[E-rundbrief] Info 1878 - UN Environment - Call for a food systems revolution

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief Info 1878 - UN Environment: Story Ecosystems, Last call 
for a food systems revolution.

Bad Ischl, 22.7.2019

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

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UN Environment

19 Jul 2019

Story Ecosystems

Last call for a food systems revolution

(Full story, pictures and links):
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/last-call-food-systems-revolution

Half of the world’s population is directly engaged in agriculture and 
nearly 40 per cent of land is devoted to agriculture and livestock. 
Food production sustains us all, but it also comes at a cost: water 
sources are being depleted and contaminated by food production, and 
unhealthy diets are burdening our health care systems.

Despite the huge challenges faced by the agriculture sector, food 
production also offers a tremendous opportunity to realize the 
Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate agreement targets 
while stemming environmental degradation and biodiversity losses. But 
we need to change the way we feed ourselves. And we need to do it quickly.

“By 2050, our planet will need to feed close to 10 billion people. It 
is vital that we transform our agricultural and food systems so they 
work with and not against nature. This is the only way to ensure 
people everywhere have access to a healthy and nutritious diet,” says 
Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme.

In April 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United 
Nations along with other United Nations partners, including UN 
Environment, launched a new initiative for tackling these issues.

The Scaling Up Agroecology Initiative aims to show how diversified 
agroecological systems are vital not only to addressing poverty, 
hunger, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, but also for 
directly realizing 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in areas 
such as health, education, gender, water, energy and economic growth.


Demonstration plot of the traditional production system for 
prosomillet and amaranth in Humla, Nepal, part of the UN Environment / 
Global Environment Facility project “Integrating traditional Crop 
Genetic Diversity into Technology: Using a Biodiversity Portfolio 
Approach to Buffer against Unpredictable Environmental Change in the 
Nepal Himalayas”. Photo by Saroj Pant, Local Initiatives for 
Biodiversity, Research and Development


Agroecology is the use of ecological and social concepts and 
principles in agricultural production systems. There is no single 
definition, but it implies sustainable, integrated land management and 
involves diversification of the production system, including 
agroforestry. It’s closely linked to organic or low-external-input 
farming. Other terms such as regenerative agriculture or 
ecoagriculture are also used.

“Agroecology can be identified in scientific literature since the 
1920s, and has found expression in family farmers’ practices, in 
grassroots social movements for sustainability and the public policies 
of various countries around the world,” says Emma Siliprandi, lead 
focal point for the Scaling up Agroecology Initiative at the Food and 
Agriculture Organization.

Gaining momentum

Back in 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization did not pay much 
attention to agroecology. But things have changed enormously since 
then, as governments and farmers across the world are realizing that 
throwing increasing amounts of pesticides and fertilizers at crops is 
no longer sustainable, viable or, in the long term, profitable.

“Agroecology is about mainstreaming biodiversity in agriculture and 
bridging the gap between the producers of food and consumers,” says 
Emile Frison, the former Director-General of Bioversity International, 
a leading proponent of agroecology, and a current member of the 
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).


Farmers in Soliobod, Uzbekistan, are trained on growing quality 
saplings of local fruit tree varieties, under a UN Environment / 
Global Environment Facility project “Conservation and Sustainable Use 
of Agricultural Biodiversity to Improve Regulating and Supporting 
Ecosystem Services in Agriculture Production”. Photo by Shuhrat Ahmedov


“It’s about moving away from monoculture and moving towards 
agricultural diversity. It’s about taking the focus off yields and 
placing greater emphasis on global health and environmental benefits 
as well as livelihood resilience and year-round nurturing of the soil 
and a broader range of traditional crops. It’s about farmers’ markets. 
It’s about caring for the declining pollinators we depend on for most 
of the food we eat. It’s about putting back trees and hedgerows to 
support birds and other forms of wildlife,” he says.

Siliprandi says agroecology “is based on bottom-up and territorial 
processes, helping to deliver contextualized solutions to local problems”.

“Agroecological innovations are based on the co-creation of knowledge, 
combining science with the traditional, practical and local knowledge 
of producers. By enhancing their autonomy and adaptive capacity, 
agroecology empowers producers and communities as key agents of 
change,” she adds.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s also about tackling hunger. With more 
than 800 million undernourished people in the world—a figure that is 
growing, not shrinking—and a major global obesity crisis, agroecology 
can, and is, providing new solutions.

Take Andhra Pradesh in India. The state government is promoting 
agroecology on a huge scale, and it’s working. More and more farmers 
are coming on board.

Shrinking biodiversity in agriculture, food systems and diets

In the last 100 years, more than 90 per cent of crop varieties have 
disappeared from farmers' fields. Half of the breeds of many domestic 
animals have been lost, and all the world's 17 main fishing grounds 
are now being fished at or above their sustainable limits. Such 
developments have environmental, cultural and health impacts.


“Locally varied food production systems, which are more resilient to 
climate change, are under threat,” says UN Environment biodiversity 
expert Marieta Sakalian. “The loss of diverse diets is directly linked 
to diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and 
malnutrition, and has a direct impact on the availability of 
traditional medicines.

“The development and application of agroecological farming techniques 
should be accelerated to make soils more productive, minimize the use 
of agrochemicals and pollution, and make agriculture more resilient,” 
Sakalian adds.

To bring about change, education is vital. “Children should learn 
about agroecology in kindergarten,” says Frison.

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems’ work 
focuses on promoting sustainable food systems that perform on 
environmental, health, social, cultural and economic dimensions. It 
takes a systemic and transdisciplinary approach, recognizing the 
importance of experiential, indigenous and traditional knowledge and a 
political economy approach that recognizes the power relations and 
influences exercised by actors within the food system.

The United Nations Environment Assembly, in its March 2019 resolution 
entitled Innovation on biodiversity and land degradation, “encourages 
Member States to strengthen commitments and step up their efforts to 
prevent the loss of biological diversity and the degradation of land 
and soil.”

Relevant UN Environment work

      Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition—a joint programme with 
Bioversity International, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the 
United Nations, and the governments of Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey
     Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Production Landscapes—a 2018 report 
funded by the Global Environment Facility
     UN Environment’s TEEBAgriFood initiative
     Support to National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans
     The UN Biodiversity Lab—a platform sponsored by United Nations 
Development Programme, UN Environment and the World Conservation 
Monitoring Centre that provides high-quality spatial data for national 
reporting against global biodiversity commitments
     A January 2019 UN Environment brief We are losing the “little 
things that run the world highlights the importance of insects for 
ecosystems and sustainable food production


The UN Climate Action Summit will take place in New York City on 23 
September 2019 to increase ambition and accelerate action on the 
global climate emergency and support the rapid implementation of the 
Paris Climate Change Agreement. The 2019 UN Climate Action Summit is 
hosted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

For further information, please contact Marieta Sakalian
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/last-call-food-systems-revolution

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     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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