Being retired, I am not in the best position to respond to the first two questions but have been very interested in the different contributions. For whatever it is worth, let me raise a few points.
References have been made throughout to sustainable farming systems. I would suggest a twin-track perspective:
- at household/community level, farming systems should be seen in the context of sustainable livelihoods, which should also include off-farm income - in particular food processing, marketing and catering – and migration/remittances.
- at territorial level, we should be looking at sustainable food systems and again farming systems would only be a key element.
Revisiting the existing supply-driven system can only have a limited impact and value chains are only one dimension of food systems. It is urgent to adopt a demand-driven perspective.
When talking of resilience to environmental stressors, we should review systematically indigenous food (farming) systems, which are usually low-input and risk-adverse. « Modern » agriculture techniques have undermined resilience and introduced/increased environmental stresses. These should be identified and removed, and legislation/regulations reviewed accordingly.
It is urgent that scientific research reviews promising local practices via inter-disciplinary teams - including lawyers - and participatory processes with a view to generate practice-based evidence to inform policy. The ten principles identified by IPES-food - http://www.ipes-food.org/images/CoreDocs/IPES-Food_10_principles.pdf - would provide a good basis.
Dr. Florence Egal