Older resources

Es bleiben neun Ernten Zeit

16/09/2021

Christiane Grefe - Zeit

Im Jahr 2015 machten alle Regierungen der Welt gemeinsam ein großes politisches Versprechen. Sie einigten sich auf das Nachhaltigkeitsziel "Null Hunger bis 2030". An dieser Aufgabe droht die Staatengemeinschaft zu scheitern.

North American Coalition Mobilizes To Counter UN Food Systems Summit 2021

15/09/2021

La Via Campesina

A virtual event to elevate voices and concerns of food providers marginalized by the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) process. The People’s Kitchen Counter-Mobilization: Food System Take-Back is a half-day virtual event, hosted by The People’s Forum NYC, and will feature speakers from Africa to North America in separate conversations laying out their visions for a food system based on agroecology and food sovereignty. Intermissions will feature cultural events from organizations based around North America.

Food Systems Summit’s Scientistic Threat

14/09/2021

Jomo Kwame Sundaram - IPS News

Timely interventions by civil society, including concerned scientists, have prevented many likely abuses of next week’s UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). The Secretary General (UNSG) must now prevent UN endorsement of what remains of its prime movers’ corporate agenda.
Summit threat
The narrative on food challenges has changed in recent years. Instead of the ‘right to food’, ‘food security’, ‘eliminating hunger and malnutrition’, ‘sustainable agriculture’, etc, neutral sounding ‘systems’ solutions are being touted. These will advance transnational corporations’ influence, interests and profits.

"Food Connects Us All"

September 2021

Action Aid USA

Increasingly, grassroots movements and frontline communities from North America are joining the global fight for agroecology and food sovereignty, bringing local struggles into global policy spaces and confronting the US and Canadian governments for failing to ensure the right to food.

Listen up!

14/09/2021

Swissaid

In the run-up to the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, SWISSAID spoke to six women farmers from the South and Switzerland. The aim was to give a voice to those women who work hard in the fields every day to feed people. The report, delivered personally to Christian Hofer, Director of the Federal Office for Agriculture, on the federal place on Tuesday 21th, tells the story of their daily challenges and highlights the importance of agroecology for their autonomy as women and as farmers.

What’s up with Agroecology Now!? 2021/09 Update

September 2021

Agroecology Now!

AgroecologyNow! works with partners in social movements, civil society, governments and research institutions to promote a transformative agroecology for food sovereignty and social justice: www.agroecologynow.comSee below for some highlights of our latest work and highlights from our networks, including free-to-download articles, videos and other resources.

Farmers and Civil Society reject corporate UN Food Systems Summit

13/09/2021

Margaret Flowers - Popularresistance.org

The World Economic Forum and Gates Foundation are convening a food summit through the United Nations on September 23. Global farmer, peasant and fishing coalitions have called a boycott of the summit for its pro-corporate agenda, refusal to include the human right to food and exclusion of the intergovernmental body, the Committee on World Food Security, that has created an inclusive and democratized international structure. Clearing the FOG speaks with Patti Naylor, a family farmer in Iowa who works on agroecology and food sovereignty.

Calls for halt to funding for industrial agriculture

10/09/2021

Inga Vesper - SciDev

Civil society organisations have called on influential donors to stop funding industrial agriculture programmes, which they say harm smallholder farmers and the environment.The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) — which represents 200 million small-scale food producers — along with 165 organisations from 40 countries, sent a letter Tuesday to donors of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and other ‘Green Revolution’ organisations, urging them to redirect their support to African-led agroecology and low-input farming systems.

Open letter from IPES FOOD

10/09/2021

IPES FOOD

We are writing with regard to this month's UN Food Systems Summit. Through this letter, we wish to convey our strongest concerns regarding the threat it poses to the role of science and knowledge in food system decision-making.
It is our view that the foreseen outcomes of the Summit could critically undermine the ability of existing UN bodies to guide food system reform. Further, these outcomes threaten the ability of the UN system to maintain the trust and buy-in of many food system actors. These developments are therefore of major concern to us in our respective roles.

Faith groups lead call to defund industrial agriculture in Africa

10/09/2021

Rumbi Chakamba - Devex

An alliance of faith-based and civil society groups working for food sovereignty and sustainability in Africa called on donors to stop funding the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and other programs that promote industrialized agriculture on the continent.
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa is the continent’s largest network of faith-based organizations and other civil society groups, representing more than 200 million farmers, fishers, pastoralists, and Indigenous peoples across Africa.

Farmers and Civil Society reject corporate UN Food Systems Summit

09/09/2021

AMIDA - AFSA

Long-time activists know all too well how the powers that be work to divide us to maintain their power base. They use coercion, ego stroking, and straight up misinformation to entice some of us to dance with them, while others see the devil for what he is. This time the devil, or shall we call him the wolf, comes dressed in sheep’s clothing. The wolf is the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Bank, an assortment of global and regional think tanks, and front men for Big Food and Big Pharma.

Q & A: (Almost) all you need to know about the UNFSS

09/09/2021

FIAN International & Growing Culture

After two years of preparations, the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is set to take place on September 23rd. The Summit states its goal as “setting the stage for global food systems transformation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.” It sounds promising. But the Summit has been mired in controversy practically from its outset. We’ve broken down the most important questions and answers about the upcoming Summit to clarify exactly where the controversies lie and offer some ways to get involved in the response.

Hur kan Food Systems Summit påverka världens livsmedelssystem?

08/09/2021

Feeding your mind

Idag är var tionde människa i världen undernärd, samtidigt som var fjärde är överviktig. Det är långt kvar till att nå de globala Agenda 2030-målen som "ingen hunger" och "ingen fattigdom" - men tiden är knapp. Den 23 september 2021 samlas världens ledare till det digitala FN-toppmötet Food Systems Summit. Vad kan ett sådant toppmöte åstadkomma? Möt Lisa Sennerby Forsse, Sveriges enda representant i toppmötets vetenskapliga expertgrupp, kanslirådet Peter af Wetterstedt på Näringsdepartementet som inte ser toppmötet som ett slut utan som en början - och Carolina Rodriguez Gonzalez, en av de forskare i världen som väljer att bojkotta Food Systems Summit.

“Al summit sul cibo è in gioco lo scippo della governance alimentare”

07/09/2021

Chiara Spadaro - Altra Economia

Al vertice sui sistemi alimentari delle Nazioni Unite del 23 settembre il ruolo dei governi appare secondario rispetto alle multinazionali. Dare priorità ai loro investimenti è rischioso perché mina le politiche pubbliche. Occorre coinvolgere i movimenti sociali. Intervista a Nora McKeon, storica ed ex funzionaria della FAO

Food Systems Summit is not a people’s summit, says UN expert

06/09/2021

Global agriculture

The upcoming UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is not the people’s summit it claims to be because key elements such as human rights, equity and accountability are not on the agenda, according to a leading UN rights expert. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, says that the summit turns a blind eye on root causes and governance issues linked to hunger and malnutrition and fails to address corporate concentration of power in food systems. In a policy brief entitled “Last chance to make the Food Systems Summit truly a people’s summit”, Fakhri shares his concerns that the “people’s summit” will fail the people it claims to be serving.

Global Food Governance

06/09/2021

Nora McKeon - Development journal

This article helps lay a basis for the kind of deep analysis of the stakes of global food governance that is required today, under the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and with the threat of corporate capture of decision-making spaces. The article reviews the history of global food governance, identifies the critical questions that need to be asked, and suggests some directions that may contribute to strengthening the agency of rights-holders, weakening that of corporations, and democratizing multilateral governance.

Do we need a new science-policy interface for food systems?

03/09/2021

Esther Turnhout et al. - Policy Forum

Food systems require urgent transformations to meet multiple demands of food and nutrition security, justice, liveli hoods, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

UN food systems summit leaders must not remain silent on its inadequate rules of engagement with commercial actors

01/09/2021

Nicholas Nisbett, Kent Buse, Jeff Collin, Lesli Hoey and Lucy Westerman (BMJ)

The pre-summit to September’s United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), held in Rome at the end of July 2021, confirmed the fears of a broad range of international actors that the UNFSS model allows for corporate capture of international policy on healthy and sustainable food systems. Coverage in the BBC Food Programme demonstrates that concerns have moved into the mainstream, despite the hopes of many that the UNFSS could still help fix a broken food system.

Pandemia della fame: il summit sui Sistemi alimentari non affronta le cause reali

01/09/2021

Nicoletta Dentico

Quando il segretario generale delle Nazioni Unite annunciò il proposito di organizzare un summit di alto livello dell’Onu sui sistemi alimentari, la notizia fu accolta con sorpresa, ma anche con molto interesse. Era il 16 ottobre 2019, giornata mondiale dell’alimentazione. Covid-19 non lo conosceva ancora nessuno, ma l’emergenza della fame nel mondo -in costante aumento dal 2014- era un fenomeno che già metteva a dura prova l’obiettivo “fame zero” della Agenda per lo sviluppo sostenibile.

Critiques of Gates Foundation agricultural interventions in Africa

30/08/2021

Stacey Malkan (US Right to Know)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent nearly $6 billion on agricultural development programs since 2002, with a key focus on expanding industrial agriculture in Africa. The foundation’s main program, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, works to transition farmers away from traditional seeds and crops to patented seeds, fossil-fuel based fertilizers and other inputs to grow commodity crops for the global market. Leading experts in food security and hundreds of groups around the world have raised concerns about the foundation’s agricultural development strategies for Africa.

Who will decide what we will be eating in the future?

26/08/2021

George-André Simon (ALAI)

On July 26-28 took place, in Rome, the UN Pre-summit on food systems. During this event, most of the participants repeatedly declared that food systems must be changed. However, so far, there has been no agreement on how to succeed in the best way and the general feeling from the discussion is one of confusion and disagreement

UN Food Systems Summit: It’s Time To Listen to Civil Society’s Concerns

24/08/2021

Molly Anderson

The world is falling well short of meeting Sustainable Development Goal 2 (to end hunger) by 2030, and many fear the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) will not deliver on its promise to get the world on track to genuinely transform the way food is produced, distributed and consumed.

Q&A: The United Nations agroecology negotiations and Food Systems Summit

20/08/2021

Cecelia Heffron, Shiney Varghese (IATP)

Starting on July 26, United Nations delegates and other stakeholders met in Rome for a Pre-Summit leading up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) scheduled to take place this September in New York. This could have been an opportunity for a step towards putting global food systems on a more sustainable and equitable path.

The United Nations Food Systems Forum (UNFSS): Where Corporations Continue To Define Our Food Systems and Control Our Diets

19/08/2021

Navdanya International

The Pre-Summit of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) taking place in Rome, as a preparative stage to the New York September Summit, is, as expected, going in the wrong direction. As many civil society members, as well as past and current Rapporteurs on the Right to Food, have denounced, this summit is yet another instrument to reinforce corporate control over food and agriculture, while attempting to restrain civil society’s role in global food governance.

The United Nations Food Systems Forum (UNFSS): Where Corporations Continue To Define Our Food Systems and Control Our Diets

19/08/2021

Navdanya International

African Faith Leaders to Gates Foundation: Drop African 'Green Revolution'

08/08/2021

Cecilia Hefron

In August 2021, an alliance of African faith leaders delivered a powerful message to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Stop promoting failing and harmful high-input Green Revolution programs, such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Food Advocates Organize Counter Events To UN Food Systems Summit

02/082021

Mark Dunlea (Hudson Mohawk Radio Network)

Civil society and Indigenous Peoples’ Organization have launched a global counter-mobilization against the UN Food Systems Summit. Qiana Mickie, a member of the Civil Society Mechanism coordinating committee, discusses the concern about corporate agribusiness domination and the need to hear from the voices of peasants, farmers, food and agriculture workers, consumers, etc. With Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Radio Network.

Why UN Food systems summit is irrelevant to Uganda’s smallholder farmers

02/08/2021

Witness Radio

Science-policy interfaces consist of groups of experts who present the latest scientific thinking to governments to support them in making informed policies.

Food Sovereignty: a challenge 25 years in the making

28/07/2021

Jaime Amorim/ Brasil de Fato

In the same year that La Vía Campesina celebrates 25 years of defining, building, and fighting for “food sovereignty,” the United Nations (UN) will convene a summit for heads of state, members of large businesses and private corporations, multinationals and agribusiness representatives to discuss food systems processes.

Geef de regie bij de Voedseltop aan de boeren, bij hen zit de verandering

28/07/2021

Leonardo van den Berg, Janneke Bruil, Sylvia Kay and Danny Wijnhoud

Het laatste VN-rapport over mondiale honger en ondervoeding kwam eerder deze maand uit. Door Covid-19 en een toenemende klimaatcrisis is het aantal personen met chronische honger in slechts één jaar tijd, tussen 2019 en 2020, met 118 miljoen toegenomen tot 768 miljoen.

Open letter to policy makers: No new science-policy interface for food systems

July 2021

Agroecology Research Action

Science-policy interfaces consist of groups of experts who present the latest scientific thinking to governments to support them in making informed policies.

Sustainable food systems are possible outside corporate agriculture

29/07/2021

Jyotsna Singh

The United Nations Food Systems Summit has become one of the most controversial events of this year due to corporate take over. Civil society activists came together during the pre-summit to register their protest

A Sting in the AGRA Tale

July 2021

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

In July 2020, an alliance of five African and five German organizations published the study False Promises: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). It was the first study to scientifically assess the impacts of AGRA, an agricultural alliance registered in the United States and supported by numerous international organizations and governments in the Global North, along with some African governments.

EXPLAINER - U.N. summit seeks to shape a food system fit for the future

28/07/2021

Megan Rowling

People don't agree on much when it comes to food. But most think how we produce it isn't working for everyone on the planet, nor for crucial natural systems vital to food production, including soils, water and the climate.In response, an upcoming U.N. summit on food systems aims to curb damage to the environment and wildlife from what's on our plates, as well as tackle hunger made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-heating emissions from agriculture and food waste.Preparations for September's event, due to take place in New York, have already brought together governments, farmers, indigenous people, businesses, U.N. agencies and others to discuss ways of making food production fitter for the future.

Carlo Petrini: «La trasformazione di tutto il sistema alimentare è un’esigenza indilazionabile»

28/07/2021

Slow Food Italy

Oltre 300 organizzazioni della società civile, produttori di cibo di piccola scala, ricercatori e popoli indigeni di tutto il mondo si sono riuniti in un evento virtuale e fisico a Roma dal 25 al 28 luglio 2021 per manifestare il loro dissenso al pre-Vertice delle Nazioni Unite sui Sistemi Alimentari. Anche Carlo Petrini è intervenuto: riportiamo qui la sintesi del suo pensiero pubblicato ieri su La Stampa.

CSM response to the invitation to join the UN Food Systems pre-Summit Synthesis Plenary

27/07/2021

CSM

On 27 June 2021, the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM) received a letter from Ms. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. The letter included an invitation to participate in the official programme of the Pre-Summit “in order to enrich and refine the Summit’s wider ambition and accelerate action moving forward in alignment with the 2030 Agenda.”
After due internal consultation, CSM expressed its intention to remain fully consistent with the positions already taken and to not participate in the UN Food Systems pre-Summit.

UNFSS – Where Multinationals Continue to Design our Food Systems and Control our Diets

27/07/2021

Navdanya

The Pre-Summit of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) taking place in Rome, as a preparative stage to the New York September Summit, is, as expected, going in the wrong direction. As many civil society members, as well as past and current Rapporteurs on the Right to Food, have denounced, this summit is yet another instrument to reinforce corporate control over food and agriculture, while attempting to restrain civil society’s role in global food governance.

UN Food Systems Pre-Summit

27/07/2021

Benjamin Luig - Rosa Lusemburg

The lockdowns and partial lockdowns in the last one and a half years of the COVID-19 crisis have been accompanied by a worsening of the food crisis in many countries. In regions as diverse as India, South Africa or Germany, it became clear how much agriculture does not only depend on farmers, but also on agricultural workers. Now, in the autumn of the second year of corona, the United Nations will host a “Food Systems Summit” (FSS). The first step will be a “Pre-Summit” in Rome between July 26 and 28.

Welternährungsgipfel: Hunderte NGOs boykottieren Pre-Summit

27/07/2021

Wel