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	Our food systems need to become more sustainable by José Graziano da Silva UN Food & Agriculture Organization   30 May 2012   Rome - Sustainable development cannot be realized unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, FAO said in a policy document prepared for the Rio+20 Summit to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro.   "We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims of undernourishment," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.   "The quest for food security can be the common thread that links the different challenges we face and helps build a sustainable future. At the Rio Summit we have the golden opportunity to explore the convergence between the agendas of food security and sustainability to ensure that happens," he added.   One of the great flaws in current food systems is that despite significant progress in development and food production hundreds of millions of people are hungry because they lack the means to produce or purchase the food they need for a healthy and productive life, according to FAO"s report.   "Improving agricultural and food systems is essential for a world with both healthier people and healthier ecosystems," it says.   The report, Towards the future we want: end hunger and make the transition to sustainable agricultural and food systems, urges governments to establish and protect rights to resources, especially for the poor; incorporate incentives for sustainable consumption and production into food systems; promote fair and well-functioning agricultural and food markets; reduce risks and increase the resilience of the most vulnerable; invest public resources in essential public goods, especially innovation and infrastructure.   Link between hunger and environment   The report stresses that hunger reduction and sustainable development are irrevocably connected, and that better governance of agriculture and food systems is key to achieving both targets.   Agriculture and food systems are already major users of resources. For example, food systems consume 30 percent of the world"s energy. The crop and livestock sectors use 70 percent of all water withdrawals.   Three fourths of the world"s poor and hungry live in rural areas and most of them depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods. Forty percent of the world"s degraded lands are in areas with high poverty rates. "Hunger puts in motion a vicious cycle of reduced productivity, deepening poverty, slow economic development and resource degradation," the report says.   Access to natural resources — such as land, water or forests — is essential for the 2.5 billion people who produce food for their own consumption and income.   The farmers who operate the 500 million small farms in developing countries face various resource limitations resulting in insufficient access to food and nutrition. They need clear tenure rights to promote equitable access to and sustainable management of resources like land and water.   Towards sustainable food production and consumption systems   Food consumption and production systems must achieve more with less. On the consumption side, we need to shift to nutritious diets with a smaller environmental footprint, and reduce food losses and waste throughout the food system.   FAO estimates that global food losses and waste amount to 1.3 billion tonnes per year — roughly one-third of the world food production for human consumption — and correspond to more than 10 percent of the world"s total caloric energy consumption.   On the production side, soil, water and nutrient depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and the degradation of natural ecosystems must be targeted, the report said. Benefits provided by nature such as clean air and water (ecosystem services) need to be protected and harnessed to achieve sustainable growth.   Agriculture must produce more food but with fewer resources like energy and water. FAO is promoting an eco-system approach called Save and Grow to agriculture that draws on nature"s contribution to agricultural growth, for example, soil organic matter, water flow regulation, pollination and natural predation of pests — and applies appropriate external inputs at the right time and in the right amount to improved crop varieties that are resilient to climate change and use nutrients, water and external inputs more efficiently.   Feeding 9 billion people   In 2050 there will be an expected global population of 9 billion, with increased incomes and rising food demand. Pressure on the world"s agricultural and food systems and the resources they use will grow. Worse, unless purposeful action is taken, the increase in food production of 60 percent needed to meet effective demand will still leave behind over 300 million people who are expected to suffer from chronic hunger in 2050 because they will remain without the means to access food.   The only way to ensure their food security is by creating decent jobs, paying better wages, giving them access to productive assets and distributing income in a more equitable way.   "We must bring them into society, complementing support to smallholders and income generation opportunities with the strengthening of safety nets, cash for work and cash transfer programmes that contribute to strengthening of local production and consumption circuits, in an effort that must contribute to our sustainable development goals," said Graziano da Silva.   FAO believes that feeding all the of the earth"s population is possible if bold policy decisions are taken on enhancing poor people"s access to food, levels of food waste and how agriculture is used for non-food purposes. All depends on the choices made today in managing agricultural and food systems, the report said.   Improved governance is essential   FAO"s new policy paper calls for improved governance of the food and agriculture system as a prerequisite for a sustainable future. Part of the debate around good governance will also need to decide who pays for these costs.   The paper describes a fair and effective governance systems as one which is transparent, participatory, results-focused and accountable — at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels. The report cites the reformed Committee on World Food Security, which now includes a large number of stakeholders including governments, civil society, international organizations and the private sector as one of the models that could be followed.   FAO calls upon the governments attending Rio+20 to commit themselves to reducing hunger and malnutrition more quickly; to use the voluntary guidelines on the right to food and land tenure for achieving food security and equitable sustainable development; to support the implementation of technical and policy approaches to agricultural development that integrate food security and environmental objectives; to ensure that costs and benefits of the transition to sustainable food production and consumption systems are shared equitably; to adopt integrated approaches to achieving sustainable agriculture and food systems; to implement governance reforms to ensure polices are carried out and commitments are fulfilled.   In all agricultural production systems, the transition to more sustainable practices requires more careful harnessing of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services comprise all the benefits humans derive from ecosystems – direct benefits such as food production as well as indirect ones such as climate regulation, nutrient cycling or cultural values. Ecosystems sustain human life through a range of services such as providing food and drinking water, preserving and regenerating soils, fixing nitrogen and carbon, recycling nutrients, filtering pollution, and much more (FAO, 2007). They are the underlying basis for agriculture and play a determining role in the productivity and resilience of production systems.   They also have a wider impact on human welfare through their effects on regulating climate, the functioning of water systems and biodiversity conservation. Agricultural ecosystems are by far the largest managed ecosystems in the world. In many cases, management approaches have largely focused on producing agricultural commodities, often at the expense of degrading and depleting other ecosystem services.   The full range of ecosystem services that agriculture can provide must be recognized and valued if we are to enhance the sustainability and productivity of agricultural ecosystems. To harness their full potential, agricultural ecosystems need to be managed as part of wider agricultural landscapes. Reinforcing the natural resilience of landscapes is fundamental. Deforestation, degradation of catchments/watersheds, land degradation, depletion of reefs and coastal ecosystems – especially coral reefs and mangroves – all reduce nature’s defence capacity.   Disasters, in turn, contribute to ecosystem degradation and loss, including increased soil erosion, declining rangeland quality, salinization of soils and biodiversity loss. Diversification of varieties, breeds and production activities across agricultural landscapes is another way to increase resilience. Greater diversity in agricultural ecosystems may also lead to healthier and more sustainable diets, which is a particularly important consideration for producers whose consumption is largely drawn from their own production. Visit the related web page
	Human Rights after Rio+20: failure is not an option by Center for Economic & Social Rights   The Rio+20 conference on Sustainable Development was originally intended to achieve consensus on a framework for sustainable and just global development. As the conference draws to a conclusion the only consensus in evidence is that the international community has once again failed to reach a meaningful agreement, despite the critical importance of the event for current and future generations.   ‘The Future We Want’ was the slogan on banners promoting the meeting, but the resulting outcome document is unlikely to deliver anything on this worthy promise. The agreement appears to have sacrificed a swathe of key human rights and social justice concerns, prompting former High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to brand it a ‘failure of leadership’. While commitments to certain economic and social rights, including food, water, education and health were ‘reaffirmed’ in the document, language on the critical issues of transparency and accountability is far too weak to ensure these affirmations translate into meaningful change. References to freedom of speech and association have meanwhile been omitted altogether.   Disagreement between various countries over how the costs of sustainable development should be borne, and by whom, has effectively blocked agreement on a more ambitious plan that could provide for the needs of the current generation, without undermining the ability of future generations to provide for their needs too. Against a backdrop of multiple crises, widening inequality and potentially catastrophic environmental degradation, the international community faces a moral and political imperative to find a way past this deadlock. Indeed, as UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon recently warned, the world runs the risk of sabotaging its future if it does not rise to this challenge.   The agreement hammered out in Rio does not mark the end of the road, however. As the dust settles on what has been a largely disappointing event from the point of view of social justice advocates, governments at the meeting have at least committed to creating a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs). If this new framework is to succeed in shifting the world onto a fairer and more sustainable development path, it is of fundamental importance that it be grounded in human rights.   Past experience has made it abundantly clear that the failure to include human rights norms and principles into international development frameworks can lead to the most fundamental rights of vulnerable groups being undermined rather than promoted. Development-induced pollution of air, soil and water resources all too often leads to people’s rights to health, housing, food, water and even life being put at risk. CESR’s work in countries such as Ecuador has illustrated the devastating impact irresponsible business activities can have on both human rights and the environment. Indigenous peoples’ land rights are often trampled on in the rush to exploit resources, while forced evictions are carried out to clear the ground for infrastructure projects and biofuel production displaces traditional agriculture, thereby threatening the right to food.   The integration of human rights norms and standards into development plans can not only avert such lamentable outcomes, but also ensure that the fruits of development are more fairly distributed while also protecting the environment. Proper participation mechanisms, in accordance with the provisions of international human rights law, can be incorporated into both the design and implementation of development plans and policies so as to ensure these efforts serve to protect and fulfill the rights of ordinary people.   In an age when economic crisis is being used as a pretext in many countries to cut the types of social spending and development cooperation needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals, decision-makers should remember that international human rights law mandates them to deploy the maximum of available resources for the fulfillment of economic and social rights. This includes the generation of resources, through progressive taxation and whatever other means may be available, and the fullest possible international cooperation by both donor and recipient states. It is likewise imperative that existing aid promises be fulfilled.   Operationalizing the principles of equality and non-discrimination in development policy can likewise guarantee that economic progress serves to protect vulnerable sectors and diminish the disparities in our society, rather than exacerbate them. Given that rising inequality both within and between countries was one of the key contributory factors to the global economic crisis, the importance of tackling this issue cannot be understated. Entrenched inequality is not only a moral question - it is also represents an economic blight as it manifests in a dearth of opportunities which in turn translates into the wasting of our most valuable resource: people.   Moreover, the standards that form the human rights framework apply to states not only in their domestic policy-making, but also through their international interactions and their membership of international governance institutions.   It is to be hoped that the weakness of the document that has emerged from last week’s negotiations in Rio will be compensated by a more meaningful set of “SDGs”. The process of designing these goals, that will get underway at the UN General Assembly in September, may have determinative influence on the future course of global development, and thereby on the lives and wellbeing of people everywhere. With the deadline for the MDGs just a few years away, and dialogue on a new set of objectives already in full swing, the SDGs will also serve as a crucial precursor to further development negotiations at a pivotal moment in our collective evolution. Amidst warnings from a panel of Nobel laureates, ministers and scientists that a business-as-usual approach may “trigger abrupt and irreversible changes with catastrophic outcomes for human societies and life as we know it,” our leaders should be fully aware of the magnitude of the responsibility they shoulder. It is not only our future, but also that of coming generations, that is at stake. Visit the related web page
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