LISTEN 📻 “Diversity of production and markets is a buffer against vulnerability. Closures of local markets have been short-sighted and damaging to small-scale #farmers and people’s access to #food."🍎
"Problems that we already knew were there have become extra visible through COVID-19. #Agroecology offers a way forward to solve these problems.” - Melissa Leach of @IPESfood and @IDS_UK 🌿
“Creative #innovations are taking place in neighbourhoods to prepare for and respond to #pandemics. Governments need to support them rather than blocking them.” - @mleach_ids.
#COP27 ends, our quick take:
-Hopeful: agreement on loss & damage
-Bad: we’re on track to 2.7C
-Significant: 1st agreement to include action on agriculture & #foodsecurity
-Disappointing: #agroecology & #foodsystems deleted
-Dismaying: zero #climatefinance for small-scale farmers
It is a significant step to see the UN #climate agreement will officially begin to target greater action on the 1/3rd of carbon emissions from industrial #agriculture and make agriculture more resilient to climate change - @ZGoita
We cannot ignore that the world’s small-scale farmers have been shut out & drowned out from this #COP27 says @Million_Belay of @Afsafrica.
They demanded recognition for diverse resilient farming #agroecology, and #climatefinance. But they leave with very little
Devastating deforestation, immense land use, pollution, impacts on health, climate & animals from intensive factory farming are clear for all to see.
Thankfully momentum for change is growing. /2
But those same actors (and some new philanthropists & venture capital) are now pushing a number of techno-fix solutions. These are many of the same firms that already dominate sales of conventional (factory-farmed) products. /3
Few people will dispute that global food systems need transformation, but this #UNFSS is instead an effort by a powerful alliance of multinational corporations, philanthropies, and export-oriented countries to subvert multilateral institutions of food #governance.
/2
Once Guterres appointed a Special Envoy and the structure of the Summit was announced, the drivers behind the Summit became clear.
In the #LongFoodMovement report, we're reminded that the world’s 30 million artisanal #fishers and workers provide nearly half of the #fish we eat (@IPBES, 2019).
But with #climatechange & island/ocean grabbing, small-scale fishers & their communities are in peril.
Island/#ocean grabbing is likely to intensify as countries seek to solidify their influence, their #food supply chains, & their global sourcing and distribution networks. For example, in the #RedSea region, conflicts over fish & other marine resources threaten rich #biodiversity.
Meanwhile, in the South China Sea, said to
have some of the highest marine #biodiversity on earth, #China has been building airstrips, ports & other facilities on disputed islands & reefs, w/ the apparent aim of establishing military bases (cf. Ives,
2016).
NEW 📰 IPES-Food & @ETC_Group launch the #LongFoodMovement report | What would 2045 look like if it's still "agribusiness-as-usual"? Or can civil society & social movements prevail for healthy, equitable & sustainable #foodsystems? 🌍
"Agribusiness-as-usual" means a powerful few control #food tech & farming #data.
But civil society can fight back.
A #LongFoodMovement can boost post-pandemic resilience, slash emissions in ag. by 75%, & shift $4 trillion to sustainable food & farming: bit.ly/longfood
A 'Long Food Movement' can boost post-#pandemic resilience, slash emissions in #agriculture and food systems by 75%, and shift $4 trillion to sustainable food & farming.
Our partners spent 3 years preparing our report on the transition to #agroecology in West Africa. It was (and remains) abundantly clear how critical #women are to this transition 🌿
🧵Thread /1
"#Women produce between 40-80% of food in the region and playing a leading role in local #food distribution and street vending in West Africa." #IWD2021
🔎 But data measuring the share of food produced, processed & sold by women remains inherently complex & varies across countries. In fact, “quantifying the share of food produced by women involves making many arbitrary assumptions about gender roles in the production process.” /3