How to up food production without harming ecosystems?

On 22 February, a methodological seminar on ways of solving the global food issues was held at the discussion platform of Nikonov All-Russian Institute of Agrarian Problems and Informatics – a branch of the All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Economics.  

Dr Alexander Petrikov, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the All-Russian Institute of Agrarian Problems and Informatics, was the moderator of the seminar. The debatersincluded Professor Sergey Kiselev, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Faculty of Economics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Konstantin Borodin, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Head of the Department of Agricultural Market Regulation at Nikonov All-Russian Institute of Agrarian Problems and Informatics, and Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation.  

Dr Oleg Ovchinnikov, Head of the Centre of Agrarian Problems at the Institute for the USA and Canadian Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, delivered a report entitled “The Global Food Problem: Current State and Prospects”. Defining the conceptual framework of his research, he formulated the thesis that today the global food problem has become an existential challenge for humanity, and elaborated on its causes, nature and solutions suggested by different countries of the world and FAO.  

Addressing in the first part of the report the state of basic natural resources in food production, Dr Ovchinnikov stressed,  “Humanity has entered an era of considerable scarcity. It is obvious that further expansion of arable lands is not possible without disturbing the ecological balance of the planet. A substantial increase in irrigation is also practically impossible due to extreme water shortages in areas of intensive farming. In addition, further strain on ecosystems is fraught with serious negative consequences for them.” 

“Economically developed countries that do not have sufficient natural resources to ensure domestic food availability, in the absence of global shocks in the world economy, will retain the possibility to import agricultural products in sufficient quantity and at a high level,” the speaker continued. “However, given rising demand and limited supply, this would exacerbate the situation with food supply to less developed countries in need.”  

"The main question on the agenda of the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021, in general, was quite simple: can we feed a growing global population with enough nutritious food without harming the Earth’s ecosystem?” 

Dr Ovchinnikov pointed to serious challenges in achieving a number of Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in the transition to “healthy diets”, which involves various measures of persuasion, education, advertising, etc. “However, according to the experience of the USA, where work in this direction has been carried out for more than 40 years, the effectiveness of these mechanisms is not high.” 

Concerning the prospects of reducing food waste in final consumption, the speaker noted: “The low cost of food (in the USA, food costs account from about 10 to 12 percent of the average citizen's expenses) in most cases results in a “careless” attitude towards food. Only a substantial increase in food prices can drastically correct the situation in the current realities, which, however, contradicts the objectives of the public social policy and, hence, social stability.”  

In his opinion, the increased efficiency of agricultural production “is associated with the use of substantial volumes of agricultural chemicals (mineral fertilizers and pesticides), hormonal products, GMOs, antibiotics, etc. It is probably incorrect to claim that food produced in this way corresponds to healthy nutrition requirements.” 

The speaker estimates that by 2030 more than 4 billion people will have a significant problem accessing sufficient food of adequate quality and quantity. Therefore, the speaker considers that the main solution to the problem (“of feeding a growing global population with adequate amount of nutritious food”) is “the development of technologies for the industrial production of artificial food, and the beginning of its mass production”, and also classification of food into categories: artificial food (AF); traditional (using intensive technologies) food; environmentally friendly (organic) food.  

At the same time, according to Dr Ovchinnikov, “the price and availability of these types of food should be different: artificial food is the cheapest one, traditional food is in the medium price range, and organic food is expensive. Thereafter, they should be primarily destined for various income groups of the population.” The scientist also suggested introducing some sort of population limit quota for the world population, which would be a regulator for the uncontrolled growth of food consumption.  

In conclusion, Dr Ovchinnikov noted that the problem of transforming agri-food systems, raised at the UN Summit, is only part of “a more global issue, namely, the need to change the socio-economic formation.”  

According to the Russian scientist, “capitalism as a system based on increasing consumption of material goods has exhausted itself. The reason is simple – the Earth's natural potential is close to its critical point, beyond which the contours of global ecological collapse can be seen. Further developments of the world economy within the market paradigm and compliance with the principle of sustainable development have become incompatible.” 

Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, recalled the history of the establishment of the Organization, its main mission – to eliminate hunger and ensure food security, improve the living standards of the rural population, and delved into FAO’s mandate extending to agriculture, fishery and forestry, including their non-food sub-sectors. 

Further on, Oleg Kobiakov spoke about the origins of the world food summits. “In 1996, with the world population reaching 5.5 billion and the number of starving people rising to 850 million, the Director-General Jacques Diouf convened the first World Food Summit (WFS). It was this Summit that became the forerunner of the Agenda for the twenty-first century, which formulated the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Under the influence of the WFS, which declared the goal of halving the number of starving people by 2015, MDG1(b) was formulated, which provided for the reduction by fifty percent the proportion of the world hungry population over this period, and this goal has been practically achieved by humanity.”

Additionally, Oleg Kobiakov spoke about the Summits that took place in 2002 and 2009, which stimulated the fight against hunger, as well as the Conferences on nutrition (1992 and 2014), highlighting the practical results of these forums. For example, the right to food has been consolidated in the legislation of dozens of countries around the world, voluntary guidelines for the implementation of this right and a number of “soft law” documents have been developed under FAO’s auspices to guide countries on how to address issues of access to resources in food production.     

“However, the positive trend of these years has not given us the opportunity to reverse the negative dynamic in hunger statistics, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the number of starving people again exceeded 800 million – compared to the 680 million a year earlier – and the UN Summit on food system was convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The national dialogues that took place around the world on the eve of it and the work of the Summit itself of the session of the UN General Assembly in September 2021 achieved their expected result – they drew attention to the main world food problem and mobilized the member states to address it,” Oleg Kobiakov concluded.

“Our Office, together with the Moscow State University of Food Production (MGUPP) and the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, has already held the first round of Russian post-dialogue aiming at putting into action the decisions, proposed by the Summit participants, without waiting for the mechanisms of this process to be created and launched on the bases of the institutions in Rome,” the Director of the FAO Moscow Office informed.   

Oleg Kobiakov dwelled specifically on the Russian contribution to solving world food problems: “Over the past 10 years, the very paradigm of its role has changed in Russia – the country has become the breadbasket of the world and is emerging as a leader in the production and export of other main types of food.”

“Russia has achieved a milestone victory over hunger. For a country that has been repeatedly plunged into the abyss of hunger over the past century, this is a historically remarkable result,” noted the FAO representative and added: “According to the report presented at the High-Level Forum on Sustainable Development on progress towards the SDGs, the hunger parameters in Russia are 1.6 percent, which is less than the statistical error.”  

“FAO names three main causes of hunger – these are, first of all, armed conflicts, natural disasters and economic shocks caused by the first two factors, so politicians in all countries should work to end wars and existing conflicts in order to give people working on the ground the opportunity to feed the world without difficulties. The world is already producing enough food. The challenge is to distribute it fairly.” 

“It is possible to find a solution to the world food problem, and this debate, the speaker’s fundamental work and its detailed discussion by the debaters are a significant contribution to understanding the essence of the problem and addressing it,” Oleg Kobiakov summed up the seminar from the FAO perspective.