THP only works in countries into which it has been invited. Its focus is on chronic, persistent hunger. Typical top-down and charitable approaches are believed to fail in achieving lasting improvements. The Hunger Project develops a grassroots, decentralised, holistic, people-centred approach after a thorough review of the situation on the ground and finding out what keeps chronic persistent hunger in place. The underlying principle is self-sufficiency. It is undoing the effect of colonialism. Rather than providing financial aid, help is offered through training leaders and help in building community centres. It encourages communities to get financial and other support from the country authorities themselves. The Hunger Project uses an approach called Strategic Planning in Action (SPIA) and a process called VCA – Vision, Commitment and Action. Selected villagers are trained in VCA and later become leaders and trainers in their communities, thus reaching many more people. About 20,000 villages in Asia, Africa and Latin America have applied SPIA to empower people to achieve lasting improvements in health, education, nutrition and family income. Women grow the majority of food for household consumption in Africa and are almost completely bypassed by official efforts to improve food for households. In 1999, the Hunger Project launched a new initiative demonstrating effective training and credit, empowering tens of thousands of African women food farmers and awakened policy makers to the fact that Africa’s future depends on their future. THP promoted high standards of leadership in Africa through the creation of The Africa Prize for Leadership and created local activities managed by the villagers through the creation of Epicentres. South Asia has the highest rates of childhood malnutrition and its women suffer severe subjugation. In 2000 the Hunger Project launched an initiative to provide leadership training to 70,000 elected women, build networks of ongoing support and mobilise the media for public support. In 2003 the Hunger Project launched a campaign based on the AIDS and Gender Inequality Workshop to empower people to protect themselves 171
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A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

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