Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2009 by admin in Techniques |

Last November I had a rare opportunity to be in Rome for the United Nation’s World Food Summit as a delegate for the World Sustainable Agriculture Association. An unusual thing happened at the Summit. People from all parts of the world were really talking about food security, what it meant, how to eliminate hunger, and what they can do about it back home. For the first time I felt there was an agreement among diverse people, organizations, and governments to look at the problems in-depth relating to the security of food.
Among the 20,000 or so people that attended the Summit, put on by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, were 186 heads of state and their delegations. Also attended were 1,300 Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) plus private individuals who were observers. The FAO had one part of the Summit , the official part, for delegates and heads of state, and the other part, the NGO Forum, for all the rest of the people. Here, at the NGO Forum, organizations, regional groups, and individuals presented and discussed issues related to the security of food. The General Director of FAO in his opening statement to the NGO Forum stressed the importance of the civil society (private sector) and praised it’s activism.

Through regional and global meetings, workshops, conferences, and conference calls participants to the upcoming Summit worked on food security. They defined what they thought were problems and solutions.

Regional groups, such as the one I participated in The North American Working Group, had several Task Force Groups that looked in-depth at specific problems. I was involved with the Achieving Sustainable Food Security, Task Force on Natural Resources. Months before and up until the Summit the group worked on what we wanted to present in Rome.

The FAO made sure that the NGO Forum participants had a large place to exchange ideas and to hold all the people attending. Two days before the official World Food Summit started the NGO Forum began. Here people participated in a large forum where all could be heard.

I spoke briefly to the full NGO Forum about what I thought was important in Food Security. Here is what I said:

I encourage this Summit to:
Ensure sustained progress in food security by protecting the health of farmers and other food producers, their children, and consumers from the chronic and acute effects of pesticide poisoning, including: retarded development of the nervous system in children exposed to pesticide residues in their food and in their homes and fields, male and female reproductive disorders, endocrine system disruption, and cancer attributable to exposure to many agricultural pesticides.
Promote national and international programs to reduce the use of toxic chemical pesticides in agriculture, and support the implementation of organic and reduced pesticide practices.

A tremendous exchange of information took place.
The FAO organized five technical panels given by some of the most respected world international experts in their fields.
Organizations, regional groups and the full forum produced an exchange of ideas, recommendations and solutions that were later given as a final statement to the official delegates of the World Food Summit.
A gathering of national peasant federations announced the creation of a worldwide network at the Summit called “Via Campesina”. They wrote their own declaration and plan of action for food security and gave it to the delegates.
The Rural Women’s Workshop included farming women, peasant women, and indigenous women from all parts of the world. These women spent 7 days before the Summit discussing food insecurity. They sent an Action Statement to the Summit’s heads of state that spelled out the policies they thought would ensure food security for the people of the world. They began a worldwide organization for Rural Women as an outcome of the Summit and are communicating by e-mail.

After the Summit

The Summit brought a focus to the problems connected with the security of food. The exploration of solutions brought forth a Plan of Action called the ROME DECLARATION. This declaration was developed by the 186 nations represented at the summit. At the top of the list for The Plan of Action was the importance of governments working closely with NGO and the private sector and establishing follow-up to future regional conferences .

The ROME DECLARATION pledged “our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food security for all…with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.”

What I learned during this experience is that one person, whether a peasant from South America, a rural woman from Africa, or an organic farmer from North America, can make a contribution to solving problems associated with food security. It really is true that at the grassroots level much can be done and that the leaders will follow. No matter who it is, one person can make a difference.