Agroecology is a solution to the food systems and climate change crises

http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=1016

Title: Agroecology is a Solution to the Food Systems and Climate Change Crises 
Publication date: October 25, 2013  

THIRD WORLD NETWORK INFORMATION SERVICE ON SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Dear friends and colleagues,

The UN Conference on Trade and Environment (UNCTAD) launched its Trade and Environment Review 2013 on 18 September 2013 (see TWN Agriculture Info: Making Agriculture Truly Sustainable for Food Security in a Changing Climate, 19 September 2013). The report highlights the drastic changes needed in agriculture to combat hunger and environmental degradation.  

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food contributed a commentary on ‘Agroecology: A Solution to the Crises of Food Systems and Climate Change’. He explores how agroecology, which is the application of the science of ecology to agricultural systems, can result in modes of production that are more resilient, highly productive and sustainable. It therefore contributes to the alleviation of rural poverty, and thus, to the realization of the right to food. 

Among the benefits of agroecology highlighted: 
* Agroecological techniques have a proven potential to significantly improve yields.

* Agroecology has the potential to increase the incomes of small-scale farmers as well as contributes to rural development.

* The diversity of species on farms managed following agroecological principles, as well as in urban or peri-urban agriculture, is important to improve nutrition.

* Agroecology can support the provision of a number of services to ecosystems, including by providing a habitat for wild plants, supporting genetic diversity and pollination, and water supply and regulation.

* Agroecology strengthens resilience to climate change and also contributes to mitigating climate change. 

The commentary is reproduced below. The Trade and Environment Review 2013 is available at http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=666


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Commentary VI: Agroecology: A Solution to the Crises of Food Systems and Climate Change


Olivier de Schutter
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

Abstract 
The food price hikes of 2008 and 2011–2012 were partly the result of weather-related events linked to climate change, and partly due to the dependence of food production on fossil energies that caused a merger between food and energy markets as well as the financialization of food markets. The current efforts to reinvest in agriculture should take into account the need to improve the resilience of food systems so as to reduce their vulnerability to extreme weather events and to the increasingly volatile prices of non-renewable fossil energies. This article explores how agroecology, understood as the application of the science of ecology to agricultural systems, can result in modes of production that are not only more resilient, but also both highly productive and sustainable, enabling them to contribute to the alleviation of rural poverty, and thus, to the realization of the right to food. 

TO READ THE REST: http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=1016

Yet another UN report calls for support to peasant farming and agroecology: now it is time for action

http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4789-yet-another-un-report-calls-for-support-to-peasant-farming-and-agroecology-it-s-time-for-action

GRAIN | La Vía Campesina | ETC Group | 23 September 2013 | Other publications

Media release
23 September 2013

La Via Campesina, GRAIN and ETC welcome a new UNCTAD report which 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. More than 60 international experts contributed to the report, launched last week.

UNCTAD's 2013 Trade and Environment Report ("Wake up before it is too late: make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate") states that monoculture and industrial farming methods are not providing sufficient affordable food where it is needed, while causing mounting and unsustainable environmental damage.

This is the line of argument that Via Campesina, GRAIN and the ETC group have been advocating for over twenty years. They contributed chapters to the UNCTAD report and have now created a joint partnership to advance agroecology and peasant farming as alternatives.

Over the past few years, we have seen a steady flow of high level reports from the UN system and development agencies arguing in favour of small farmers and agroecology. International recognition that this is the way to solve the food and climate crisis is clearly building, but this has not been translated into real action on the ground where peasant farmers increasingly face marginalisation and oppression.

“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. To achieve this goal, the protection of the huge variety of local seeds and farmers' rights to use them is paramount. As small farmers, we are struggling to preserve our own indigenous seeds and knowledge of farming systems,” said Elizabeth Mpofu, general coordinator of La Via Campesina.

Evidence is mounting that the industrial 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 industrial food system is directly responsible for around half of all global greenhouse gas emissions, as we showed in our contribution to the UNCTAD report,” says Henk Hobbelink of GRAIN. “We cannot solve the climate crisis without confronting the industrial food system and the corporations behind it. We should be turning to peasant based agroecology instead.”

Pat Mooney of the ETC group adds: “The corporate food chain uses about 70-80% of the world's arable land to produce just 30-40% of the food we eat. In the process peasant farmers, the real food producers, get thrown off their land and tremendous environmental harm is done. This is clearly not the way to feed the world”

It is time to translate policy documents into real action and governments at all levels (from local authorities to international bodies) are responsible for taking the right decisions in this regard. We call upon the international community to join us in the struggle for food sovereignty, to resist the corporate control of our food system, and to support peasant farmers and other small scale food producers to feed the world.