TWN Info Service on Climate Change (Dec10/01)
8 December 2010
Third World Network

Call for shift to low-carbon food production

At the start of the Cancun climate change talks on 29 November, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, called for a global transition from unsustainable industrial agriculture to low-carbon ways of producing food, focused on the needs of vulnerable rural communities and smallholder farmers.

He emphasized that ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support climate change adaptation is vital. Similarly ambitious action, however, is needed to ensure sustainable food production systems that improve the livelihoods of poor communities– the first victims of climate change.

Low-carbon and resource-preserving methods of agriculture, also known as agro-ecological approaches, offers an alternative pathway that can both mitigate climate change by limiting the greenhouse gas emissions and improve the livelihoods of poor rural communities by reducing their dependence on expensive fossil fuel-based inputs for agriculture while increasing levels of production.

With best wishes,

http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1014-cancun-summit-must-lead-to-a-green-marshall-plan-for-agriculture

Cancun Summit must lead to a “Green Marshall Plan for Agriculture”

[29 November] NEW YORK & GENEVA - Without a substantial change in policies, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture could rise by 40 percent by 2030, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food warned, urging negotiators at the Cancun Climate Summit to “consider climate and agricultural policies together to effectively address climate change and its disastrous impact on the right to food.”

In his view, “Cancun should lead the way towards a ‘Green Marshall Plan’ for agriculture.”

“Negotiations starting today in Cancun are crucial to guarantee the right to food for hundreds of millions of people,” De Schutter said. “Ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support climate change adaptation is vital. Similarly ambitious action, however, is needed to ensure sustainable food production systems that improve the livelihoods of poor communities– the first victims of climate change.”

The impact of climate change on agricultural production in developing countries and on the volatility of markets is now well documented. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that in Southern Africa, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 percent between 2000 and 2020, and that arid and semi-arid areas could increase by 60-90 million hectares before 2080. At that time, 600 million additional people could be at risk of hunger as a direct result of climate change.

“These projections are terrible, but current attempts to boost food production with chemical fertilizers and the development of heavily mechanized large-scale plantations are putting agriculture on the wrong track,” the UN expert warned. “Agriculture is already directly responsible for 14 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions – and up to one third if we include the carbon dioxide produced by deforestation for the expansion of cultivation or pastures,” he said. “And this figure will rise in the next few years. Keeping blindly on the track of industrial agriculture is clearly unsustainable and also detrimental to the right to food of millions of small-holder farmers and other vulnerable communities. What we really need is a ‘Green Marshall Plan’ for agriculture to encourage global transition to low-carbon ways of producing food, focused on the needs of vulnerable rural communities and small-holder farmers.”

According to De Schutter, low-carbon and resource-preserving methods of agriculture, also known as agro-ecological approaches, offers an alternative pathway that can both mitigate climate change by limiting the greenhouse gas emissions and improve the livelihoods of poor rural communities by reducing their dependence on expensive fossil fuel-based inputs for agriculture while increasing levels of production.

“Through ambitious programmes and policies, a ‘Green Marshall Plan’ for agriculture would scale up agro-ecological approaches towards more sustainable modes of agriculture which are sensitive to the needs of vulnerable communities,” the UN expert explained. “It will require sustained efforts over several decades, but there is no time to lose,” he urged. “We must start now to set agriculture on a pathway that is both environmentally and socially sustainable. A ‘Green Marshall Plan’ for agriculture is critical, and indeed an obligation, if we are serious in our fight against climate change and hunger.”

The next Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council at its sixteenth session in March 2011, explores ways to implement such a plan focusing on the untapped potential of agro-ecology.