Opinion
Opinion: Food movements, unite!
The world's different food movements need to work together, argues Eric Holt-Giménez. The question facing them is “How can we, in all our diversity, converge to become powerful enough to transform the world’s food systems?” The answer is being forged daily, on the ground, as political alliances grow between producers, workers and consumers, and as social movements begin bridging North-South and urban-rural divides: “convergence in diversity”.
Opinion: Goodbye bees – and thanks!
Honey bees are amazing creatures, but they are dying by the millions. John Wightman looks at our slow reaction to their disappearance, calling for someone to apply slow response thought processes so as to search for a global solutions. Quoting Einstein, if the bee disappears from the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.
Opinion: Land is money
“Investments” in southern India have very negative consequences, says Suprabha Seshan. "In my immediate neighbourhood, a tea farm sells at 1 million rupees an acre. A few years ago it would have been a fifth of this price. Of course this means that rural people are leaving the countryside. They are leaving independent and stable (though, not easy) lives to become consumers in the shanty towns around cities."
Opinion: Food scarcity à la Wall Street
Eric Holt-Gimenez argues that “Wall Street has been occupying our food system”, and this has had disastrous results. In 2008 and again in 2010, prices for staple crops like rice, wheat, and corn doubled and tripled, extending the grip of poverty and deprivation to hundreds of millions of people.
Opinion: The cavalry is coming
While at the start of 2011 "a dangerous conspiracy of silence on the subject of land grabbing" seemed to be in place, more and more organisations are showing what’s really happening, says Robin Palmer. More and more information is coming from the ILC, GRAIN, ActionAid, ...
Opinion: The potential of food reserves
Peter Gubbels looks at the potential of food reserves. In the Sahel, increased food reserves and buffer stocks at the regional, national and local levels can be a valuable tool for improving access to food and for stabilising food prices. Purchasing locally produced foodstuffs when prices are low, and selling when prices are high, can keep prices in check, protect farmers’ incomes and mitigate the effect of steep price rises.
Opinion: And now, José?
FAO’s new Director General won’t have an easy job, but still “we have hope”, says Francisco Caporal. Since FAO’s mandate is “to achieve food security for all and ensure that people have regular access to good quality food”, it would be great to see if José Graziano da Silva has read the reports of his future colleague at the UN, Olivier De Schutter, who recommends a profound shift in agricultural policies in order to ensure food security worldwide.
Opinion: Youth farming and research
Young professionals need to be engaged in shaping the future of agriculture, says Courtney Paisley, at YPARD. The first step in attracting future young professionals is nurturing the ones we have now. Furthermore, we need to provide more young role models for future agriculturalists to look up to and so change their perceptions of agriculture.
Opinion: Worth fighting for
Francisco Caporal argues against changes in the Brazilian Forest Code. Industrial agriculture is expanding in order to remain competitive, and this growth does not consider environmental concerns. But the biggest worry today is that many persons and organisations are pushing for changes in the existing legislation – especially those laws and regulations which have proved to be effective.
Opinion: Seduce the scientist
Scientists can be seduced by good examples when found on a large scale, thinks Anil Gupta. But we also need to work within global platforms to spread knowledge and experiences, and shame other institutions for neglecting local technologies.
Opinion: Crisis and opportunities
This issue of Farming Matters contains many examples of people working together to manage their water resources in an efficient way. The message is important. We live in a world where the pressure on water resources is growing and where many of the surface water resources are overcommitted. Yet there are still many opportunities that are not utilised. It is this gap between crisis and opportunities that should concern us.
Opinion: Water, wisdom and wars
We have now reached a point in which negotiations to find any common ground for our shared resource use have become so difficult that wars seem the only alternative. Yet, Anil Gupta feels that peace is possible - through shared use patterns, and the creation of frugal cultures that impose an artificial scarcity on those who are used to wasteful resource use.
Opinion: From rhetoric to reality
Anil Gupta wonders why, if biodiversity is so important, there is so much poverty in regions rich in biodiversity. How can we justify the billions of dollars that have been spent on inter-governmental panels with practically no change in the rights of, and opportunities for, the people in these regions? National governments and civil society must bear some responsibility for this situation and for changing it.
Opinion: Stop land grabs
More than 124 million acres of land has been acquired by foreign investors responding to global food shortages, fluctuating oil prices and growing water shortages. The phenomenon is being exacerbated by the EU’s mandate that 10 percent of all transport fuel should be sourced from plant-based biofuels by 2015. But land grabs and food aid do not help African farmers, says Rachel Zedeck
Opinion: Dealing with animal disease
One way for "dollar-poor" small-scale farmers to increase their income per hectare is to switch to higher value agricultural products, such as meat, milk or eggs. Stronger engagement in livestock production, however, exposes smallholders to additional risks, such as losing their animals through theft, predation or disease. While farmers’ management practices provide some resilience to common diseases, public interventions are needed to help cope with epidemics.
Opinion: Unsung heroes
In terms of climate change, Anil Gupta feels that we must recognise that the future leaders of the fight against it will be the unsung heroes currently surviving in flood-prone villages and communities in the Arctic region, in deserts and on the coasts. They are the ones who still have insights about coping with long and short term changes in climate. They are the owners of in-depth knowledge about local survival and support systems.
Opinion: The Economist is wrong
A couple of months ago, The Economist published a long article praising Brazilian agriculture, something that led to outbursts of patriotism, and to Brazilians expressing pride on their “success”. But how successful is this model so generously praised? Francisco Caporal argues that The Economist is wrong.
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