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PEOPLE'S ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ON THE OCCASION OF THE WORLD SUMMIT ON FOOD SECURITY
Press Release by PAN AP, 13 November 2009
An Open Letter signed by 140 organizations was sent to Mr. Jacques Diouf, Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on the occasion of the World Summit on Food Security in Rome to be held from the 16-18 November 2009.
The letter, entitled , was coordinated by the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) and signed by members of 140 organizations representing women, consumers, fisherfolk, small farmers, indigenous people, landless peasants, agricultural workers, trade unions, migrant workers and researchers from 18 countries in Asia Pacific and Africa.
"The third World Summit on Food Security should not be a travesty of justice with 'more of the same' solutions to hunger and food insecurity," said Sarojeni Rengam, Executive Director of PAN AP. "In the thirteen years since the first World Summit in 1996, the number of hungry and under-nourished has increased to over a billion at a rate of 40 million in each of the last two years. Continuing to pursue the same strategies is not an option; we must learn to listen to the people and implement a new system of biodiversity based ecological agriculture with small farmers at the centre."
Responding to a draft of the objectives and possible decisions of the World Summit on Food Security, the open letter makes a critical appeal to the FAO to recognize and dismantle the neo-liberalist, corporate model of agriculture in favour of a new global food production system based on food sovereignty and environmental sustainability.
The people's organizations call on the FAO to:
- Create a Convention on Food Sovereignty to enshrine the principles of food sovereignty and institute food sovereignty as the principal policy framework for food and agriculture;
- Initiate a process of implementation and monitoring of the International Conference on Agrarian Reforms and Rural Development (ICARRD) recommendations;
- Provide leadership by establishing mechanisms that ensure international conventions and trade agreements related to food and agriculture guarantee North-South respect and cooperation, uphold human rights, promote genuine agrarian reforms, ensure sustainability and accountability in dealing with natural resources, and reject all manner of privatisation of life-forms and the development of genetically engineered crops/food;
- Support research and development that is based on the needs of communities and carried out through consultative, participatory methods such that the solutions truly fit the needs of the people and are led by them;
- To utilize the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report as a central tool for the future strategies of the FAO on poverty eradication and agricultural development;
- Provide aid free of conditionalities, and monitor philanthropy;
- Dismantle the Agreement on Agriculture and take the WTO out of agriculture;
- Support small, biodiversity based ecological agriculture and not corporate monocultures.
The continuing food and financial crises offer the FAO an opportunity to break from its past shortcomings and failures and make a fresh start, beginning with a historic paradigm shift to achieve a sustainable and equitable system of food production and distribution. This can well happen if the FAO listens to the voices from the ground and provides a greater and more proactive working space for the civil society organizations and people's movements in bringing the people's representation and perspectives to the discussion table.
The is also available at .
For more information contact:
Brione Bruce
Program Officer
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific
P.O. Box 1170, Penang
10850 Malaysia
Tel: 604-657 0271 or 604-656 0381
E-mail:
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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE FAO ON THE OCCASION OF THE WORLD SUMMIT ON FOOD SECURITY
13 November 2009
To,
Mr Jacques Diouf
Director General
Food and Agriculture Organization
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome
ITALY
Regarding : Aide Memoire - Look Beyond Tried and Tired Strategies, to People's Solutions for Hunger and Poverty
Dear Mr Diouf,
The third World Summit on Food Security could not be taking place at a more critical time in modern history - the world is deep in the throes of multiple crises namely, the food, financial and climate crises with no concrete solutions in sight. Unfortunately, the last two World Food Summits (WFS) have given the people, especially the poor, little to hope for - there is no food security in the world today for most of its six billion inhabitants. In the thirteen years since the first WFS in 1996, the number of hungry and under-nourished has actually increased to over a billion at a rate of 40 million in each of the last two years: a bleak testimony to the failure of the food and agricultural policies adopted by governments, the FAO and other global institutions. Eighty percent of this one billion live in Asia and two-thirds are peasant farmers and landless labourers. The neo-liberalist agenda of trade liberalization and monopoly capitalism has been well served by the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), TRIPs and TRIPs Plus and other international and bilateral instruments which have commodified food and destroyed domestic food security. The face of agriculture today is that of huge monoculture farms filled with poisonous pesticides, agrofuel plantations, cash crops, genetically engineered crops carrying huge risks to human health and the environment, impoverished rural farming communities, and millions of displaced indigenous peoples and peasants. Moreover, the UN High Level Task Force on the Food Crisis and its Comprehensive Framework of Action (CFA) in 2008 does not appear to be making any concrete headway because it is not addressing the root of the problem. If anything, the divide between the rich and the poor has grown wider and deeper.
This aide memoire from the people's movements of Asia is in response to the draft "Secretariat contribution to defining the objectives and possible decisions of the World Summit on Food Security on 16, 17 & 18 November 2009" (hereinafter called the Draft Declaration of the WFS 2009). It is a critical appeal to the FAO to recognize and dismantle the neo-liberalist, corporate model of agriculture that has crippled the food security of the world and to make an unequivocal move towards developing a new global food production system based on food sovereignty and environmental sustainability, with small food producers at the centre of agriculture. This is even more urgent in the face of the climate crisis where millions, especially in the South, have to face unprecedented climatic disasters for which they are ill-prepared. This third WFS should not be a travesty of justice with the "more of the same" formula being the order of the day. The time is NOW for the FAO to redeem itself as a world body dedicated to ensuring a sustainable and equitable state of food and agriculture for all, especially the poor.
People-Centred Solutions
The current state of food insecurity is a direct result of the trade liberalization regime; the emphasis on food grown for export and not for communities has blocked access to food, land and productive resources for the world's poor. Paradoxically, countries with large numbers of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition are the very countries exporting food in large quantities. The situation is made worse by militarization, armed conflicts and wars that have devastated the lives of people and aggravated their food insecurity.
In this context, the FAO provides a unique international space in which the right to food and food sovereignty can be considered beyond the control of the market, and the voice of the global South can be heard. Being the leading specialized UN agency with the capacity to work on food and agriculture issues and a mandate to combat hunger and poverty globally, the FAO is in a position to lead the change that is required to transform the face of food production in the world through a direct, transparent and democratic relationship with NGOs/CSOs and people's movements.
Towards this end, we urge the FAO to seriously consider the following and adopt the necessary changes recommended.
Food Sovereignty: Going Beyond Food Security
Food security, albeit important, addresses only part of the problem of hunger in the world. In order to tackle the root causes of food insecurity and poverty and to ensure a truly sustainable system of food production, it is essential that the food sovereignty of the people, especially small food producers, is recognized and asserted.
Food Sovereignty is the inalienable RIGHT of people, communities and countries - to decide their food and agriculture policies; to adequate, culturally appropriate and safe food; to land and productive resources; to sustainable production and livelihoods; and to gender justice, social justice and environmental justice.
Following the food crisis in 2008, the CFA recommended a series of immediate and long-term measures to address the food crisis. However, by not including the small food producers or their representatives in its formulation, the CFA's overall stress on trade liberalization in agriculture will only continue to facilitate further corporate control over the food chain; strengthening the power structures, approaches and practices which have over time resulted in the collapse of the whole system of food production and the increased hunger and poverty that we are witnessing today.
The Draft Declaration of the WFS 2009 recognizes "The right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free of hunger." As the FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) rightly points out in its report1, it is urgent that the right to food be taken beyond the current rhetoric. If food is to be truly recognized as a human right, there must be a parallel system within which people can claim this human right. This parallel system must be grounded upon the principles of food sovereignty.
We commend the FAO for its Right to Food Guidelines and call for their immediate implementation. We further call for a Convention on Food Sovereignty to be drawn up which will enshrine the principles of food sovereignty and institute food sovereignty as the principal policy framework for food and agriculture.
Similarly, the International Conference on Agrarian Reforms and Rural Development (ICARRD), organized by the FAO together with the Brazilian Government in 2006, strongly called for genuine land reforms for the small food producers. However, despite the ICARRD declaration being signed by 92 countries, there has been almost no follow-up. It is important for the FAO to initiate a process of implementation and monitoring of the ICARRD recommendations.
We also urge the FAO to provide leadership by establishing mechanisms that ensure international conventions and trade agreements related to food and agriculture, guarantee North-South respect and cooperation, uphold human rights, promote genuine agrarian reforms, ensure sustainability and accountability in dealing with natural resources, and reject all manner of privatisation of life-forms and the development of genetically engineered crops/food.
Development, Technology and Aid
In development of agricultural and global food security policies, the FAO should recommend and promote multilateral decisions that promote an international order based on justice and respect for life. It must insist that research and development are based on the needs of communities and carried out through consultative, participatory methods such that the solutions truly fit the needs of the people and are led by them.
The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), which involved over 400 scientists, institutions and individuals and took four years to complete, recommended a number of changes in the way food and agriculture have been dealt with in the last several decades. It categorically declared that the old paradigm of industrial energy-intensive and toxic agriculture was an outdated concept while small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provided the way forward. Yet, since its release in 2008, the IAASTD report continues to be ignored by international organizations. The IAASTD report must be central to the future strategies of the WFS 2009 on poverty eradication and agricultural development.
Rural development must be driven by the people and not by corporations, the WTO, IMF and other similar global bodies. Aid given should be free of conditionalities that keep poor countries trapped in a cycle of exploitation, oppression and debt. The Draft Declaration of the WFS 2009 states that it "highly appreciates the interest shown and resources mobilized for agriculture and food security by private philanthropic foundations in recent years". While we are supportive of increased investment in agriculture, the FAO must ensure that such finances are used in the interests of the people and not to further the agenda of corporations and developed nations. Aid should encompass the concepts of democratic ownership and transparency where true participatory processes with the people at the centre are ensured.
Recent donations by organizations such as the Gates Foundation to promote genetically engineered crops and corporate agriculture in Africa will serve to duplicate the disastrous Green Revolution practices that ravaged Asian agriculture. GE crops haven't proven to increase production, reduce pest infestation or, in fact, reduce the use of pesticides. Are we prepared to once again witness the poisoning of people and lands with pesticides; the destruction of precious native local crop varieties and ecosystems; and the deepening debt and impoverishment of millions of peasants in Africa?
In considering GE crops as a solution to world hunger, the FAO has failed to adhere to the precautionary principle. Furthermore, GE is not just a matter of risk to human health and the environment, the very concept of the private ownership of seeds is a violation of the food sovereignty of farmers everywhere. The FAO would do well to consider the broader and deeper implications of GE food rather than view GE as a convenient techno-fix to eradicate world hunger. It should move away from the reductionist approach to science and technology in agriculture, the disastrous effects of which are well-evidenced by the failed Green Revolution in Asia.
Climate Change and Agriculture
Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to the food security of the world, especially in the South, where its impacts are being manifested the most. Agriculture plays a big role in the climate crisis, accounting for some 13% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It should be noted, however, that corporate agriculture and industrial animal farming with their excessive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and effecting large scale land use conversions are the main drivers of these contributions. Synthetic fertilizers are a primary source of nitrous oxide, a potent GHG. Pesticide factories use huge amounts of fossil fuel and transport their products over thousands of miles all around the world. Globalization, responsible for the present ludicrous system of food distribution, is also to blame for the increase in carbon emissions. Trade and the market rather than domestic food security determine where food should be produced, sold and consumed resulting in an absolutely wasteful use of resources in transporting food across the globe.
In contrast to large conventional monoculture corporate farms, small biodiversity-based ecological farms have strong mitigation and adaptation potential. Ecological/Organic farming has been shown to sequester carbon more effectively than conventional/modern farms, and ecological farmers adapt better to climate changes than conventional farmers. Biodiversity-based ecological agriculture ensures community resilience in terms of food security, sustainable livelihoods, social support and adaptive capacity. This should be a key consideration for the WFS 2009.
The Way Forward
We are particularly disturbed by the proposal to "support a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of trade negotiations" as stated in the Draft Declaration of the WFS 2009. The WTO, with its AoA, has played a huge role in the worsening poverty of small-scale farmers and other marginalized sectors in the South. Pursuing the Doha Round would only perpetuate the neo-liberalist agenda of exploitative trade practices which benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. The current state of affairs in trade negotiations clearly shows that subsistence farmers can never be on a level playing field with corporate agricultural giants and subsidized farmers. The Doha negotiations have stalled on the issue of high agricultural subsidies provided by the USA and the EU to their farmers. The inability of the UN to break down the obstinacy of the bigger powers on this issue is evidence that pursing the Doha Round will produce no good end for the people. The WTO has to get out of agriculture and the AoA must be dismantled if there is to be any real hope of securing true food security, food sovereignty and economic justice in the world.
The continuing food and financial crises offer FAO an opportunity to break from its past shortcomings and failures, and make a fresh start, beginning with a historic paradigm shift to achieve a sustainable and equitable system of food production and distribution. This can well happen if the FAO listens to the voices from the ground and provides a greater and proactive working space to the civil society organizations and people's movements in bringing the people's representation and perspectives to the discussion table. The FAO must realize that the policies, strategies and solutions which the WTO, WB, IMF, CGIAR and agribusiness corporations offer have failed to address and solve the problems of hunger and poverty. Continuing to pursue these policies and strategies will only exacerbate the people's problems and miseries. We urge the FAO to take the tragic crises as an opportunity to learn and look to the people for solutions to the problems of world agriculture, food and hunger - solutions that will be real, equitable, sustainable and long-lasting. Otherwise, there will be no real change for the better, and therefore no peace, no justice and no food security for the people of the world.
Signed by:
- A.P. Mahila Vyavasay Vruthidarula Union, India
- Agrani Foundation, India
- Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA), Indonesia
- All Nepal Peasants' Federation (ANPFa), Nepal
- All Nepal Women Association (ANWA), Nepal
- Alliance of Peasants in the Cordillera Homeland, Philippines
- Alliance of People's Movement, India
- Amar Shaheed Chetna Sansthan, India
- Amnesty International (Malaysia), Malaysia
- Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU), India
- AP Matya Karula Union (FISH WORKERS UNION), India
- APPL, India
- Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Thailand
- Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), China
- Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), Philippines
- Association for Rural Planning and Action (ARPAN), India
- Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF), Bangladesh
- Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), Bangladesh
- Bantay Bigas, Philippines
- Bargad, Pakistan
- Beej Bachao Andolan, India
- Bhartiya Jan Ewam Prashikshan Sansthan, India
- Bhartiya Manaw Samaj Kalyan Sewa Sansthan, India
- Brick-klin Workers Movement, India
- Bullock Cart Workers Movement, India
- Center for Contemporary Studies and Research, India
- Center for Social Initiative, India
- Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society (CECOEDECON), India
- Centre for Sustainable Development (Cenesta), Iran
- Champa Devi Jan Kalayan Sewa Sansthan, India
- Chipko Pustakalay evam Sanghralay, India
- Citizens' alliance in Reforms for Equitable and Efficient Development (CREED), Pakistan
- Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA), Zambia
- Committee for Asian Women (CAW), Thailand
- Consumers Korea, South Korea
- Consumers Union of Japan, Japan
- Convenor National Agricultural Workers Forum, India
- Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA), Philippines
- Cordillera People's Alliance For the Defense of the Ancestral Domain and For Self Determination, Philippines
- Cordillera Women's Education Action Research Center (CWEARC), Philippines
- Dalit Liberation Movement, India
- Dynamic Action Group, India
- FANSA U.P., India
- Food Security Taskforce Group, Thailand
- Future In Our Hands Development Fund, Sri Lanka
- GABRIELA - General Assembly Binding Women for Reform, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action, Philippines
- Gautam Budha Jagriti Samiti, India
- Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, India
- Gramin Mahila Rojgar Prashikshan Kendra, India
- Gramin Nari Samajothan Sewashram, India
- Gramin Vikas Sewa Samiti, India
- Human Development Organization (HDO), Sri Lanka
- IBON, Philippines
- Innabuyog (Alliance of Indigenous Women's Organizations in the Cordillera Region), Philippines
- Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences, India
- Institute for Zero Waste in Africa, South Africa
- International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), Malaysia (Penang)
- International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Indonesia
- Irulas Liberation Movement, India
- Jan Kalyan Sansthan, India
- Jinnah Welfare Society, Pakistan
- KALUMARAN Mindanao Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Philippines
- Kalumbay (indigenous peoples organization in Northern Mindanao), Philippines
- Kapilwastu Shodh Ewam Vikas Sansthan, India
- Khoj-Society for People's Education, Pakistan
- Kilusang Magbubukid Ng Pilipinas (KMP), Philippines
- Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Northern Mindanao region, Philippines
- Korea Federation for Environmental Movement ,South Korea
- Laghu Seemant Krishak Morcha, India
- Landless Labourers Movement, India
- Living Farms, India
- Lok Sanjh Foundation, Pakistan
- Madhuban Sewa Samiti, India
- Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG), Philippines
- Mathamma Liberation Movement, India
- Misamis Oriental Farmers Association (MOFA), Philippines
- Mount Valley Development Organization, India
- Muskan Jyoti Samiti, India
- Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa El Salvador (NAMAEL), Philippines
- Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Tangcogo (NAGMATA), Philippines
- Nari Kalyan Sewa Sansthan, India
- National Center for Labour, India
- National Federation of Peasant Women (AMIHAN), Philippines
- National Fisheries Solidarity Movement, Sri Lanka
- National Network Of Agrarian Reform Advocates (NNARA), Philippines
- National Network of Indigenous Women's Organizations (BAI), Philippines
- Nijera Kori, Bangladesh
- NOCHEM-Davao (Non Government Organization Cares for Health and Environment-Davao), Malaysia
- Pamalakaya, Philippines
- PAN New Zealand, New Zealand
- PAN Philippines, Philippines
- Panchayat, Pakistan
- Panchsheel Development Trust, India
- Parawagan Upland Farmers Association (PUFAI), Philippines
- Parivartan, India
- Parmarth Samaj Sewa Sangathan, India
- Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS TRUST), Malaysia
- People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Philippines
- Peoples' Network against Liberalization of Agriculture (PUMALAG), Philippines
- Philippines Network of Food Security Programmes (PNFSP), Philippines
- Pratinidhi Samiti, India
- PTS (Women Workers' Union), Philippines
- Purvanchal Gramin Sewa Samiti, India
- Purvanchal Vikas Sewa Sansthan, India
- Quarry Workers Movement, India
- Reclaiming Rural Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Action (RRAFA), Thailand
- Research Center for Rural Development (RCRD), Vietnam
- Research Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED), Vietnam
- Resistance and Solidarity Against Agrochem TNCs (RESIST Network), Philippines
- Roots for Equity, Pakistan
- Rudra dheeraj Prashikshan Samiti, India
- Rural Women Liberation Movement, India
- Samudayik Chetna Kendra, India
- Sanchit Vikas Sansthan, India
- Sandigan Samahang Magsasaka (SASAMAG), Philippines
- Sarawak Dayak Iban Association [SADIA], Malaysia
- Sex Workers Liberation Movement, India
- Shashwat Sansthan, India
- Shikha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram (SHISUK), Bangladesh
- Shohratgarh Environmental Society, India
- Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (SIBAT), Philippines
- Society for Equitable Voluntary Actions (SEVA), India
- Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED), India
- Society of Pollution and Environmental Conservation Scientists (SPECS), India
- Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (SEACON), Malaysia
- Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), Thailand
- Tamil Nadu Dalit Women's Movement, India
- Tamil Nadu Women's Forum, India
- Tanggol Magsasaka, Philippines
- Tenaganita, Malaysia
- The Lutheran World Federation Nepal (LWF Nepal), Nepal
- The NGO Forum, Cambodia
- Tungkong Mangga Upland Farmers Association (TMUFAI), Philippines
- Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Philippines
- VIKALP, India
- Vikalpani National Woman Federation, Sri Lanka
- Villanueva-Tagoloan Farmers Association (VTFA), Philippines
- Wada Foundation, India
- Wildlife and Environment Society of SA, South Africa
- Women Solidarity Forum (WSF), Sri Lanka
- Women Workers Trade Union, India
- Yuva Chetna Kendra, India
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