field.tools - bootcamp

Agricultural Practices Globally

 

Day 9 [Module #2]

THEORY MODULE

  • Agricultural Practices Globally

    • Small-Farm Permaculture

    • Forest-Systems Permaculture

    • Monocropping / Monoculture

    • Polyculture

  • 'Good Agricultural Practices'

[FAO recommendations for growers/http://www.fao.org/prods/gap/docs/pdf/5-gapworkingconceptpaperexternal.pdf) are generally organized according to the following categories:

  • crop rotation considerations (the choice of what to produce and when);
  • land preparation; tillage;
  • plant nutrient requirements; fertilizer kinds and amounts;
  • crop establishment methods; planting density, arrangement etc.;
  • weed control;
  • pest and disease control, with IPM principles in some cases;
  • water management and irrigation
  • harvest methods;
  • livestock rations and feeding systems
  • on-farm storage methods, etc.

PRACTICE MODULE

  • Visit farms where chicken are being kept for small-scale production.
  • Visit small-scale daries.

SEMINAR TOPICS

  • Principles of animal slaughter (team discussion).

  • Discuss the differences in large-scale vs. small-scale production.

  • Discuss problems of agricultral subsidies.

  • Export economies and market distortions (in the name of free market).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocropping

Monocropping is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence of rotation through other crops or growing multiple crops on the same land (polyculture). Corn, soybeans, and wheat are three common crops often grown using monocropping techniques.

While economically a very efficient system, allowing for specialization in equipment and crop production, monocropping is also controversial, as it can damage the soil ecology (including depletion or reduction in diversity of soil nutrients) and provide an unbuffered niche for parasitic species, increasing crop vulnerability to opportunistic insects, plants, and microorganisms. The result is a more fragile ecosystem with an increased dependency on pesticides and artificial fertilizers.[1] The concentrated presence of a single cultivar, genetically adapted with a single resistance strategy, presents a situation in which an entire crop can be wiped out very quickly by a single opportunistic species. An example of this would be the potato famine of Ireland in 1845–1849, and according to Devlin Kuyek is the main cause of the current food crisis with monoculture rice crops failing as the effects of climate change become more acute.[2]

Monocropping as an agricultural strategy tends to emphasize the use of expensive specialized farm equipment — an important component in realizing its efficiency goals. This can lead to an increased dependency on fossil fuels and reliance on expensive machinery that cannot be produced locally and may need to be financed. This can make a significant change in the economics of farming in regions that are accustomed to self-sufficiency in agricultural production. In addition, political complications may ensue when these dependencies extend across national boundaries.

The controversies surrounding monocropping are complex, but traditionally the core issues concern the balance between its advantages in increasing short-term food production — especially in hunger-prone regions — and its disadvantages with respect to long-term land stewardship and the fostering of local economic independence and ecological sustainability. Advocates of monocropping tend to claim that in its absence many human populations would be reduced to starvation or to a degraded level of civilization comparable to the Dark Ages. On the other hand, critics of monocropping dispute these claims and attribute them to corporate special interest groups, citing the damage that monocropping causes to societies and the environment. A difficulty with monocropping is that the solution to one problem — whether economic, environmental or political — may result in a cascade of other problems. For example, a well-known concern is pesticides and fertilizers seeping into surrounding soil and groundwater from extensive monocropped acreage in the U.S. and abroad. This issue, especially with respect to the pesticide DDT, played an important role in focusing public attention on ecology and pollution issues during the 1960s when Rachel Carson published her landmark book Silent Spring. Soil depletion is also a negative effect of mono-cropping. Crop rotation plays an important role in replenishing soil nutrients, especially atmospheric nitrogen converted to usable forms by nitrogen-fixing plants used in fallow fields. In addition, it performs an important role in preventing pathogen and pest build-up. In a monocropping regime, farmers are less likely to rotate their crops and replenish such essential soil nutrients. In addition, artificial high-nitrogen fertilizers can "burn" the soil by creating an unfavorable environment for indigenous organisms, a phenomenon well-known to organic gardeners and farmers (who avoid it), resulting in further disruption of soil ecology and dependence on further short-term fertilizer strategies.[citation needed] Lacking a stable ecology, in the absence of substantial irrigation and chemical "fixes" the soil can become dry and begin to erode. As the soil becomes arid and useless, the need for more land becomes an issue, leading to the destruction of even more land — a high-tech version of slash and burn agriculture.[citation needed] Under certain circumstances monocropping can lead to deforestation (Tauli-Corpuz;Tamang, 2007)[3] or the displacement of indigenous peoples (Tauli-Corpuz;Tamang, 2007).[3]

In order to help reduce dependence on fossil fuels the U.S. government subsidizes the monocropping of corn and soybeans to be used in ethanol production (S, 2007).[4] However monocropping itself is highly chemical- and energy-intensive, as studies by Nelson (2006)[5] indicate. Such studies have shown that the "hidden" energy costs associated with producing each unit of bio-fuel are significantly larger than the amount of energy available from the fuel itself.

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-monocropping.htm

Monocropping is an agricultural practice in which the same crop is planted year after year, without practising crop rotation or resting the soil. While there are some distinct advantages to this technique, it is environmentally questionable and can potentially lead to serious economic problems for farmers, as well. Many environmental advocates would like to see a shift away from this type of farming, as would people who work in the developing world.

The obvious advantage to monocropping is that it allows a farmer to specialize in a particular crop, which means that he or she can invest in machinery designed specifically for that crop, along with high-yield seeds that will generate a large volume of the crop at harvest. With staple crops like wheat, corn, and soy, farmers can also be confident that the crop will produce a high income, although this scheme can backfire; if demand declines radically, a farmer's monocrop may become a liability.

From an environmental perspective, farming in this way is harmful for a number of reasons. For one thing, it severely depletes the soil, as the plant will strip the soil of the nutrients it needs. This forces farmers to use fertilizers, which can disturb the natural balance of the soil and contribute to a host of environmental problems, from pollution to desertification. The practice can also contribute to the proliferation of crop pests and diseases, which can be a serious liability when a farmer's land is planted exclusively with one crop.

Monocropping also generally reduces crop diversity, which is perceived as a bad thing both because the loss of biodiversity is unfortunate, and because if a crop does become subject to a particular pest or disease, it becomes especially vulnerable. In a world where only a few strains of corn are grown, for example, if a pest develops to attack one, it could devastate global crops, and farmers might not have another strain to fall back upon.

Additionally, the practice is very dangerous when natural disasters or shifting weather devastate a crop. A farmer with diverse crops could afford to take a small loss if one crop failed to yield, but in a region where only one crop is grown, the results can be catastrophic. Farmers may find themselves heavily in debt at the end of the season, and the lack of harvest could translate into famine or general hardship.

As an alternative to monocropping, farmers can rotate crops, planting different types of plants in each field annually, and they can also periodically allow fields to lie fallow to recover. Some farmers also encourage the practice of mixing crops in the field each year, using a combination of crops to strengthen the soil and create a more diverse yield.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoculture

Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop or plant species in a field at a time. It is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for increased efficiencies in planting and harvest. Polyculture, where more than one crop is grown in the same space at the same time, is the alternative to monoculture. Continuous monoculture, where the same species is grown year after year,[1] can lead to the quicker buildup of pests and diseases, and then rapid spread where a uniform crop is susceptible to a pathogen. This is in contrast to crop rotation, where monocultures of various crops are rotated on a field over time. Oligoculture has been suggested to describe a crop rotation of just a few crops, as is practiced by several regions of the world.[2] The term is frequently borrowed for other uses, such as raising one species of livestock in a farm, or even in fields other than agriculture to describe any group dominated by a single variety, e.g. in the field of musicology to describe the dominance of the American and British music-industries in Western pop music, or in the field of computer science to describe a group of computers all running identical software.

Land use[edit]

The term is mostly used in agriculture and describes the practice of planting crops with the same patterns of growth resulting from genetic similarity. Examples include wheat fields or apple orchards or grape vineyards. These cultivars have uniform growing requirements and habits, resulting in greater yields on less land because planting, maintenance (including pest control), and harvesting can be standardized. This standardization results in less waste and loss from inefficient harvesting and planting. It also is beneficial because a crop can be tailor-planted for a location that has special problems – like soil salt or drought or a short growing season.[citation needed]

Monoculture produces great yields by utilizing plants' abilities to maximize growth under less pressure from other species and more uniform plant structure. Uniform cultivars are able to better use available light and space, but also have a greater drain on soil nutrients. In the last 40 years, modern practices such as monoculture planting and the use of synthesized fertilizers have greatly reduced the amount of land needed to produce much higher yielding crops.[3] A huge problem with growing any crop in a monoculture is that once the land has been used to agriculture for a single species, soil fertility diminishes greatly.[4]

Forestry[edit] In forestry, monoculture refers to the planting of one species of tree.[5] Monoculture plantings provide great yields[citation needed] and more efficient harvesting than natural stands of trees. Single-species stands of trees are often the natural way trees grow, but the stands show a diversity in tree sizes, with dead trees mixed with mature and young trees. In forestry, monoculture stands that are planted and harvested as a unit provide limited resources for wildlife that depend on dead trees and openings, since all the trees are the same size; they are most often harvested by clearcutting, which drastically alters the habitat. The mechanical harvesting of trees can compact soils, which can adversely affect understory growth.[6] Single-species planting of trees also are more vulnerable when infected with a pathogen, or are attacked by insects,[7] and by adverse environmental conditions.[8]

Lawns and animals[edit] Examples of monoculture include lawns and most field crops, such as wheat or corn. The term is also used where a single species of farm animal is raised in large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Disease[edit]

Monocultures used in agriculture are usually single strains that have been bred for high yield and resistant to certain common diseases. Since all plants in a monoculture are genetically similar, if a disease strikes to which they have no resistance, it can destroy entire populations of crops. Polyculture, which is the mixing of different crops, has natural variation and a likelihood that one or more of the crops will be resistant to any particular pathogen. Studies have shown planting a mixture of crop strains in the same field to be effective at combating disease.[9] Ending monocultures grown under disease conditions by introducing crop diversity has greatly increased yields. In one study in China, the planting of several varieties of rice in the same field increased yields of non-resistant strains by 89% compared to non-resistant strains grown in monoculture, largely because of a dramatic (94%) decrease in the incidence of disease, making pesticides less necessary.[10] There is currently a great deal of international worry about the wheat leaf rust fungus, that has already decimated wheat crops in Uganda and Kenya, and is starting to make inroads into Asia as well.[11] As much of the world's wheat crops are very genetically similar following the Green Revolution, the impacts of such diseases threaten agricultural production worldwide.

Polyculture[edit] Main article: Polyculture The environmental movement seeks to change popular culture by redefining the "perfect lawn" to be something other than a turf monoculture, and seeks agricultural policy that provides greater encouragement for more diverse cropping systems. Local food systems may also encourage growing multiple species and a wide variety of crops at the same time and same place. Heirloom gardening has come about largely as a reaction against monocultures in agriculture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyculture

Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes multi-cropping, intercropping, companion planting, beneficial weeds, and alley cropping. It is the raising at the same time and place of more than one species of plant or animal. Polyculture is one of the principles of permaculture.

Polyculture, though it often requires more labor, has several advantages over monoculture: reduced susceptibility to disease. For example, a study in China showed that planting several varieties of rice in the same field increased yields by 89%, largely because of a dramatic (94%) decrease in the incidence of disease, which made pesticides redundant.[1]

local biodiversity increases. This is one example of reconciliation ecology, or accommodating biodiversity within human landscapes. This may also form part of a biological pest control program.

CONTEXT

Extending Good Practices

FAO disseminates codified ‘good practices’ to farmers in developing countries. These ‘good practices’ account for a variety of agricultural circumstances and build on local and indigenous knowledge. Extension of improved techniques for agricultural production has also given rise to the formalization of participatory practices for creation of new technology. FAO also works to identify 'Knowledge Attitudes and Practices' the address how community values, beliefs and traditions come to bear on the efficacy of newly-introduced farming practices. 1

http://www.ecolabelindex.com/ecolabel/good-agricultural-practice-gap

Global G.A.P. is a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe. The aim is to establish one standard for Good Agricultural Practice with different product applications capable of fitting to the whole of global agriculture.

The standard is primarily designed to reassure consumers about how food is produced on the farm by minimizing detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, reducing the use of chemical inputs and ensuring a responsible approach to worker health and safety as well as animal welfare.

Global G.A.P. is a business-to-business standard that is not visible to consumers.

http://www.globalgap.org/

...

http://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/

http://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/what-we-do/the-gg-system/gg-academy/g.a.p.-in-action/

The Role of International Organizations in Agricultural Reform

As countries try to enter global markets (which are increasingly requiring food safety, and, more recently, environmental and social considerations) and to meet their direct food security needs and improve the income of the rural and peri-uban poor, Governments of developing countries often appeal to international organizations such as FAO and the World Bank for technical assistance that addresses optimizing and adapting crop, livestock, forestry or aquaculture practices to best fit local context.1

Action Areas for Agricultural Reform1

AT THE GLOBAL LEVEL

It is obviously a challenge to formalize global principles of GAP that are applicable worldwide, and some may question the relevance and usefulness of the attempt. However it is also clear that FAO has developed a substantial body of knowledge, principles and value judgements of what constitutes good practices for different components of agricultural production such as water management, soil and plant nutrition cycles, animal husbandry or integrated crop protection. Knowledge about these separate components could be usefully brought together and formalized in a comprehensive set of principles which would serve as a simple reference point on GAP, to be adapted, translated and prioritized into locally appropriate practices and indicators and to provide a baseline for technical assessment of existing GAP codes and standards.

Recent FAO work on the application of holistic agroecological principles of farming are a step in the same direction, and the refinement of GAP principles should built on these efforts. The social dimension of sustainability and considerations of food safety and quality may need particular refinement in the GAP components.

The social dimension of sustainability in particular are difficult to quantify and should be the outcome of national, local and individual priorities.

FAO should bring in the debate other organizations such as ILO, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 8000 standards and Social Accountability International standards to benefit from their expertise on defining basic social sustainability principles and on appropriate ways of adapting them to local contexts.

...

  1. Disseminate information on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) related concepts, approaches, methods and projects

Provision of better information related to GAP can contribute to better decision-making by governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs) as well as interested private sector companies that seek to support sustainable farming. At the global level, such information-sharing can be facilitated with information technologies, analytical inventories and comparative studies on GAP schemes, their scope, drivers and the respective incentives to adopt them.

FAO has initiated efforts toward these ends have been initiated in the form of a meta-database of GAP guidelines, projects and field activities, agricultural technologies (TECA), technical publications (EIMS) and projects, guidelines, national regulations and legislation. The GAP web site is venue for information dissemination.

It is assumed that a different set of communication and information tools is needed to reach farmers and consumers. These specific tools (targeted training material, CD-Rom or publications, communication campaigns) should be developed as relevant in particular contexts.

  1. Define global principles underlying Good Agricultural Practices, reflecting the three pillars of sustainability and food safety and quality considerations

COAG recommends that GAP principles(see Annex 1) need further refinement, and that specific recommendations should draw from FAO’s large range of technical and institutional expertise.

AT NATIONAL/SUB-NATIONAL LEVEL

  1. Define approaches to translate the global GAP principles into local practices and production processes and indicators

The Expert Consultation on GAP recommends refining a process approach for supporting definition of GAPs by local actors based on pilot work in a few countries. The intention of such an approach is to support the local development of optimal good agricultural practices that are appropriate and reflect priorities of local stakeholders in that specific context, for a given commodity. [10]

In doing so, a given national project may combine the following components, as locally relevant:

KNOWLEDGE.

Provide local/national stakeholders with analysis of:

  • impacts of production of a specific commodity or production system, including analysis of local sustainability dynamics, food safety and quality, etc; emphasis should be given to teaching approaches to impact assessment (for instance, by documenting and disseminating information on national cases of food contamination, water pollution or loss of biodiversity related to inadequate or excessive pesticide use) and means of conveying finding to raise policy makers’ awareness of sustainability issues
  • the scientific validity and policy and economic implications and costs of specific GAP standards and schemes [NOTE: AGSF has already commissioned a study in a number of Asian countries on fresh produce food safety and quality, existing GAP-related schemes, and issues, costs and opportunities for producers and marketers in implementation]

NEGOTIATION.

Upon local demand, act as neutral broker to facilitate the negotiation between local stakeholders of feasible/applicable GAP processes for a commodity.

As in any decision-making process, farmers making decisions about production processes face conflicting priorities and trade-offs with regard to the use of limited resources (financial, human, natural, physical, or social assets). Conflicting priorities may also arise between different stakeholders (local or national food industry or buyer, farmers and their organizations, local government services for forestry, agriculture, livestock and the environment, extension services) with diverging objectives and views of the most appropriate land use and farming methods.

A wealth of local knowledge is often available about what constitutes good practices in a given farming system from the point of view of research and extension, farmers or farmers organizations or market operators. But their implementation often fails because each stakeholders’ definition fails to reflect the views and incentives of the others.

Collaborative definition of applicable GAPs in a given context coupled with participatory extension methods has been identified as a way to avoid this and try to resolve trade-offs. Such collaborative negotiations can be facilitated by FAO upon request from a national government, commodity board or private operator engaged in developing GAP protocols either as extension tools or as guidelines in national programs for product quality.

Participatory methodologies use the range of expertise developed in FAO and elsewhere on multistakeholder negotiation and conflict resolution. This has started with meetings on GAP for meat production in S and E Africa (2004), for dairy production (S Africa, 2004) and the poultry sector (North Africa 2004) and cotton-cereal livestock production systems in Burkina Faso (2004).

Technical assistance with regard to GAP consists of proposing economically and environmentally sustainable practices and processes that help minimize trade offs, providing advice on how to make the best use of a broad basket of new but also indigenous and traditional technology practices. Topics for technical assistance may range from crop production and protection, water management and irrigation, soil fertility and plant nutrition, biotechnology and others.

  • participatory technology development
  • farmers field schools
  • Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices
  • other participatory extension methods.

Initial pilot projects on GAP will provide guidelines on methodologies for defining pertinent practices and economic, environmental and social indicators. With respect to monitoring or assessment of environmental impacts of production, the question of how to monitor cumulative impacts beyond farm level will be an important issue to take into consideration, building on most recent methodological work.

2. Capacity building and policy advice to support small and larger scale farmers in meeting existing GAP standards and codes and changing procurement practices set by retailers and the food industry, in strengthening institutions such as farmers organizations, extension services and other government institutions, and NGOs and CSOs which support the development and application of locally adapted GAP.

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http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture

Agriculture can help reduce poverty for 78% of the world's poor, who live in rural areas and work mainly in farming. It can raise incomes, improve food security and benefit the environment. The World Bank Group is a leading financier of agriculture, with $8.3 billion in new commitments in 2014

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http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-agriculture/index.htm

Global Agriculture Farming for the Future

Meeting the challenge to produce more food without jeopardizing natural resources. The need for food is growing substantially as global population increases and lifestyles change. Food production will have to double by 2050 to meet demand.

Agriculture’s footprint on the planet is significant. To understand the immense scale, visualize the continents—global cropland is about size of South America and grazing land is equivalent to Africa. Agriculture is the largest single user of water. Some farming practices contribute to climate change which results in unstable weather and temperature fluctuations that affect growing cycles, rainfall, and ultimately, land use. Farming in the future will need to be more resilient.

How will agricultural systems meet the challenge to produce more food without jeopardizing natural resources? The Nature Conservancy believes the answer is sustainable intensification, an agricultural approach that uses the best science and technology matched to the unique conditions found in large production operations and small family farms around the world.

Since some growth of agricultural land is inevitable, it will be important to direct agricultural expansion to areas that will do the least harm to ecosystems and eliminate habitat conversion where possible.

Adopting management practices that protect water quality and conserve soils, combined with efficient use of fertilizer, can reduce the impact of water run-off from farmland which contributes to dead zones and algae blooms.

Climate change poses new challenges, and farmers will have to use practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They will need to grow hearty varieties of crops and use farming techniques that maintain productivity under conditions that may bring floods, drought, and other changes.

Infographic on Bees http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-agriculture/infographic-on-bees.xml Bees are an incredibly important part of our agricultural systems. Learn how and why!

The Link Between Food and Conservation http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-agriculture/food-and-conservation-slideshow.xml Watch a slideshow that highlights where the Conservancy works to lesson the impact of agriculture around the world.

http://www.nature.org/membership-giving/adopt-an-acre/index.htm?intc=nature.featuredstory

Adopt an Acre

You can be the one to help ensure that nature’s most vulnerable lands and waters are given the care, the love and the protection that they need.

When you Adopt an Acre®, your symbolic gift will help to protect natural places you love – like the majestic forests of the Rockies and Central Appalachians or the acres of iconic coastal cypress in the Gulf Coast. With your help, we can ensure that amazing natural treasures like these get the urgent protection and restoration that is critical to their survival.

Adopt an Acre

You can help protect some of the world's most beautiful and diverse habitats when you Adopt an Acre® today.

Since the Adopt an Acre® program began in 1991, the Conservancy has protected over 600,000 acres of vital landscapes around the world. The environmental impact has been positive and far reaching, but there is still more work to be done.

When you make a symbolic gift you are supporting The Nature Conservancy’s general mission.

http://www.globalagriculture.org/

Agriculture at a Crossroads - Business as Usual is Not an Option!

Why should 805 million people on our planet be going hungry while 1.9 billion are suffering from the ill effects of overweight and obesity? In 2014 more grain was harvested than ever before: 2.5 billion tons worldwide. Despite this record-breaking harvest, only 45% was used to feed people. The rest was used to feed livestock, fill our petrol tanks, support industrial production processes or was simply wasted. Our global food system is one of the most significant contributors to climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution and water shortages as well as preventable disease, poverty and injustice.

On behalf of the United Nations and the World Bank, in a four-year-process, more than 400 scientists summarised the state of global agriculture, its history and its future. The outcome was the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The findings are uncomfortable and alarming: providing a warning on the misleading ways of the past and showing new ways forward. This website makes the IAASTD’s findings available by topics, and offers all reports as well as updated figures, background information and news.

Farming Matters - Soils for life http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/soils-for-life

Healthy soils contribute to resilient food production. Soil carbon is a key to healthy soils but today we see the long-term consequences of agricultural management that has neglected soil carbon – degraded soils, polluted waters as well as unprecedented rates of hunger and malnutrition. There are good examples of agroecological practices that were developed by farmers who have long known the importance of soil carbon. Yet, in many cases these practices are being re-learnt, adapted and new practices are being developed to reconnect with the soil and rebuild soil carbon. The March issue of Farming Matters presents the experiences of farmers who are working successfully, together with others, to improve the health of their soil and their lives. Read the magazine online here or download the PDF.

Soil Atlas: Facts and figures about earth, land and fields https://www.boell.de/en/2015/01/07/soil-atlas-facts-and-figures-about-earth-land-and-fields

We are using the world’s soils as if they were inexhaustible, continually withdrawing from an account, but never paying in. For it takes several thousand years to build a thin layer of fertile topsoil, but only an hour of heavy rain to lose it. The average European needs 1.3 hectares to produce all of the food and other products he or she consumes each year. That is about six times more than is available to each Bangladeshi. Almost 60% of the area consumed by Europeans lies outside the EU. Global demand for food, fodder and biofuels is on the rise. So too are land prices. In many regions, the struggle for secure land rights is a struggle for survival for individuals and communities. The global significance of soils demands global responses. The Heinrich Böll Stiftung, the IASS, Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) and Le Monde Diplomatique published this soil atlas with lots of facts and figures.

Food sovereignty and the eradication of hunger in the post-2015 agenda http://www.forumue.de/publikationen/publikationen2/publikation/eight-key-issues-for-a-post-2015-global-development-and-sustainability-agenda/

12 German civil society networks and organisations have published the joint position paper “Eight Key Issues for a Post- 2015 Global Development and Sustainability Agenda” in which they express their visions, expectations and demands towards the post-2015 agenda. With respect to food and agriculture, they call on governments to commit themselves to reduce the number of people suffering from hunger to zero by 2030 and make the implementation of the right to food a key element within the new agenda. They stress the need to create and expand socially and ecologically sustainable agriculture. The new agenda must explicitly support small-scale producers and strengthen local structures of distribution and consumption.

Report: Supermarkets are undermining people's food sovereignty in Asia http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5010-food-sovereignty-for-sale-supermarkets-are-undermining-people-s-control-over-food-and-farming-in-asia

In the past decade, food corporations have been taking over a bigger and bigger slice of the retail pie in Asia, with major implications for the entire food chain. Corporate supermarkets are expanding faster in this region than anywhere else on the planet. And as supermarkets and their procurement chains expand, they take revenue out of traditional food systems – and out of the hands of peasants, small scale food producers and traders. They also exert increasing influence over what people eat and how that food is produced. GRAIN look deeper at how supermarket expansion in Asia influenced small scale food producers and traders. You can download the report from the GRAIN website.

UN Working Group adopts proposal for Sustainable Development Goals

The Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals concluded its 13th and final session from 14-19 July in New York, adopting a proposal containing 17 SDGs and 169 targets. The outcome document will be presented to the General Assembly in September. Proposed Goal 2 is to "end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture". It contains targets on ending hunger and malnutrition, doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes smallholders, ensuring sustainable food production systems and resilient practices, and maintaining the gentic diversity of seeds, plants and animals. The reduction of food loss and waste is a target under Goal 12.

Small farmers feed the world with less than 25% of the world's farmland https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59856386/small%20farmers/StatPlanet.html

Small-scale farmers, the UN says, grow 70% of the world's food but a new analysis of official data carried out by the non-profit organisation GRAIN suggests the land these farmers control is shrinking every year. Small farms are currently squeezed onto less than a quarter of the world's agricultural land - or just 17%, if farms in India and China are excluded. Have a look at this interactive map to find out how many small farms there are in each country and how much land they control.

FAO Infographic: Family Farmers around the World http://www.globalagriculture.org/typo3temp/pics/638a853e83.jpg

Family farming is inseparably linked to national and global food security. Both in developing and developed countries, family farming is the predominant form of agriculture in the food production sector: Of the 570 million farms worldwide, more than 500 million are family farms. They carefully manage their lands to sustain remarkably high levels of productivity despite having less access to productive resources. Watch this new FAO infographic with key facts and figures.

New Video: Economic, Environmental and Social Costs of Food Waste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RytEgwymDr0&feature=youtu.be

Each year, 30% of global food production is lost after harvest or wasted in shops, households and catering. This represents USD 750 billion worth of food every year, and that is at producer prices. At retail prices, the value reaches a trillion dollars. If Nature asked us to pay the total bill for food wastage, it could charge another 700 billion dollars a year because that wasted food caused greenhouse gas emissions, used water for irrigation and cleared forests and eroded land. Watch the new video of the Food Wastage Footprint project.

UN expert: Democracy and Diversity Can Mend Broken Food Systems

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, has called for the world’s food systems to be radically and democra- tically redesigned to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. He warned that current food systems are efficient only from the point of view of maximising agribusiness profits: Objectives such as supplying diverse, culturally-acceptable foods to communities, supporting smallholders, sustaining soil and water resources, and raising food security in vulnerable areas, must not be crowded out by the one-dimensional quest to produce more food. Read De Schutter's final report to the UN Human Rights Council.

2000m²: Take a Look at your Share of Gobal Food and Land!

If we were to divide the total global surface area of arable land by the number of people living on the planet, each person would get 2000m². It is on this piece of land that everything Mother Earth supplies you with must grow: wheat, rice, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, oil, sugar… not to mention all the animal feed that does not stem from meadows and pastures. Visit the website of this new ARC2020 project to find out what your 2000m² would look like if they were to represent the global situation and to learn how much tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, wheat and potatoes could be grown on your field. www.2000m2.eu

Spotlight on Soil Degradation: ‘Let’s Talk About Soil’ http://vimeo.com/53618201

The animated film ‘Let’s Talk About Soil’ emphasises human dependence on soils and describes how sustainable development is threatened by certain soil use trends. The five-minute clip offers options to make the way we manage our soils more sustainable – a necessity given the fact that worldwide, over 24 billion tons of fertile soil are being lost each year. The film was produced for the Global Soil Week, a conference which took place in Berlin in November. Watch the film

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