Dear Mr. Luca Fratini, dear members of the FSN-Forum,
thank you for the opportunity to participate in this process. Please find below and attached Greenpeace's contribution.
1.Food security and ecological agriculture
How does ecological agriculture contribute to global food security and nutrition and how could it best be scaled up and out for greater contribution to production increases, environmental sustainability, and building farmer/community resilience to climate change and other shocks?
Reasoning: There is overwhelming scientific evidence that nothing short of a paradigm shift away from high-input intensive monoculture agriculture towards agroecology is absolutely necessary for the agricultural sector to achieve the goals of poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and resilience to climate and economic shocks. Policy remains dominated by an approach that focuses on specific techno-fixes and chemical inputs. However, there is huge potential for ecological farming techniques to raise yields, improve soil fertility, conserve natural resources and reduce farmer dependence on expensive inputs. Numerous experts have reviewed the evidence base and advocate these approaches (IAASTD, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, UNEP, UNCTAD, and FAO).
Mechanism: This should be a major work stream and could begin with an HLPE report.
2.Protecting and nurturing soil health for food security and nutrition
This would explore what agricultural practices protect and nurture soil health and how they can best be supported through policy and investment.
Reasoning: Soil health fundamentally underpins agricultural production and can remove the need for chemical inputs, yet roughly 24 per cent of the global vegetated land area has already been affected by human-induced soil degradation, particularly through erosion.
Mechanism: This should be a minor work stream but could begin with an HLPE report.
3.Impacts on food security of external input dependence
This would include macro and micro economic trends and risks of dependence on external inputs and opportunities ecological agriculture provides.
Reasoning: Dependence on expensive external chemical inputs often leaves small-scale farmers indebted and dependent, which has even led to farmer suicides in some parts of the world. This economic issue of dependence on external inputs warrants more thorough investigation.
Mechanism: This would be best served by an HLPE report.
4.The economic and environmental sustainability of small-scale farming and its contribution to global food security
This work could gather examples of small-scale farming systems that ensure both environmental and economic sustainability and how these systems can be supported through investment and policy.
Reasoning: Small-scale farming is varied across the globe, yet there is no doubt that the contribution of small-scale farmers to global food security is immense – 500 small-scale farmers support two billion people on the planet. Yet, small-scale farmers often receive the least support while bearing the majority of risk.
Mechanism: This would be an HLPE report. This one could also fit as a sub-set of #1.
5.The impact on food security and farmers of market concentration
This should span across the food and agriculture system from inputs to retail.
Reasoning: Excessive market concentration is a flaw of our current global food and agriculture system, yet it continues unabated. The four biggest seed companies control more than half of the commercial seed market; the biggest ten corporations (four of them among the top 10 seed companies) control 82 per cent of the world pesticides business; and the top four grain traders control almost all of the global grain trade.
Dear Mr. Luca Fratini, dear members of the FSN-Forum,
thank you for the opportunity to participate in this process. Please find below and attached Greenpeace's contribution.
1. Food security and ecological agriculture
How does ecological agriculture contribute to global food security and nutrition and how could it best be scaled up and out for greater contribution to production increases, environmental sustainability, and building farmer/community resilience to climate change and other shocks?
Reasoning: There is overwhelming scientific evidence that nothing short of a paradigm shift away from high-input intensive monoculture agriculture towards agroecology is absolutely necessary for the agricultural sector to achieve the goals of poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and resilience to climate and economic shocks. Policy remains dominated by an approach that focuses on specific techno-fixes and chemical inputs. However, there is huge potential for ecological farming techniques to raise yields, improve soil fertility, conserve natural resources and reduce farmer dependence on expensive inputs. Numerous experts have reviewed the evidence base and advocate these approaches (IAASTD, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, UNEP, UNCTAD, and FAO).
Mechanism: This should be a major work stream and could begin with an HLPE report.
2. Protecting and nurturing soil health for food security and nutrition
This would explore what agricultural practices protect and nurture soil health and how they can best be supported through policy and investment.
Reasoning: Soil health fundamentally underpins agricultural production and can remove the need for chemical inputs, yet roughly 24 per cent of the global vegetated land area has already been affected by human-induced soil degradation, particularly through erosion.
Mechanism: This should be a minor work stream but could begin with an HLPE report.
3. Impacts on food security of external input dependence
This would include macro and micro economic trends and risks of dependence on external inputs and opportunities ecological agriculture provides.
Reasoning: Dependence on expensive external chemical inputs often leaves small-scale farmers indebted and dependent, which has even led to farmer suicides in some parts of the world. This economic issue of dependence on external inputs warrants more thorough investigation.
Mechanism: This would be best served by an HLPE report.
4. The economic and environmental sustainability of small-scale farming and its contribution to global food security
This work could gather examples of small-scale farming systems that ensure both environmental and economic sustainability and how these systems can be supported through investment and policy.
Reasoning: Small-scale farming is varied across the globe, yet there is no doubt that the contribution of small-scale farmers to global food security is immense – 500 small-scale farmers support two billion people on the planet. Yet, small-scale farmers often receive the least support while bearing the majority of risk.
Mechanism: This would be an HLPE report. This one could also fit as a sub-set of #1.
5. The impact on food security and farmers of market concentration
This should span across the food and agriculture system from inputs to retail.
Reasoning: Excessive market concentration is a flaw of our current global food and agriculture system, yet it continues unabated. The four biggest seed companies control more than half of the commercial seed market; the biggest ten corporations (four of them among the top 10 seed companies) control 82 per cent of the world pesticides business; and the top four grain traders control almost all of the global grain trade.
Mechanism: This can be done by an HLPE report.