TOPICS
KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 21
Switching food production entirely to site-appropriate agro-ecological concepts is the best answer to the current food price and hunger crisis. It offers farmers a chance to dispense with costly agrochemical products and means a new variety of local, healthy food products for consumers. Stepping away from imports would also mean a sharp reduction in nutrient-poor grain crops such as maize or rice as well as promoting self-sufficiency, which cushions (price) crises for families.
At the latest session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in October 2022, millions of farmers and their representatives demanded this transition to a different, post-fossil food system as their contribution to solving the food price and hunger crisis.
It is unacceptable that, within the framework of the GAFS food initiative (Global Alliance for Food Security) initiated by the German government, the World Bank plans to make $30 billion in loans available to developing countries to buy fertiliser for upcoming harvests. Ultimately, this outlay will mainly boost the profits of big agribusiness. Part of the medium-term support provided needs to be used to promote the kind of agro-ecological transition.
The industrialised world also needs to transform its agriculture so that, after a hopefully early end to the food price crisis, subsidised grain, milk and meat from the EU do not flood markets again in the Global South.
This also necessitates changes in the trade system so that developing countries are not forced by World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules or bilateral agreements to keep their markets open to EU products. This is the only way they can protect local production. Developing countries also need to be allowed to pay subsidies to encourage production and to form public stocks to mitigate price and volume crises. In June, the agriculture ministers of the seven leading Western industrialised countries (G7) criticised India's decision to ban the export of wheat with immediate effect.
If the United States, Canada, France or Germany really want more export volumes to combat the high price of wheat, speculators or Putin, they have millions of tons of grain currently used for animal feed or fuel that could be allocated to human food.
The fact that associations and big agribusiness are instead exploiting the global food and price crisis to pressure Europe and Germany to step up energy-intensive production and demand that even the slightest progress towards sustainable restructuring of European agriculture should be rolled back is not only shameless lobbying, it is also the surest way to bring on the next hunger, energy and price crisis.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 22, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
