A four-year global study involving 400 scientists, 30 governments and 30 NGOs has called for a fundamental change in the way the world farms, to better address soaring food prices, hunger, social inequities and environmental disasters.
The report from the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) reflects a growing consensus among the global scientific community and most governments that the old paradigm of industrial, energy-intensive and toxic agriculture is a concept of the past.
The key message of the report is that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis and meet the needs of local communities. For the first time, an independent, global assessment acknowledges that farming has a diversity of environmental and social functions, and that nations and peoples have the right to democratically determine their best food and agricultural policies.
The IAASTD process itself was a path-breaking one, in which governments, major research institutions, industry and civil society shared equal responsibility in its governance and implementation.
Canada, Australia, the UK and the US have as yet not signed on to the final report.
No comments yet