The North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society is encouraged by a new UN report on sustainable agriculture and food security, says Phrang Roy
WAKE UP before it is too late: make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate, says a UN report released on September 18. UNCTAD’s 2013 Trade and Environment Report states that farming in rich and poor nations alike should shift from monoculture towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilizers and other inputs, greater support for small-scale farmers, and more locally focused production and consumption of food.
This report, a contribution by more than 60 international experts, was welcomed by the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS) and the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty, Rome, both spearheaded by Phrang Roy. This is because it supports the principles of both organizations to promote diversity in agricultural and food systems. It states that monoculture and industrial farming methods are not providing sufficient affordable food where it is needed, while causing mounting and unsustainable environmental damage.
Although NESFAS is only a year old and many of its activities are slowly emerging, its food festivals at Mawphlang and 31 other areas in Meghalaya have been showcasing the importance of local food systems to taste, pleasure, our health, well being and livelihoods. Initiatives such as Indigenous Cafes, biodiversity gardens and local seed fairs have emerged as meaningful activities, taken up by grassroots peoples. NESFAS is also encouraged that there has been a steady flow of high level reports from the UN system and development agencies arguing in favour of small farmers and agroecology.
The report urges governments to find ways to factor in and reward farmers for currently unpaid public goods they provide – such as clean water, soil and landscape preservation, protection of biodiversity, and recreation.
The UN report also states that the strategy of specializing in the production and export of “lucrative” cash crops has recently failed to deliver its desired results and has instead aggravated the environmental crisis of agriculture and reduced agricultural resilience. The report cites a number of trends that collectively suggest a mounting crisis:
• Food prices from 2011 to mid-2013 were almost 80 per cent higher than for the period 2003–2008
• Global fertilizer use has increased by eight times over the past 40 years, although global cereal production has only doubled during that period;
• Growth rates in agricultural productivity have recently declined from 2 per cent per year to below 1 per cent
• Two types of irreparable environmental damage have already been caused by agriculture: nitrogen contamination of soil and water, and loss of biodiversity
• Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are the single biggest source of global warming in the South. They also the fastest growing (along with emissions from transport)
• Foreign land acquisition in developing countries (often termed “land grabbing”) in recent years has amounted, in value, to between five and ten times the level of official development assistance
These findings substantiate what leading social movements across the globe have been advocating for many years that we need to reshape our global food system by starting from the ground up.
Elizabeth Mpofu, the general coordinator of the world’s largest peasant organization, La Via Campesina, said: “Long before the release of this report, small farmers around the world were already convinced that we absolutely need a diversified agriculture to guarantee a balanced local food production, the protection of people’s livelihoods and the respect of nature.” Evidence is indeed mounting that the commercialized food system is not only failing to feed the world, but also responsible for some of the planet’s most pressing social and environmental crises.
The Trade and Environment Report 2013 warns that continuing rural poverty, persistent hunger around the world, growing populations, and mounting environmental concerns must be treated as a collective crisis. It says that urgent and far-reaching action is needed before climate change begins to cause major disruptions to agriculture, especially in developing countries.
Phrang Roy believes that the people and government of Meghalaya have a unique opportunity to translate this evolving international awakening into real action on the ground. NESFAS will work closely with local communities and the government to this end. The planned International Indigenous Conference to be hosted by the government and organized by NESFAS and several international bodies at Mawphlang in October 2015 (Indigenous Terra Madre 2015) will give a wonderful opportunity for Meghalaya to showcase its leadership role in this respect.