The Business of Feeding the 9 Billion

The business of feeding the 9 billion

Food Security vs Food Sovereignty in a time of Global Agricultural Change

“hunger

is a question of maldistribution and inequality, not lack of food�

Food security • Every year, enough food is a produced to provide every human with 3,500 daily calories or with 4.3 pounds of food per person per day. • 2.5 pounds of grain, beans and nuts. 1 pound of fruits and vegetable and almost 1 pound of meat, milk and eggs.

Myths about the food system • Industrial agriculture and free trade will feed the world.

• Industrial food is healthier than traditionally grown food • Industrial food is cheaper than traditionally grown food.

• Industrial agriculture is more efficient and therefore will feed more people.

• Biotechnology will solve the problem of industrial agriculture.

• Nature and population growth are to blame for hunger.

Paradigm shift Food Security

Food Sovereignty

• Food security exits when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

• Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to define their own food, agriculture, livestock, and fisheries systems in contrast to having food largely subjected to international market forces.

Via campesina

Food sovereignty pillars • Focuses on Food for People and Right to Food, rather than export commodities.

• Values Food Providers and respect their rights, rather than squeezing them off the land.

• Localises Food Systems, rather than promoting unfair global trade.

• Puts control locally, rather than in remote TNCs. • Build knowledge and skills, rather than depending on alien technologies such us GM. • Works with nature, rather than using methods that harm beneficial ecosystems functions, such us intensive monocultures and livestock factories.

“This implies a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculturebased and high-externalinput-dependent industrial production toward mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers.�

Food trends • 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 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.

opportunities The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform and Scotland Rural Development Plan.

Scotland Food and Drink Policy ‘Recipe for Success’ The Fife Diet and the Food Manifesto Nourish: Scotland Local Food Network and hundreds of community initiatives.

The Fair Trade Movement

Democratisation of the food system Approximately 79.5% of retail spending on food in Fife is in supermarkets. The dedicated local food market via farmers markets and farm shops accounts for only 0.52% of the total sales.

"To put control of food, one of the few things vital to life, in the hands of a small number of corporations is foolish.�

David Atkinson, Former Agriculture Professor

Project broccoli

New gold school lunches for Fife

Making Local Food Work • Local food networks • Farmers’ markets • Community supported Agriculture • Country markets • Food cooperatives and buying groups • Family farms and farm shops • Local food hubs • Community own businesses.