UN assessment of agriculture, poverty, hunger and the environment

On April 12, 2008, 57 world governments agreed on a final report of theUN’s International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science andTechnology for Development (IAASTD).

Recent reports of dramatic food shortages and riots underlinethe severity of problems with the current food system and the urgencyof finding solutions.

"Business as usual is not anoption," declared Robert Watson, Director of the IAASTD, referring tothe fundamental changes in the world's agricultural systems that theIAASTD report says are required. A former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC), Dr. Watson is also one of the many scientists who recently shared theNobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for work on climatechange.

TheIAASTD report concludes that small-scale, agro-ecological farming willbe more effective at meeting today’s challenges than the old energy-and chemical-intensive paradigm of industrial agricultural production.Severe inequities withiin and between societies also must be reversed,and this requires grappling with the adverse impacts on the poorestcountries of trade liberalization policies and Western government cropsubsidies.

"This is a wake-up call for governments andinternational agencies. The survival of the planet's food systemsdemands global action to support agroecological farming and fair andequitable trade," said Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman of Pesticide ActionNetwork North America, speaking from Johannesburg moments after thereport was finalized on April 11.

Under the auspices ofthe United Nations, World Bank and other institutions, scientists, civil society leaders,corporate and government representatives met 7-11 April in Johannesburg, South Africa to debate solutions to the thorny,intertwined problems of global agriculture, hunger, poverty, power andinfluence. The IAASTD report was released on April 15 in Nairobi, New Delhi, London, Paris and Washington, DC.

The IAASTD is an unprecedented attempt to bring multiple stakeholderstogether to map out a strategy to achieve sustainable food andagricultural systems worldwide. For four years, the IAASTD’s 400+ authors examined the multiple social,environmental and political dimensions of farming.

The final report authorized by signing governmentsaddresses the central question:

What can and must we do differently to sustain productive and resilientfarming in the face of environmental crises, overcome persistentpoverty and hunger, and achieve equitable and sustainable development?

The report notes that the mostwidespread forms of industrialagriculture have degraded the natural resource base on which humansurvival depends, and contribute daily to worsening water, energy and climatecrises. The report documents the inequitable distribution ofcosts and benefits of the present agricultural sector, including theundue influence of transnational agribusiness, the growing impacts ofenvironmental crises, and the unfair global trade policies that have decimated rural communities in the developing world, and that resultin over half of the world’s population not having enough to eat.This statement represents the same type of consensus that wasachieved by the Climate Change Panel.

The good news, the IAASTD concludes, is that we have options: investingin agroecological and organic farming, ensuring poor farmers havecontrol over resources, creating more equitable trade agreements, andincreasing local participation in policy-formation and other decision-makingprocesses.

Indeed, as the 57 governments in Johannesburg agreed, the final IAASTD meeting was a watershedevent in the effort to transform agriculture and rural livelihoodsworldwide.

The radical shifts suggested by these findings, however, willinevitably shake up the statusquo. The IAASTD, for example, has rankled some participants,particularly the US government and the agrichemicaland biotechnology industries who say that their pesticide andgenetically engineered products are not adequately credited in theIAASTD reports. The US and Australia were unhappy with the criticism ofthe adverse social and enviornmental impacts on food security andpoverty, attributed to their trade liberalization policies.

The IAASTD is precedent-setting also for its bold experiment ingovernance. Civil society groups played a key role, not only in the authorship of the report, but also in itsoversight and governance. History shows us conclusively thatgovernments and transnationalcorporations have not been successful on their own. The IAASTD'ssuccess has proven that civil society participation as full partners inintergovernmental processes is critical to meeting the challenges ofthe 21st century.

Options exist

A central challenge we face today is how to strengthen the resilienceof our food systems, rural communities and agroecosystems in the faceof environmental crises.

The good news is that options exist: achieving sustainable and profitable agricultureis possible in our lifetimes. Accomplishing this transition willrequire concerted action at both the global and local levels, and fromboth public and private sectors. Successful actions will be guided bythese findings:

Improving agriculture is about much more than increasing yields: it requires attention to social, political, cultural and environmental impacts and benefits.
The future of agriculture is agroecological farming practices and “triple-bottom-line” business practices that meet social, environmental and economic goals.
Reliance on resource-extractive industrial agriculture is dangerous and not sustainable; short-term technical fixes do not address complex challenges and often exacerbate social and environmental harms.
Achieving food security and sustainable livelihoods for people in chronic poverty depends on protecting access to and control of resources by small-scale farmers.
Fair local, regional and global trading regimes can build local economies, reduce poverty and improve livelihoods.
Strengthening the human and ecological resilience of agricultural systems improves capacity to respond to today's environmental crises and changing environmental and social conditions. Indigenous knowledge and community-based innovations are an invaluable part of the solution.
Better governance mechanisms, ensuring democratic participation by the full range of stakeholders in decision-making, is essential.

Ofthe 61 countries attending the Johannesburg plenary, only three havenotsigned on to the report (the UK endorsed the report two months later,becoming the 58th country to approve it). The three hold-outgovernments -- Australia, Canadaand US -- should join the rest of the international community in endorsing the IAASTD's innovative vision for thefuture. All governments, development institutions and co-sponsoring agencies should expedite work with allsegments of civil society to facilitate a transition towards moreresilient and sustainable food and farming systems.

Just as the climate crisis is “an inconvenient truth,” therecommendations in the IAASTD report are likely to be consideredinconvenient for the world’s industrial agricultural establishment andthe dominant economies. The U.S. government, theagrichemical trade association CropLife, and others who currentlybenefit disproportionately continue to argue against doing what needs to bedone. Yet the outcome of the meeting in South Africarepresents our best chance to apply the lessons of climatechange to agricultural policy, and take a decisive step towards theproductive, healthy and resilient farming on which our future depends.

Civil society statement

On 13 April 2008, 20 civil society organizations attending the Johannesburg meeting issued a statementapplauding the successful conclusion of the meeting and urginggovernments and international agencies to implement the report's callfor increased policy attention to and investments in agroecologicallybased farming, democratization of decision-making and equitable termsof trade.

En Español: Declaracion Sociedad Civil

A month earlier, on March 14, 2008, a letter(PDF) signed by 73 civil society organizations from around the world,addressed to IAASTD Director Robert Watson, highlighted theorganizations’ desire to see a successful outcome of the IAASTD plenaryin Johannesburg. The letter also sought confirmation thatpreviously agreed-on procedures would be upheld at the plenary. Thoseagreements were honored during the meeting, and PAN congratulates allinvolvedin achieving this landmark success.