Without concerted action, the global food crisis will only deepen because the problem is systemic and structural.
It has arisen from a mix of speculation and deregulation in commodity food markets, promotion of expensive fertilizers and pesticides that quickly become part of the problem, the diversion of crops to agrofuel production, and trade policies that have pushed farmers to grow monoculture cash crops (primarily soy and corn) for export rather than for in-country consumption as food.
This same industrialized food system is largely responsible for global deforestation and loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and depletion, and oceanic “dead zones”—all significant factors in climate change.
Our food system is broken. We seek a comprehensive fix from governments, international development institutions, and the next U.S. Administration. PAN partners around the world have joined a growing global movement that is demanding systemic change—a long-term solution that truly nourishes our peoples and our world. To achieve this, a just and coherent approach to fixing the food system must:
- Stabilize prices for farmers and consumers by re-regulating food commodity markets, and establishing strategic food reserves to ensure reasonable floor and ceiling prices for food commodities.
- Build local and fair food systems that reduce food mileage, pay fair wages, and honor the human right to healthy food. Reform food aid so that the World Food Program purchases food locally and at fair prices.
- Regulate and rebalance power and risk in the food system by reigning in the political influence and monopolistic control wielded by big agribusiness. Create multi-stakeholder, democratic food policy councils at state and local levels to give families, farmers, farm workers and community organizations a say in how the food system functions.
- Insist upon ecological farming by redirecting state, national and international farm policy—and agricultural research, education, and investment—toward smaller-scale farming and food businesses that are sustainable.
- Prioritize food over fuel—halt expansion of government-supported agrofuels programs and revise all renewable fuel policies to ensure that only sustainable and domestically produced biofuels are supported.
Action and analyses
From the U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis: join the national call to action or download a list of things you can do (PDF) to address the food crisis.
Special July 2008 release from PAN Asia & the Pacific and the People's Coalition of Food Sovereignty: The Global Food Crisis - Hype and Reality (PDF 68 pgs)