Deutsche Presse-Agentur | May 7, 2009
Geneva - A United Nations expert said Thursday that increasing food production would not necessarily decrease the vulnerability of those who were food-insecure.
Olivier De Schutter, the special rapporteur on the right to food, said that agricultural production should be designed to increase the incomes of the poorest, particularly small-scale farmers.
'In responding to the global food crisis, it is easy to move from the symptom - prices which have suddenly peaked - to a possible cure - produce more, and remove as soon as possible all supply-side constraints,' he wrote in a report to the Commission on Sustainable Development.
This, he said would not benefit the small-scale farmers who were food-insecure and only serve further to marginalize them.
'There is a risk that, in the name of raising production, the need for both socially and environmentally sustainable solutions will be underestimated,' De Schutter wrote in the six-page submission.
The expert, who took up his post during the food crisis last year, which saw prices of staple goods soar, said in a report in December that free trade and greater liberalization would not solve the problems of the nearly 1 billion hungry people in the world.
'The current system of international trade is a major reason for (the food) crisis we've seen,' he said then.
Last month, agriculture ministers from the Group of Eight developed countries (G8), said the world was 'very far' from achieving a UN commitment to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.
In his latest report, De Schutter pushed for a model of sustainable agricultural which would focus on 'how to help the world feed itself' rather than 'how to feed the world.' The models would also have to be concerned about the environment and climate.
Up to 80 per cent of the world's hungry were involved in agriculture, either as farmers or labourers, De Schutter has estimated.
Many are landless or have tiny plots, and the UN expert said they need more equitable land access.
He also called for international regulation on large-scale offshore acquisitions of land, a topic which has been raising some alarm bells at UN institutions and other food agencies.
Prior to the G8 meeting, UN Assistant Secretary General David Nabbaro said governments, particularly in Africa, needed to invest in sustainable agriculture production at home, and slammed large industrial farming systems.
He criticized subsidies in the wealthy countries and the lack of market access for the poorer nations.
Geneva - A United Nations expert said Thursday that increasing food production would not necessarily decrease the vulnerability of those who were food-insecure.
Olivier De Schutter, the special rapporteur on the right to food, said that agricultural production should be designed to increase the incomes of the poorest, particularly small-scale farmers.
'In responding to the global food crisis, it is easy to move from the symptom - prices which have suddenly peaked - to a possible cure - produce more, and remove as soon as possible all supply-side constraints,' he wrote in a report to the Commission on Sustainable Development.
This, he said would not benefit the small-scale farmers who were food-insecure and only serve further to marginalize them.
'There is a risk that, in the name of raising production, the need for both socially and environmentally sustainable solutions will be underestimated,' De Schutter wrote in the six-page submission.
The expert, who took up his post during the food crisis last year, which saw prices of staple goods soar, said in a report in December that free trade and greater liberalization would not solve the problems of the nearly 1 billion hungry people in the world.
'The current system of international trade is a major reason for (the food) crisis we've seen,' he said then.
Last month, agriculture ministers from the Group of Eight developed countries (G8), said the world was 'very far' from achieving a UN commitment to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.
In his latest report, De Schutter pushed for a model of sustainable agricultural which would focus on 'how to help the world feed itself' rather than 'how to feed the world.' The models would also have to be concerned about the environment and climate.
Up to 80 per cent of the world's hungry were involved in agriculture, either as farmers or labourers, De Schutter has estimated.
Many are landless or have tiny plots, and the UN expert said they need more equitable land access.
He also called for international regulation on large-scale offshore acquisitions of land, a topic which has been raising some alarm bells at UN institutions and other food agencies.
Prior to the G8 meeting, UN Assistant Secretary General David Nabbaro said governments, particularly in Africa, needed to invest in sustainable agriculture production at home, and slammed large industrial farming systems.
He criticized subsidies in the wealthy countries and the lack of market access for the poorer nations.
