UN assessment of agriculture, poverty, hunger and the environment

On April 12, 2008, 57 world governments agreed on a final report of the UN’s International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).

Recent reports of dramatic food shortages and riots underline the severity of problems with the current food system and the urgency of finding solutions.

"Business as usual is not an option," declared Robert Watson, Director of the IAASTD, referring to the fundamental changes in the world's agricultural systems that the IAASTD report says are required. A former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Watson is also one of the many scientists who recently shared the Nobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for work on climate change.

The IAASTD report concludes that small-scale, agro-ecological farming will be more effective at meeting today’s challenges than the old energy- and chemical-intensive paradigm of industrial agricultural production. Severe inequities withiin and between societies also must be reversed, and this requires grappling with the adverse impacts on the poorest countries of trade liberalization policies and Western government crop subsidies.

"This is a wake-up call for governments and international agencies. The survival of the planet's food systems demands global action to support agroecological farming and fair and equitable trade," said Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman of Pesticide Action Network North America, speaking from Johannesburg moments after the report was finalized on April 11.

Under the auspices of the United Nations, World Bank and other institutions, scientists, civil society leaders, corporate and government representatives met 7-11 April in Johannesburg, South Africa to debate solutions to the thorny, intertwined problems of global agriculture, hunger, poverty, power and influence. The IAASTD report was released on April 15 in Nairobi, New Delhi, London, Paris and Washington, DC.

The IAASTD is an unprecedented attempt to bring multiple stakeholders together to map out a strategy to achieve sustainable food and agricultural systems worldwide. For four years, the IAASTD’s 400+ authors examined the multiple social, environmental and political dimensions of farming.

The final report authorized by signing governments addresses one central question:

What can and must we do differently to sustain productive and resilient farming in the face of environmental crises, overcome persistent poverty and hunger, and achieve equitable and sustainable development?

The report notes that the most widespread forms of industrial agriculture have degraded the natural resource base on which human survival depends, and contribute daily to worsening water and climate crises. The final report documents the inequitable distribution of costs and benefits of the present agricultural sector, including the undue influence of transnational agribusiness, the growing impacts of environmental crises, and the unfair global trade policies that result in over half of the world’s population not having enough to eat.This statement represents the same type of consensus that was achieved by the Climate Change Panel.

The good news, the IAASTD concludes, is that we have options: investing in agroecological and organic farming, ensuring poor farmers have control over resources, creating more equitable trade agreements, and increasing local participation in policy-formation and other decision-making processes.

Indeed, as the 57 governments in Johannesburg agreed, the final IAASTD meeting was a watershed event in the effort to transform agriculture and rural livelihoods worldwide.

The radical shifts suggested by these findings, however, will inevitably shake up the status quo. The IAASTD, for example, has rankled some participants, particularly the US government and the agrichemical and biotechnology industries who say that their pesticide and genetically engineered products are not adequately credited in the IAASTD reports. The US and Australia were unhappy with the criticism of the adverse social and enviornmental impacts on food security and poverty, attributed to their trade liberalization policies.

The IAASTD is precedent-setting also for its bold experiment in governance. Civil society groups played a key role, not only in the authorship of the report, but also in its oversight and governance. History shows us conclusively that governments and transnational corporations have not been successful on their own. The IAASTD's success has proven that civil society participation as full partners in intergovernmental processes is critical to meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

Options exist

A central challenge we face today is how to strengthen the resilience of our food systems, rural communities and agroecosystems in the face of environmental crises.

The good news is that options exist: achieving sustainable and profitable agriculture is possible in our lifetimes. Accomplishing this transition will require concerted action at both the global and local levels, and from both public and private sectors. Successful actions will be guided by these findings:

Improving agriculture is about much more than increasing yields: it requires attention to social, political, cultural and environmental impacts and benefits.
The future of agriculture is agroecological farming practices and “triple-bottom-line” business practices that meet social, environmental and economic goals.
Reliance on resource-extractive industrial agriculture is dangerous and not sustainable; short-term technical fixes do not address complex challenges and often exacerbate social and environmental harms.
Achieving food security and sustainable livelihoods for people in chronic poverty depends on protecting access to and control of resources by small-scale farmers.
Fair local, regional and global trading regimes can build local economies, reduce poverty and improve livelihoods.
Strengthening the human and ecological resilience of agricultural systems improves capacity to respond to today's environmental crises and changing environmental and social conditions. Indigenous knowledge and community-based innovations are an invaluable part of the solution.
Better governance mechanisms, ensuring democratic participation by the full range of stakeholders in decision-making, is essential.

Of the 61 countries attending the Johannesburg plenary, only four have not signed on to the report. The four governments that announced they needed to check back with their capitals -- Australia, Canada, the UK and US -- should quickly endorse the innovative vision for the future laid out in the IAASTD and commit to working closely with all segments of civil society to facilitate a transition towards more resilient and sustainable food and farming systems.

Just as the climate crisis is “an inconvenient truth,” the recommendations in the IAASTD report are likely to be considered inconvenient for the world’s industrial agricultural establishment and the dominant economies. The U.S. government, the agrichemical trade association CropLife, and others who currently benefit disproportionately continue to argue against doing what needs to be done. Yet the outcome of the meeting in South Africa represents our best chance to apply the lessons of climate change to agricultural policy, and take a decisive step towards the productive, healthy and resilient farming on which our future depends.

Civil society statement

On 13 April 2008, 20 civil society organizations attending the Johannesburg meeting issued a statement applauding the successful conclusion of the meeting and urging governments and international agencies to implement the report's call for increased policy attention to and investments in agroecologically based farming, democratization of decision-making and equitable terms of trade.

En Español: Declaracion Sociedad Civil

A month earlier, on March 14, 2008, a letter (PDF) signed by 73 civil society organizations from around the world, addressed to IAASTD Director Robert Watson, highlighted the organizations’ desire to see a successful outcome of the IAASTD plenary in Johannesburg. The letter also sought confirmation that previously agreed-on procedures would be upheld at the plenary. Those agreements were honored during the meeting, and PAN congratulates all involved in achieving this landmark success.