Thank you for allowing a comment period. In summary, I am struck by 3 glaring omissions:
(1. PICS bags for inexpensive, protective grain storage-developed by Perdue and embraced by the Gates Foundation are omitted. Why not use this report to showcase them? 2. Barely a nod to global warming/climate change/carbon sequestration---when the ink from the ominous IPCC report is barely dry. Again, why this gap in what helps reduce atmospheric carbon, and most importantly--3. The omission of Inga Alley Cropping---and in particular the 7-year, 100% successful "Land for Life" program of Mike Hands in Honduras is not mentioned at all). It may be a small, but it has planet-changing results which apply to the entire humid tropics.
I am not an expert or scientist...so it is likely my remarks will not be taken as seriously as others---BUT you are blatantly sucking up to industrial agriculture--and most egregiously to GMO technology. Is Monsanto funding you? Apps/gene editing/drones and technology should not be part of this report--unless you only wish to consider business as usual.
From www.osce.org/what/environmental -"Once only considered as an environmental issue, climate change is increasingly being included as an inherent element of national and international security agendas. It is seen as a “threat multiplier” exacerbating existing threats to security and increasing environmental stress, adding to pressures that can push the responsive capacities of governments to their limits."
Figure 7-Evolution of the agroforestry paradigm—suggest an EXAMPLE BOX be added to include Inga Alley Cropping as a strong example of an agroforestry system which addresses all 17 of the SDGs, which can be provided by Dr. Mike Hands. His 20+ years as a tropical ecologist allowed him understand the inter-related problems of food security, slash and burn agriculture, rainforest, rural poverty, and ecosystem devastation--and working with Cambridge and Royal Botanic Garden, Kew established a scientifically-proven, bottom-up model (Inga Alley Cropping) for economic & environmental sustainability that is replicable and scalable to the entire tropics with 300+ Inga species or native, analogous species.
Figure 8-Add--Major ways in which agroforestry impacts smallholder livelihoods—sequestering carbon/biological weed control with no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers--again, all these benefits should be mentioned generally about many systems and from one agroforestry system in particular--Inga Alley Cropping.
Page 80-Line 54- Should genetically modified organisms be used for improving FSN? There is no consensus on this. Proponents of GM technology assert that there is a place for GM technology in SFS for FSN---WHY WOULD YOU KEEP THIS PROPOGANDA IN THIS REPORT? You do not even mention watershed protection, health of users (you say "possible" when a 40 million dollar lawsuit against Monsanto says otherwise), local plants and pollinators--why are you so biased here in favor of BIG AG? Do you not see you are biased?
Page 81-Lines 3 and 4 continue your bias when the industry fights labelling world-wide and litigates to silence those who seeks transparency:
3 introduced. They indicate that education about the effects of GM and transparency in labelling will
4 need to accompany introduction to allow consumers to make their own decisions about purchases.
Consider a section of simple economics (with your recommendations for policy inclusion to benefit smallholders):
A new report by the international network More and Better presents a global overview of investments in agriculture, revealing that more investment in small-scale sustainable agriculture is needed. The report gives an overview of some of the most important financial institutions involved in agriculture and the benefits and implications of different investment models. It also provides recommendations for inclusive and equitable future investments in small-scale sustainable farming.
“Farmers have the most important occupation in the world,” says Aksel Nærstad, International Co-coordinator of the More and Better Network.
“The U.N. Global Compact states that small-scale food producers—peasants, artisanal fisherfolks, pastoralists, hunters, and gatherers—produce 40 percent of the food which is traded and 70 percent of all food in the world. But peasants are also the largest group of the poor people in the world and of the about 800 million people who are starving. More focus on and support to improve the condition for peasants is therefore crucial.”
The report details several studies from the World Bank and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) demonstrating how investments in small-scale sustainable agriculture is an effective and proven way to reduce hunger and poverty in low-income countries. Despite this, public investment in agriculture has decreased considerably, with governments allocating less than two percent of their central government expenditures to agriculture between 2001 and 2015. Official Development Assistance (ODA) has increased since 2005, but is still very low, at approximately 6-8% of total ODA.
“Several reports show that support to and investments in small-scale sustainable agriculture in developing countries are by far the most efficient ways to reduce hunger and poverty,” says Nærstad. “Despite [this], very few investments are made with and for peasants. Most of the commercial and public investments in agriculture go to large-scale unsustainable farming.”
Hands, M. R. 2004.
El uso de Inga en Cultivo en Callejones; una alternativa sostenible comprobada a la agricultura migratoria en el Bosque Lluvioso. Invited co-author in : Cordero, J. and Boshier, D. H., (eds.) : Árboles de Centroamérica : Un manual para extensionistas. OFI/CATIE. Oxford. UK.
Hands, M. R. June 2002.
Alley-Cropping as a Sustainable Alternative to Shifting Cultivation. Final Report. Project HND / B7-6201 / IB / 97 / 0533(08). Tropical Forests Budgetary Line. Commission of the European Communities. DG I. Brussels.
Thank you for allowing a comment period. In summary, I am struck by 3 glaring omissions:
(1. PICS bags for inexpensive, protective grain storage-developed by Perdue and embraced by the Gates Foundation are omitted. Why not use this report to showcase them? 2. Barely a nod to global warming/climate change/carbon sequestration---when the ink from the ominous IPCC report is barely dry. Again, why this gap in what helps reduce atmospheric carbon, and most importantly--3. The omission of Inga Alley Cropping---and in particular the 7-year, 100% successful "Land for Life" program of Mike Hands in Honduras is not mentioned at all). It may be a small, but it has planet-changing results which apply to the entire humid tropics.
I am not an expert or scientist...so it is likely my remarks will not be taken as seriously as others---BUT you are blatantly sucking up to industrial agriculture--and most egregiously to GMO technology. Is Monsanto funding you? Apps/gene editing/drones and technology should not be part of this report--unless you only wish to consider business as usual.
From www.osce.org/what/environmental -"Once only considered as an environmental issue, climate change is increasingly being included as an inherent element of national and international security agendas. It is seen as a “threat multiplier” exacerbating existing threats to security and increasing environmental stress, adding to pressures that can push the responsive capacities of governments to their limits."
Figure 7-Evolution of the agroforestry paradigm—suggest an EXAMPLE BOX be added to include Inga Alley Cropping as a strong example of an agroforestry system which addresses all 17 of the SDGs, which can be provided by Dr. Mike Hands. His 20+ years as a tropical ecologist allowed him understand the inter-related problems of food security, slash and burn agriculture, rainforest, rural poverty, and ecosystem devastation--and working with Cambridge and Royal Botanic Garden, Kew established a scientifically-proven, bottom-up model (Inga Alley Cropping) for economic & environmental sustainability that is replicable and scalable to the entire tropics with 300+ Inga species or native, analogous species.
Figure 8-Add--Major ways in which agroforestry impacts smallholder livelihoods—sequestering carbon/biological weed control with no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers--again, all these benefits should be mentioned generally about many systems and from one agroforestry system in particular--Inga Alley Cropping.
Page 80-Line 54- Should genetically modified organisms be used for improving FSN? There is no consensus on this. Proponents of GM technology assert that there is a place for GM technology in SFS for FSN---WHY WOULD YOU KEEP THIS PROPOGANDA IN THIS REPORT? You do not even mention watershed protection, health of users (you say "possible" when a 40 million dollar lawsuit against Monsanto says otherwise), local plants and pollinators--why are you so biased here in favor of BIG AG? Do you not see you are biased?
Page 81-Lines 3 and 4 continue your bias when the industry fights labelling world-wide and litigates to silence those who seeks transparency:
3 introduced. They indicate that education about the effects of GM and transparency in labelling will
4 need to accompany introduction to allow consumers to make their own decisions about purchases.
Consider a section of simple economics (with your recommendations for policy inclusion to benefit smallholders):
A new report by the international network More and Better presents a global overview of investments in agriculture, revealing that more investment in small-scale sustainable agriculture is needed. The report gives an overview of some of the most important financial institutions involved in agriculture and the benefits and implications of different investment models. It also provides recommendations for inclusive and equitable future investments in small-scale sustainable farming.
“Farmers have the most important occupation in the world,” says Aksel Nærstad, International Co-coordinator of the More and Better Network.
“The U.N. Global Compact states that small-scale food producers—peasants, artisanal fisherfolks, pastoralists, hunters, and gatherers—produce 40 percent of the food which is traded and 70 percent of all food in the world. But peasants are also the largest group of the poor people in the world and of the about 800 million people who are starving. More focus on and support to improve the condition for peasants is therefore crucial.”
The report details several studies from the World Bank and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) demonstrating how investments in small-scale sustainable agriculture is an effective and proven way to reduce hunger and poverty in low-income countries. Despite this, public investment in agriculture has decreased considerably, with governments allocating less than two percent of their central government expenditures to agriculture between 2001 and 2015. Official Development Assistance (ODA) has increased since 2005, but is still very low, at approximately 6-8% of total ODA.
“Several reports show that support to and investments in small-scale sustainable agriculture in developing countries are by far the most efficient ways to reduce hunger and poverty,” says Nærstad. “Despite [this], very few investments are made with and for peasants. Most of the commercial and public investments in agriculture go to large-scale unsustainable farming.”
Hands, M. R. 2004.
El uso de Inga en Cultivo en Callejones; una alternativa sostenible comprobada a la agricultura migratoria en el Bosque Lluvioso. Invited co-author in : Cordero, J. and Boshier, D. H., (eds.) : Árboles de Centroamérica : Un manual para extensionistas. OFI/CATIE. Oxford. UK.
Hands, M. R. June 2002.
Alley-Cropping as a Sustainable Alternative to Shifting Cultivation. Final Report. Project HND / B7-6201 / IB / 97 / 0533(08). Tropical Forests Budgetary Line. Commission of the European Communities. DG I. Brussels.