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Position paper for the World Food Summit in Rome |
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June 15, 2002
The reasons for food insecurity are mainly to be found in social and economic factors such as poverty and inequality. Therefore it is in that area that the main solutions are to be found. However it is also agriculture itself that plays an important role. The current food system may produce impressive quantities of food, but its accessibility to the hungry has demonstrated its limits and the quality leaves much to desire. The sustainability both of conventional agriculture and agribusiness at large is questioned. Organic agriculture offers the most comprehensive response to the sustainability problems facing agriculture and our food production system. |
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Millions of organic farmers all over the world are proving this in
their daily work. Consumers are responding positively and governments
and international organizations are increasingly recognizing the value
of organic farming. Organic agriculture also has the potential to
produce both sufficient quantities and high quality nutritious food.
Therefore the World Food Summit should endorse organic agriculture as a
major component in a food security strategy.
While affluent regions and
social classes struggle with surplus
production and surplus consumption, close to one fifth of the global
population lives in constant under-nourishment. Subsistence production
of basic foods is restricted in many regions by lack of access to
capital, land and water. At the same time, more favored growing areas
are used for commercial production of specialty crops or animal feeds
for export to affluent regions. The major constraints to food security
are found in social, economic and political conditions rather than in
production methods themselves. The main solutions to food security
problems will therefore be found in social, economic and political
improvement. Nevertheless, demand for food will increase in the future
so there are reasons why alternative food supply systems and the
relevance of organic agriculture need to be addressed.
Conventional agriculture is not sustainable
Conventional agriculture today is causing a number of problems such as:
* Decreasing bio-diversity within agricultural production and in surrounding environment
* Soil degradation leading to falling yields and continued loss of arable land
* Low income for farmers
* Pollution and inefficient use of natural resources such as water
* Social and cultural degradation
* Disruption of rural institutions and production systems
* Human health problems caused by pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and unnatural feeding conditions (e.g. BSE)
* Environmental problems caused by agrochemicals and risks of biological pollution
* Pollution caused by intensive livestock systems (e.g. animal manure and organic waste products)
For all these problems conversion to organic agriculture can be a major step towards a solution.
The same agriculture system that boasts of being so efficient is
subsidized in the rich countries with sums that are bigger than the
total development aid programs. Research in several countries also
shows that the external costs of conventional agriculture are in the
range of USD 100-300 per hectare and year. It is astonishing that the
proponents of the current agriculture system insist that the solutions
for the future lie in "more of the same", i.e. more fertilizers, more
pesticides, when the current system has failed to deliver. The
introduction of GMO crops and breeds does, in this context, only
represent yet another step in the wrong direction. GMOs are now
marketed as a suitable (if not "the") solution to food insecurity. The
language and arguments used are just a repetition of the arguments for
pesticides that we have heard for 50 years. Most of the so-called
advantages of Genetic Engineering are irrelevant for food security
issues. The few crops that have been bred with the purpose to tackle
real problems for the poor, present high-tech solutions to problems
that easily can be solved with simple, affordable and safe
technologies.
The potential dangers of GMOs are in no way resolved or even taken
seriously. GMO crops are in particular not suitable for developing
countries:
* The development of GMO crops requires massive investment in research.
Consequently it drains resources from much needed research in the
development of low cost alternatives.
* Poor countries do not have the capacity to carry out the impact
assessment, testing and monitoring that growing GMO crops will
necessarily entail.
* Because of the high costs, GMO crops will be more expensive. Poor
farmers cannot afford to buy new seeds every year. Their production
system depends on saving their own seeds - with occasional exchange or
renewal, - not on yearly purchase of expensive patented seeds.
* The 'solutions' offered by GMO crops are largely irrelevant to the barriers to increased productivity that poor farmers face.
Organic agriculture is an adequate road to food security and food safety
Also in relation to food security, conversion to organic agriculture is
an appropriate response. Organic production has the potential to
sustainably produce sufficient food of a high quality. In addition
organic agriculture is particularly well suited for those rural
communities that are currently most exposed to food shortages. Organic
agriculture contributes to food security by a combination of many
features, most notably by:
* Increasing yields in low-potential areas (e.g. dry lands) and market-marginalized areas
* Conserving bio-diversity and nature resources on the farm and in the surrounding environment
* Increasing income and/or reducing production costs
* Producing safe and diversified food
* Creating sustainable food supply chains
* Being environmentally, socially and economically sustainable in the long term
The world grows organically
The total area of farmland that is certified as organic is reaching 20
million hectares and the world market of certified organic products is
approaching USD 25 billion. There are also a large number of organic
farms in developing countries that are not selling their organic food
on the global market, but produce mainly for themselves and the local
market.
In January 1999 the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) adopted a
report, which concluded among other things "that many aspects of
organic farming were important elements of a system approach to
sustainable food production" and recognized "the environmental and
potential health benefits of organic agriculture and its contribution
of innovative production technologies to other agriculture systems and
to the overall goals of sustainability". This positive positioning of
organic agriculture is also reflected in the FAO Task Manager report
for CSD 8 (4.5 §55-57) and is extensively elaborated in the 20-page CSD
background paper No. 4 on Organic Agriculture. A number of national
governments, notably in Europe, have developed action plans and set
targets (up to 20% share for organic farming) to be met for the
development of organic agriculture.
Proposals for action
The worldwide organic movement as represented by IFOAM expects the World Food Summit to:
* To recognize the relevance of organic agriculture in relation to food security and food safety
* To recognize the potential of organic agriculture to solve a number of critical problems facing agriculture
* To direct governments and international agencies to put the
development of organic agriculture high on their agenda and to develop
action plans for organic agriculture
* To support the efforts to create a Treaty for the Genetic Commons
* To make clear that the introduction of GMO crops is not a relevant
strategy for solving the main problems in agriculture, and in
particular not for food security |
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