Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

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    • Dear Sirs and Madams, 

      please find here in attachment Mercato Metropolitano's submission form in response to FAO's Call for experiences and effective policy approaches in addressing food security and nutrition in the context of changing rural-urban dynamics. 
       
      More information on the initiative are available at the following link and in the attached Booklet. 
       
       
      Introduction:
       

      Worldwide we face an extraordinary challenge: how to nutritiously feed a population of 9bn people by 2050, without putting further strain on the planet.

       

      First we have to admit that the food systems of today are failing to feed the population we have. The headlines will soon be dominated by a series of famines unlike the world has seen in modern times. But in general, even without this crisis, 1 in 8 people today are suffering from chronic hunger and most of those are in fast urbanizing countries of Africa and Asia. Unlike in the past, all forms of malnutrition are a problem. 1/3 of the world’s population is overweight or obese, with more than 60 percent in developing countries.

       

      As people are urbanized so that rapidly shift their food preferences. For example, meat consumption in developing countries is projected to grow 75 percent from 2010 to 2050. This will have major environment consequences. For example, ruminants (goats and sheep) require 5 times more feed to produce a kilo of protein as meat than as milk.

       

      But while we struggle to produce food for this growing population, our broken food system today wastes food. We lose between a quarter and a third of all food produced. In Europe and North America we generate 95-115 kilos of food waste per person, per year. In Africa, South and South East Asia the number is just 6-11 kilos. In the developing world most of the waste occurs between farm and storage or processing. In the developed world the vast majority of the waste occurs between market and home or home and plate. 

       

      Add to this picture of a broken food system that is not meeting our needs, climate change – the ultimate threat intensifier. On land, climate change threatens to diminish crop yields with its extreme weather events, weather volatility, rising temperatures and disrupted and altered rainfall patterns. In the oceans, warming and acidification threaten fish stocks and livelihoods in particular the 1bn people in coastal developing countries who rely on fish protein.

       

      At the same time while we are concerned with the impacts of climate change on agricultural production and the nutritional value of yields, we must also remember that agriculture and land use change account for around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions – the way we produce food today is destroying the ability of the planet to produce food tomorrow.

       

      We need increased efficiency in food production leading to lower emissions per calorie or kilo of food. At present this metric is not how we evaluate success.

       

      Our challenge then is to develop integrated, holistic approaches to food systems where

      nutrition, climate change and sustainability come together to feed the growing, newly urbanizing population. We will have to live by three goals: 

      ·         increase productivity – increasing food and nutrition security by producing more food without punishing environment

      ·         enhance resilience – reduce farmers’ exposure to short terms risks and shocks allowing smallholder farmers to be able to ride out shocks

      ·         lower agricultural footprint - reduce green house gas emissions per calorie or kilo produced, avoid deforestation and increase carbon storage in soils and sinks

      In the developed world and in the cities, for us to have more and better food, using fewer resources in landscapes that support people with jobs and livelihoods, we will have to reconnect with food. The relationship to the farmer, the stewards of food from farm to fork, needs to be one in which we as a society are prepared to invest. Cities will become producers of food (estimates say 10% of food production will have to come from parks, gardens and rooftops in cities).

      Mercato Metropolitano is one holistic, integrated response to our need to press a reset button for our food system.

       

      It builds community, closes the gap between farm and fork, focuses and educates on nutrition as a goal not just yield and restores places to become economic and production hubs.

       

      Our future depends on business models that work to strengthen sustainability. Mercato Metropolitano is a working, evolving experiment that shows, profitably, what part of the future can look like. 

       

       
      See the attachments: