Nov 16 2011
Recent Developments on the Right to Food
Church Center, 44th St, New York
by Erica Higbie
Speaker:
Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur (a knowledgeable speaker and outstanding presenter)
Presentation and Discussion, as part of a forum series at the UN; The Future of Global Food Policy
The main focus of the program was advocating an approach to food as a human right.
Since the 1960 the predominant paradigm has been finding technical solutions for food security issues in the belief that increases in yield would lead to declining prices, which would benefit poorer populations. Unfortunately that hasn’t been successful since the real problem is the lack of power of the poor.
A better solution to food insecurity is to place at-risk groups into categories and address them individually, as follows:
o The poor in rural areas (50% of whom go hungry today)
o Small food producers
o 450 million employed on large plantation, 250 million of which receive wages so low they can’t feed themselves
o The urban poor, 250 million and growing as a result of urbanization
o The poor effected by climate change and environmental policy changes; those who have been living off the land that can’t any longer
This is part of a new way of looking at things to address the issue better. Another way is to stop focusing on malnourishment and turn attention to the nutritional aspects of diets. Many people eat enough but have micronutrient deficiencies. Boosting basic cereals, rice, wheat, etc is not enough. This approach would also look at NCDs that come from overeating but not eating the right things.
The next step will be to take a close look at gender and nutrition.
The 10 priorities that we should pursue are:
1 Rebuild local food systems: getting local produce to urban consumers. Countries have opened their markets to cheaper food from overseas (which is subsidized) and so many local producers have stopped producing. Unfortunately the imports are not as nutritious, either because they are the wrong thing or because they have been moved long distances.
2 Reduce price volatility, which is bad for producers and consumers. Food prices have risen by 1/3 in recent years. Poor country dependence on foreign food, financial market speculation, and the hoarding of food supplies for higher prices all contribute.
3 Shift to sustainable agriculture. Climate related events are reducing yields.
4 Improve governance over the food chains. Regulate the middleman and implement competition laws.
5 Support agricultural workers by ensuring that they are paid a living wage, even though this is difficult since many are seasonal or migrant workers.
6 Support the urban poor by improving social protection systems. Poor countries often don’t have deep enough pockets to do this.
7 Continue to grow ‘the right to food’ movement, which has been adopted by 24 countries.
8 The trade agenda and the food agenda must converge. A report will be present at the Dec 15th WTO meeting which will show that the disciplines the WTO have imposed are making it impossible for poor countries to feed their populations. Poor countries are now addicted to cheap food (which is subsidized by developed countries) and only a long term approach will resolve this cycle.
9 Food Aid remains necessary but should be given only in specific circumstances, such as to the 13 million at risk in the Horn of Africa. Revisions to the Food Aid Convention are now under negotiation and they need to be more needs based, less aligned with producers and more aligned with consumer countries.
10 Global governance of food security with mandatory annualcompliance follow-up, to create accountability and also learning opportunities.
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Q and A covered a wide range of issues:
The Food Aid Convention arranged for country commitments for food in a designated volume per year. The new proposal is a need- based one, which allows countries to commit to a certain percentage of the need for that year.
NGOs are important because they help create pressure from the bottom up and they help inform policy makers so that they understand what is really needed. Grassroots movements are making a significant difference and influencing the balance of power.
Poor countries are often the dumping ground for wealthy food producing countries.
Countries that are becoming more developed (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) are experiencing a transition to Western diets and increasing rates of NCDs. 70% of Mexicans and 58% of South African women are overweight. At the September UN meeting on NCDs the general solution was a better-informed consumer. This will do nothing while it is cheaper for these populations to eat the wrong stuff. Subsidies and taxation systems should lead to an improved supply-side approach.
Large companies have an enormous influence over governments. Santos fertilizer is a good example.
NGOs must frame their questions to point out the real issues as follows:
o What is the real cost?For example the real cost of fertilizer: it leads to increased yields but the increased revenues are negated by the increased price of fertilizer. Fertilizer is linked to fossil fuel and will follow their increasing prices.
o Who benefits from the system?Who benefits from the sale of fertilizers? The elites that produce them.
o What are the alternatives? Many, to chemical fertilizers.
Food prices are very much linked to energy prices because of the way things are structured now: processed food, fertilizers, and transportation requirements.
We need to redefine priorities. Because of depleted water supplies, demographic growth and urbanization, the agricultural objective needs to be efficiency; resource efficiency but not necessarily labor efficiency. Labor intensive agriculture increases employment (or does it fall on the already burdened shoulders of women? –me), benefits other sectors because of increased incomes, increases yields and creates food sovereignty and shorter food chains – all good. The dominant paradigm currently is market regulated food production that puts food in the hands of the a few large producer/ producing countries. A move toward local food production is most important because otherwise those /producers countries will keep dumping cheap food on poor countries.
