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Sustainable food systems are possible outside corporate agriculture
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/07/29/sustainable-food-systems-are-possible-outside-corporate-agriculture/
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 protestJuly 29, 2021 by Jyotsna Singh
La Via Campesina and other organizations are boycotting the United Nations Food Systems Summit over corporate capture of the space. Photo: La Via Campesina
On World Food Day on 16 October 2019, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) to be held in 2021. The purpose, as claimed on the website of the Summit, was to find solutions to transform food systems to deliver progress on Sustainable Development Goals ending in 2030. However, the Summit, scheduled to be held in September 2021, has come under severe attack for being exclusionary in nature and selling itself to corporate interests.
During the pre-summit, held from 26-28 July, activists across the world came together in the “Peoples’ Counter mobilization to Transform Corporate Food Systems” to express their dissatisfaction with the turn the event was taking. The Counter mobilization was held from 25-27 July and consisted of events ranging from discussions on privatization of food systems, corporate capture of governance and science, to a global virtual rally against the UNFSS.
The people against corporate-led food systems
At the heart of the issue is the promotion of corporate-led food systems by the United Nations, undermining struggles for food sovereignty and security. A handful of transnational companies dominate the current global food and commodity trade. From the sowing of seeds and growing of crops to the processing, distribution, and consumption of food, transnational agribusinesses control and decide everything. However, despite controlling nearly 75 percent of the world’s food production-related natural resources, they can barely feed a third of the global population. They are also responsible for most of the $400bn worth of food lost annually and for the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases.
The agenda of the Summit and people associated with its management are known to encourage privatization at the cost of public systems. For example, the appointment of Agnes Kalibata as the UN Special Envoy for the Summit was put into question. As president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), she was involved in advocating for a shift of African agricultural systems towards industrial and agro-toxic-reliant agriculture models. The presence of the likes of Ramon Lauarta, Chairperson and CEO of Pepsico, and independent sessions by private companies such as Nestle did not go unnoticed. Since the planning stages of the summit, these companies have evidently been in consultation with the organizers.
In their opposition, some organizations such as La Via Campesina are boycotting the Summit while others plan to attend in order to raise concerns on health and human rights. Speaking about the People’s Counter mobilization, Patti Naylor, a farmer from the United States said, “The counter-mobilization focused on the pre-Summit will help us continue to organize and speak out about the UNFSS. The Counter-mobilization is the beginning of our public actions.”
People and organizations across movements came together — Those who focus on climate change, social justice, farmworkers, unions, immigrant rights, women, youth, and elders, to name a few. “Through virtual meetings and written documents, the connections of food and agriculture systems to each of these causes were made clear. This mobilization has been a powerful tool for building solidarity,” added Naylor.
International discussions on food systems, including the ones led by the UN, have not always been so exclusionary. The 1996 FAO World Food Summit was attended by actors across the spectrum, and food sovereignty was recognized as the term that defined struggles against corporate agriculture systems. It supported the right of people to autonomously produce healthy and nutritious food, which is also climatically and culturally appropriate, using local resources. Importantly, food sovereignty was also recognized as a means for achieving food security.
Some governments, such as those of Ecuador, Venezuela, Mali, Bolivia, Nepal, and Senegal have included these ideals in their public policy, and food sovereignty became part of policy backed by UN institutions. At least in theory, the idea is still part of UN documents, such as the 2018 UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).
Efforts were made to point out early on about the exclusionary nature of the Summit. In March 2020, 550 organizations, comprising some of the world’s biggest peasant and indigenous movements, wrote to the UN Secretary-General warning him that the summit is not building on the legacy of past world food summits convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO was given the mandate to organize these events by its member states and it allowed the active participation of civil society through parallel self-organized forums.
Multistakeholderism as a means for industrial takeover of the UN
The exclusion of activists and domination by corporations comes on the heels of a pushback by civil society regarding multistakeholderism in UN bodies. Multistakeholderism is a term that is being increasingly used to indicate that all stakeholders are present at the table in decision making. However, in reality, this is an attempt to replace multilateralism, which prioritizes governments’ participation. In this sense, multistakeholderism has become synonymous for many, with the increasing private capture of UN institutions. Civil society actors in other UN forums, such as the World Health Organization, are fighting the same battle.
The Counter Mobilization is demanding that the UN shifts away from corporate capture and re-grounds itself in individual and collective human rights, and the experiences and knowledge of the peoples most affected. It is also demanding transformation of corporate food systems and defending democratic public institutions and inclusive multilateralism.
Strong voices of support for alternatives to the corporate system have been heard within the official pre-summit sessions as well. Jeffery Sachs, Advisor to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on sustainable development goals was extremely critical of the privatization of food systems during one of the main panel discussions hosted by the UNFSS. He described privatization as an oppressive mechanism, similar to colonization. He said, “We have a world food system that is based on large multinational companies; private profits; and low measures on international transfers to help poor people, sometimes none at all. It is based on extreme irresponsibility of powerful countries with regard to the environment. And it is based on radical denial of the rights of poor people.”
Sachs also said that the privatization of food systems is often backed by the interests of rich countries, citing in particular the United States government, who is known to have given military support to the US-based United Fruits company that has exploited South American countries such as Honduras. He added that “We have a system, but we need a different system which is based on principles of human dignity, sovereignty and economic rights.”
3 Million People Have Died of Covid Since Rich Nations Began Obstructing Vaccine Patent Waiver
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/27/3-million-people-have-died-covid-rich-nations-began-obstructing-vaccine-patent
"Every one of those deaths is a mark of shame for the governments of countries like the U.K. and Germany who have protected patents over human lives."
JAKE JOHNSONJuly 27, 2021
More than three million people across the globe have died of Covid-19 in the roughly nine months since India and South Africa first proposed a temporary patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines, a popular measure that Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other rich countries have blocked.
According to an analysis released Tuesday morning by the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, 3.08 million people have succumbed to the coronavirus since members of the World Trade Organization began considering the patent waiver in October, when the pandemic death toll stood at just over a million. Earlier this month, the global death toll surpassed four million.
More than 100 WTO member countries—including the United States—have backed the patent waiver, along with hundreds of civil society organizations, Nobel Prize-winning economists, intellectual property scholars, and the head of the World Health Organization.
But because the WTO operates by consensus, several powerful rich countries have been able to thwart the patent waiver push, leaving pharmaceutical companies in control of vaccine manufacturing even as it has become abundantly clear that current production levels are not sufficient to meet global needs.
"Millions have died while the governments of rich countries have been bickering over monopoly rights for Covid-19 vaccines," said Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now. "Every one of those deaths is a mark of shame for the governments of countries like the U.K. and Germany who have protected patents over human lives."
Global Justice Now's figures come as the WTO General Council, the organization's highest-level body, is set to convene in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the status of patent waiver talks, which have gone virtually nowhere since the U.S. belatedly endorsed the proposal in May.
Negotiators are asking for more time to hammer out a potential intellectual property agreement as the WTO is set to break for vacation in the month of August. The WTO's TRIPS Council—the body tasked with monitoring global intellectual property rules—is not set to formally meet again until mid-October, a nearly three-month gap in the talks as the Delta variant continues to wreak havoc in undervaccinated regions.
Global Justice Now noted that nearly a million people have died of Covid-19 over the past three months.
"It beggars belief that governments could delay progress for another three months," said Dearden. "The virus is ravaging the world's poorest while rich governments buy booster shots and vaccinate low-risk groups. Extreme vaccine inequality will be never-ending unless we remove the corporate monopolies which are preventing the world from ramping up production."
"Britain has thrown more vaccines in the bin than it has donated or exported to date," he continued. "No wonder most countries don't trust the rich world to deal with Covid-19. At the very least, it's time we got out of the way and allowed countries to make their own jabs. Many of the deaths we mourn today could have been prevented if not for the shameful intransigence of governments like our own."
The WTO General Council is expected to adopt a report this week indicating that little progress has been made toward a final agreement on the patent waiver, which has been co-sponsored by Mozambique, Kenya, Indonesia, Namibia, and other nations struggling to gain access to vaccine doses as the highly transmissible Delta strain tears through their populations.
Namibia, which has one of the highest Covid-19 death rates in the world, has thus far been able to provide a single vaccine dose to just 1% of its population.
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division, blasted the WTO for preparing to shut down for six weeks of vacation while "monopoly protections for pharmaceutical corporations remain an obstacle to scaling up the production of vaccines, tests, and treatments needed to beat Covid."
"The Delta variant is burning a murderous path through a world where most people are literally dying for a vaccine but there simply is no supply," Wallach said in a statement Tuesday. "Until the WTO intellectual property barriers are waived, and governments force technology transfer and fund major new manufacturing capacity so the needed vaccines are made to inoculate the world, it will be one variant after another getting hatched."
'Turn This Destruction Around': 5 Months Left in 2021 But Humanity's Used Up Earth's Ecological Budget
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/29/turn-destruction-around-5-months-left-2021-humanitys-used-earths-ecological-budget
"Together we can choose one-planet prosperity over one-planet misery."
ANDREA GERMANOS
July 29, 2021
Humans are continuing to gobble up Earth's resources faster than the planet can generate them, with this year's "Overshoot Day" landing on July 29.
"If we need reminding that we're in the grip of a climate and ecological emergency, Earth Overshoot Day is it," said Susan Aitken, leader of the Glasgow City Council, urging that the day be "our call to arms."
Driven by factors including a projected energy-related CO2 emissions growth of nearly 5% and a spike in Amazon deforestation, this year's milestone marker comes nearly a month earlier than 2020's August 22 Earth Overshoot Day. Last year's improved timeline was attributed to coronavirus-triggered shutdowns.
"Governments need to turn this destruction around," tweeted Greenpeace in reaction to the milestone day. "#ClimateAction, anyone?"
According to the metric, grounded in 15,000 data points per country, humanity would need 1.7 "Earths" to consume the biological resources currently used per year. If the world's population lived like the U.S. or Canada, the date would have fallen (pdf) on March 14.
The Global Footprint Network, which tracks the metric, along with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on Thursday also announced the launch of the "100 Days of Possibility" initiative for the lead-up to COP 26, the key United Nations climate summit that begins October 31 in Glasgow. The initiative will highlight solutions for states and communities to take to "reverse overshoot and support biological regeneration," organizers say.
"The pandemic has demonstrated that societies can shift rapidly in the face of disaster," said Global Footprint Network CEO Laurel Hanscom. "But being caught unprepared brought great economic and human cost. When it comes to our predictable future of climate change and resource constraints, individuals, institutions, and governments who prepare themselves will fare better."
The new initiative's website explains:
We are entering a 'storm' of climate change and resource constraints. The earlier we start preparing ourselves for this predictable future, the better positioned we will be.
Fighting the climate and resource crisis will be easier with international cooperation. Without it, the need for companies, cities, and countries to prepare themselves for the future becomes even more existential.
For 100 days, from Earth Overshoot Day 2021 to COP 26, we're showcasing many ways we can use existing technology to displace business-as-usual practices we can no longer afford.
Among the solutions so far highlighted is a 23-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of a former railroad line in Germany converted into the Nordbahn walking and cycling path. In the city of Wuppertal, through which the Nordbahn route passes, the proportion of cyclists has gone up from 2% to 8% of commuters over a decade—a rise attributed to the revamped infrastructure.
"If we reduce our footprint from driving by 50% around the world and assume one-third of car miles are replaced by public transportation and the rest by biking and walking, Earth Overshoot Day would move back 13 days," the initiative states.
Looking ahead to the upcoming climate summit, SEPA CEO Terry A'Hearn said it must be a moment to ensure a climate-friendly, post-Covid recovery.
"In November, as a weary world turns its attention to Scotland and COP 26, together we can choose one-planet prosperity over one-planet misery," he said. "We can and must build from the pandemic—our global ability to plan, to protect and move at pace."
"In 2021," A'Hearn added, "the Glasgow summit and the future we choose as each community, city, company, or country offers real hope for a new net-zero revolution."
Humans are continuing to gobble up Earth's resources faster than the planet can generate them, with this year's "Overshoot Day" landing on July 29.
"If we need reminding that we're in the grip of a climate and ecological emergency, Earth Overshoot Day is it," said Susan Aitken, leader of the Glasgow City Council, urging that the day be "our call to arms."
Driven by factors including a projected energy-related CO2 emissions growth of nearly 5% and a spike in Amazon deforestation, this year's milestone marker comes nearly a month earlier than 2020's August 22 Earth Overshoot Day. Last year's improved timeline was attributed to coronavirus-triggered shutdowns.
"Governments need to turn this destruction around," tweeted Greenpeace in reaction to the milestone day. "#ClimateAction, anyone?"
According to the metric, grounded in 15,000 data points per country, humanity would need 1.7 "Earths" to consume the biological resources currently used per year. If the world's population lived like the U.S. or Canada, the date would have fallen (pdf) on March 14.
The Global Footprint Network, which tracks the metric, along with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on Thursday also announced the launch of the "100 Days of Possibility" initiative for the lead-up to COP 26, the key United Nations climate summit that begins October 31 in Glasgow. The initiative will highlight solutions for states and communities to take to "reverse overshoot and support biological regeneration," organizers say.
"The pandemic has demonstrated that societies can shift rapidly in the face of disaster," said Global Footprint Network CEO Laurel Hanscom. "But being caught unprepared brought great economic and human cost. When it comes to our predictable future of climate change and resource constraints, individuals, institutions, and governments who prepare themselves will fare better."
The new initiative's website explains:
We are entering a 'storm' of climate change and resource constraints. The earlier we start preparing ourselves for this predictable future, the better positioned we will be.
Fighting the climate and resource crisis will be easier with international cooperation. Without it, the need for companies, cities, and countries to prepare themselves for the future becomes even more existential.
For 100 days, from Earth Overshoot Day 2021 to COP 26, we're showcasing many ways we can use existing technology to displace business-as-usual practices we can no longer afford.
Among the solutions so far highlighted is a 23-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of a former railroad line in Germany converted into the Nordbahn walking and cycling path. In the city of Wuppertal, through which the Nordbahn route passes, the proportion of cyclists has gone up from 2% to 8% of commuters over a decade—a rise attributed to the revamped infrastructure.
"If we reduce our footprint from driving by 50% around the world and assume one-third of car miles are replaced by public transportation and the rest by biking and walking, Earth Overshoot Day would move back 13 days," the initiative states.
Looking ahead to the upcoming climate summit, SEPA CEO Terry A'Hearn said it must be a moment to ensure a climate-friendly, post-Covid recovery.
"In November, as a weary world turns its attention to Scotland and COP 26, together we can choose one-planet prosperity over one-planet misery," he said. "We can and must build from the pandemic—our global ability to plan, to protect and move at pace."
"In 2021," A'Hearn added, "the Glasgow summit and the future we choose as each community, city, company, or country offers real hope for a new net-zero revolution."
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