UN report: Industrial agriculture feeds starvation trends

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has put out a new report on how best to feed the world’s exploding population. Of the report, the Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter remarks, “To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available.”

So far it sounds like what you’d expect from a bureaucrat whose mandate is essentially to find more food. But the report concludes that “Today’s scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production where the hungry live — especially in unfavorable environments.”

Agroecology is most similar to biodynamic agriculture, but it’s also a pretty good synonym for “sustainable” or “organic.”

In other words, where big corporations, the influential Gates Foundation and, arguably, the United States government insist that industrial agriculture and even genetically modified crops are needed to feed the hungry, the UN has found quite the contrary — that knowledge-based, environmentally sustainable farming will produce more food for more people.

This stance represents a sea change, in which eco-friendly methods are not being advocated for their own sake, but rather on health and human rights grounds.

Of course “agroecology” also makes a lesser contribution to climate change than conventional agriculture — and climate change will, as readers of this blog know, also erode health outcomes around the world. But the UN report also makes the case that sustainable farming methods offer a better model for making agriculture able to adapt to climate change. Dr. De Schutter said in the press release, “Conventional farming relies on expensive inputs, fuels climate change and is not resilient to climatic shocks. It simply is not the best choice anymore today.”

The report goes on to make the case for public policies that support agroecological methods, which are “knowledge-intensive.”

Notes Dr. De Schutter: “States and donors have a key role to play here. Private companies will not invest time and money in practices that cannot be rewarded by patents and which don’t open markets for chemical products or improved seeds.”

Unfortunately, that support may hing on still another sea change.