A Series of Voices on the Future of Agriculture

If you are reading this website, you might be familiar with one of the larger debates going on around ensuring access to food for everyone--the debate on the future of agriculture as a practice. Fossil-fuel based?  Organics? Small-scale? Fertilizer dependent?

This debate lives in the comment sections of many websites that cover these topics, in social media threads, in scientific literature, and pages and pages of books and brochures published every day. It is a rich and colorful debate, with many different approaches proposed. But how do we ensure we are hearing perspectives from all parties involved? 

Oxfam International asked 23 experts from 16 countries to contribute their opinions on the future of agriculture, centered around four basic questions.

Contributions hail from all kinds of different places and spaces in the global food system and the institutions that influence it: ranging from a Nigerian farmer, to representatives of the Rome-based agencies, and heads of industrial research departments of large companies. They all were given equal space to write their visions for a future with food for all.

Originally launched from the Oxfam website, this debate took flight in the cyberspace on 30 different websites and blogs, where experts commented alongside people from different kinds of organizations. These comments, we feel, comprise a balanced and healthy dose of views challenging each other

The result is this discussion paper compiled and synthesized by Oxfam, with a rich appendix containing the 23 essays. 

Click the link to access and download it.