FOOD AT THE CENTER, AGRICULTURE EVERYWHERE!

Transcript

1 FOOD AT THE CENTER, AGRICULTURE EVERYWHERE!

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3 FOOD AT THE CENTER AGRICULTURE EVERYWHERE! Italy will host the G8 summit in 2009 in the midst of a financial crisis that came on top of earlier food and energy crises that have become an economic crisis with consequences on the real economy and the well-being of families. These have added to two structural crises, those of climate change and global governance. None of these crises was foreseen by the authorities, none of them has been addressed with proper strategies nor with any sense of responsibility: only palliative answers have been provided, in a perfect continuity with the same policies that were responsible for the domino effects. As Albert Einstein said, madness is: continuing to do the same thing, hoping for a different outcome. The outcome is a strong sense of a lack of foresight and management capacity on the part of the very global leadership that purports to lead the world. As a major point, the food crisis highlighted the need to recognise the original purpose of agriculture, and the need to put this sector at the top of governments priorities and policies. Up until the rapid increase in food prices, that drove an extra 100 million men, women and children into food insecurity, agriculture was considered of secondary importance to G8 leaders, simply an obstacle to concluding an international trade agreement. An example was the drastic decrease of the development aid to agriculture from a peak of 18,1% in 1979 to 3,5% in 2004, as highlighted by the World Bank. Moreover, the few resources available were directed to the development of an export-oriented model of agriculture, dealing with a limited number of commodities: a model that revealed itself fragile and unsustainable in terms of energy consumption, and only of benefit to a few elites, both in North and in South. A model that is prey to price volatilities and that doesn t prioritise food security. To us it has been always clear that social relationships, local governance, nations food sovereignty and right to food are central to food and agriculture policies. However, agriculture is also a productive sector that generates wealth and ensures employment than any other sector in the world. To recognise the key role of agriculture, also means recognizing the agricultural work carried out by the more than 1.3 billion people active in the sector: about 50% of the whole work-force of the world. A part of this work force comprises full-time and seasonal labour that in many countries is not guaranteed labour rights, contracts, tutelage nor social welfare. Furthermore much of this labour is provided by children or exploited immigrants. The dismantling of the internal agro-systems and entrusting food supply to anonymous global tradesmen caused the crisis to strike even harder, emphasizing the fact that an agriculture without peasants generates consumers without food. More food is available to humanity now than in any time in the past: according to FAO data, it would be sufficient for feeding 12 billion people. In 2007/2008 (years of the food crisis ) crop production, the basis for feeding the world, reached record values, but the convergence of the increase in oil prices and agro-fuel production together with financial speculation (exogenous factors to agro-food sector), caused a spiral of inflation in food prices for consumers but without improving farmers income. The deregulation of financial speculation allowed the diffusion of unsustainable monoculture for export-oriented agro-fuel production, that removed land from food production, without contributing to climate mitigation. This is the reason why we ask for an immediate moratorium on monoculture large-scale agro-fuel production 01

4 FOOD AT THE CENTER AGRICULTURE EVERYWHERE! and the separation of finance from food and land property, on which the long shadow of the economy is now casting, looking for remunerative assets after the burst of the recent dotcom bubbles. In this scenario, Africa is paying the highest price. It is the continent with the highest index of agricultural employment and the highest number of people affected by food insecurity. Furthermore, Africa is where climate change is having more devastating impacts, and where the worst structural adjustments plans have been implemented, with the cutting of public expenditure and the elimination of services to agriculture (input supply, credit, technical assistance) and of instruments of supply management. This resulted in Africa increasing its exports of agricultural products, while increasing even more its food imports, as well as increases in its debt and its political vulnerability. In Africa many geo-political interests are converging, linked to soil, natural resources and market control. On one side, banks, enterprises, investors, agribusiness and governments are casting their speculative investments on the continent, looking at controlling its resources. On the other side, Africa is asked to apply an old and widespread development model such as the green revolution, based on profits generation through trade of industrial seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, with bad consequences on the both environment and farmers conditions. An alternative pathway to the development of African agriculture and food is being proposed by farmers organizations, livestock keepers, fisherfolk, who assert that Africa can feed itself, the capacity of Africa to address its food needs. These food producers should be the platform for negotiations with regional and international institutions. These organizations are creating a continental platform composed by regional farmers networks that can dialogue with the African Union and other intergovernmental institutions with the aim to protect the interests of African populations. These organizations are promoting the protection of family farm agricultural and agroecological food production that, if supported by adequate policies, would be able to address the food demand of the whole continent. This requires regional and national agricultural policies - built with participation of social actors - aiming at: reintroducing services to agriculture (eliminated within structural adjustments programs), orienting investments toward rural economies and infrastructures, building local and regional markets and protecting them from unfair competition by the over-production of industrial and subsided agriculture in other parts of the world protecting farmers access to land and to the other natural resources In particular, agronomic and productive systems that demand a large quantity of water, are currently among the major causes of the global water emergency. Water is extracted from natural ecosystems and used mostly for export crops: this deprives local communities of an essential public asset, particularly in poor countries. To ensure national food security and a fair income to food producers, both in the North and the South, there is a need to protect local markets: countries must be guaranteed the right to protect and promote local trade through specific measures aiming at limiting the effects of dumping of food in their markets as well as other distortions of international trade, such as export subsides. The right to Food Sovereignty must be the guiding principle in the negotiations at any levels (multilateral and bilateral) and an effective multilateral decision-making context 02

5 FOOD AT THE CENTER AGRICULTURE EVERYWHERE! must be ensured, in which the role of United Nations and theirs agencies is central in the global governance system. The priority of local markets and small-scale agriculture (with short marketing chains to local consumers) must be recognised, at all institutional levels, so as to avoid markets being an easy target for control by transnational processors, traders and retailers. This would allow to ensure a rural space rich in terms of both of population and agriculture (it is better have a neighbour than have a desert as neighbour), mitigation of climatic chaos, protection and re-establishment of the fertility of soils, costeffectiveness in agriculture, quality and safety of the products, that is strictly linked to local agricultural biodiversity and to the quantity of work demanded for their production. Basically, a specific strategy is required, aiming at ensuring: the sound management of the territory and natural resources, social cohesion, an economy based on needs and rights, food sovereignty and security tout court of all countries. Queste non sono deliberazioni ideologiche, ma These are not ideological issues, but practices that social organizations are promoting throughout the world: the capitalization of best practices linked to local markets, the diffusion of the organic agricultural system as a rural development model (much more than a mere technique), the emerging of participated research practices, in which the agricultures become co-titular of innovation, are concrete ways through which rural communities are placed in the middle of development processes, acknowledging their right to be protagonist. A small-scale and agroecological model of agriculture is not an unrealistic solution: it is also suggested by the 400 experts who produced the IAASTD report, sponsored by the World Bank and the FAO and approved by 58 countries. This report, still largely ignored by the international community, finds that GMOs have not provided solutions for food security, small-scale farmers welfare nor climate change. The focus on GM cultivation not only strengthens the industrial organisation of the whole agricultural system, but also introduces (through patents and restrictive contracts) a form of control on food production that threatens global food security. All that, added to genetic pollution risks that threaten natural biodiversity and the integrity of food production, makes GMO-based farming a unsustainable model of production. Policies aiming at investing on agroecological agriculture, the centrality of rural work and the right to food and food sovereignty, have to become priorities for public authorities and international institutions. We are worried about the current increase in institutions for the governance on food and agriculture will result in a fragmentation of effort and the prevention of any democratic and transparent engagement with representatives of social movements. The proposal launched by the French Government and supported by the G8, for a Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security (GPAFS) still has to be discussed, to make it more participatory and able to support the international institutions, particularly FAO, legally recognised for guaranteeing the right to food. We hope that this will happen as soon as possible and that all countries will contribute to the current debate and also provide the necessary financial resources as needed. The governance issues are crucial at the present time. International institutions dealing with food and agriculture have to improve their effectiveness and demonstrate their ability to provide proper support to food producers whose present weakness and dependence on economic and financial institutions can only worsen the situation. 03

6 FOOD AT THE CENTER AGRICULTURE EVERYWHERE! On this basis, we ask Agricultural Ministers of G8 Countries: to invest in and support a family farm model of agriculture based on agro-ecological principles with priority given to local markets and a right of access to natural resources and their management by local food producers, which will provide social and environmental sustainability. That also means excluding inappropriate technologies, starting with an immediate moratorium on GMOs; to support multilateral decision making processes and inclusive governance mechanisms, involving social organizations on the basis of principles of autonomy and representativity, so as to allow the definition of agricultural policies based on food sovereignty. To acknowledge, as principal interlocutors, the social movements of food producers and to provide only one institutional entity for ensuring the global governance of the food and agriculture system, based on UN organisations located in Rome. to ensure the right to food and also forbid the application of financial derivative instruments on food commodities; to improve the value of agricultural work, recognizing the need for workers right to be represented and protected by unions, to adopt sound laws for ensuring social support wherever needed and to confront vigorously, together with social organizations dealing with the agricultural sector, the issues of non-unionised exploitative labour. to enhance all productive chains with high agroecological value, including fair trade and community supported agriculture as well as the self-organization of supply and demand linked to public procurement, so that they will constitute a viable and concrete alternative that will recognise the improved value to the food system of biodiverse and agroecololgical agriculture, small and medium-scale processing and local production systems when compared with large-scale production, marketing and distribution. to provide more Public Aid for Agricultural Development with the aim to return to the levels reached in

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8 Grafichs: Marco Binelli Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Panos/ActionAid The statement is supported by: A.B.C.S. - A.C.A.V. - A.C.R.A. - A.C.S. - A.D.R.A. ITALIA (OSA) - A.E.S.-C.C.C. - A.F.M.A.L.- F.B.F. - A.I.C.O.S. - A.I.D.O.S. - A.I.S. - Seguimi - A.I.S.P.O. - A.L.M. - A.M.R.E.F. - A.M.U. Azione per un Mondo Unito - A.N.L. - A.N.P.A.S. - A.P.S. - A.R.C.S. - A.S.eS. - A.S.F. - A.S.I. - A.S.I. - SA - A.S.I.A. - A.S.P.Em - ABC Solidarietà e Pace - ABChildren Charity - ACCRI - ACLI Nazionale - ACS Associazione di Cooperazione e Solidarietà - ActionAid International - AGAPE - AIFO - AINA - AINRAM Associazione Internazionale Noi Ragazzi del Mondo - ALISEI - Altragricoltura Nord Est - AMAHORO - AMANI ONLUS - Amici dei popoli - Amici del Brasile (Pandino) - Amici del Brasile (Villa Potenza) - Amici di Manaus - AMISTRADA - Rete di Amicizia con le ragazze e i ragazzi di strada - ANTENNA ITALIANA AEFJN ( Rete Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network) - ARCI - AREF - ASAL - ASEM Italia - ASIA - Associazione Amici del Marajò - Associazione Arcipelago Friuli - Associazione Arcipelago SCEC coordinamento Nazionale dei buoni locali della Solidarietà Che Cammina - Associazione Arcipelago Toscana - Associazione Aripelago SCEC Verona - Associazione BAMBINI VITTIME Onlus - Associazione CIBOPERTUTTI KUMINDA - Associazione Consumatori Utenti ACU - Associazione Culturale Circolo Gianni Bosio - Associazione di Solidarietà per la Campagna Italiana ASCI - Associazione Guide e Scouts Cattolici Italiani AGESCI - Associazione Italiana per l Agricoltura Biologica AIAB - Associazione Lavoratori Produttori Agricoli ALPA - Associazione Medici per l Ambiente ISDE Italia - Associazione Michele Mancino - Associazione Naturalmente Verona - Associazione Nazionale Agricoltura Biolocica ANABIO CIA - Associazione Nazionale Cooperative di consumatori ANCC/COOP - Associazione ONG Italiane - Associazione Orlando - Associazione Rurale Italiana ARI - Associazione Scout Corpo Nazionale Giovani Esploratori Esploratrici Italiani C.N.G.E.I. - Associazione Solidarietà - Associazione Universitaria per la Cooperazione e lo Sviluppo AUCS - Associazione Vegetariana Italiana A.V.I. - AUCI - AUSER - AVAZ - Banca Popolare Etica - C.A.S.T. - C.C.M. - C.C.S. - C.D.S. - C.E.S.E.S. - C.E.S.T.A.S. - C.I.S.V. - C.I.A.I. - C.I.C.S.E.N.E. - C.I.Ca. comunità Internazionale di capodarco - C.I.E.S. - C.I.N.S. - C.I.P.M.O. - C.I.P.S.I. - C.I.S.P. - C.I.S.S. - C.L.M.C. - C.O.C.I.S. - C.O.E. - C.O.S.V. - C.P.S. - C.R.I.C. - C.T.M. 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