Several other food experts at the Transnational Institute offered criticisms of prevailing industrial practices. David Fig, who serves on the board of Biowatch South Africa, an NGO concerned with food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture, said:
We are being far too kind to industrialized agriculture. The private sector has endorsed it, but it has failed to feed the world, it has contributed to major environmental contamination and misuse of natural resources. It's time we switched more attention, public funds and policy measures to agroecology, to replace the old model as soon as possible.
Sergio Sauer, formerly Brazil's national rapporteur for human rights in land, territory and food, added:
Agroecology is related to the way you relate to land, to nature to each other--it is more than just organic production, it is a sustainable livelihood.
In Brazil we have the National Association of Agroecology which brings together 7,000 people from all over the country pooling together their concrete empirical experiences of agroecological practices. They try to base all their knowledge on practice, not just on concepts.
Generally, nobody talks about agroecology, because it's too political. The simple fact that the FAO is calling a major international gathering to discuss agroecology is therefore a very significant milestone
- - -
Nafeez Ahmed wrote this article for The Ecologist where it originally appeared. Nafeez is an investigative journalist, bestselling author, and international security scholar. He is a regular contributor to The Ecologist and The Guardian where he writes about the geopolitics of interconnected environmental, energy, and economic crises.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
2
