Initiatives of Change - UK: Newsroom editoria detailed view

Food is essential for people’s well-being. Being seated around a table is a cultural, symbolic, anthropological and religious act. In fact, our eating habits define many social practices of the culture we belong to. Access to food is closely connected with the economic empowerment of every individual. This is why some types of food become a status symbol; others are needed simply to survive. The quantity and the quality of the food we eat are fundamental both for our health and for our ability to make our own living.

Food production and the food industry have a major impact on a country's economy. Hungry or malnourished people are not able to look towards their future because they are caught up in a mere struggle for survival.

We are faced on one hand with surplus that leads to a waste of food and to illness in the so-called developed countries, and with famine and under nourishment in developing countries on the other: two sides of the same coin with a variety of interests at stake. Too often food is being wasted by our personal behaviour. And often the food is traded at low prices and is of poor quality. Besides the effects this food has on health, its production also requires enormous amounts of energy. This is typical of an economic system which organizes the wastage (how much food is thrown away in supermarkets because of its sell-by date?).

This was not the case in agrarian societies all over Europe before the Industrial Revolution, which were characterized by self–sufficient economies. Today, three major groups are facing each other in the food chain: global agribusiness, mainly driven by profit, farmers with all their difficulties and modern challenges, and consumers, often searching for better prices and seeking quality, are mostly unaware of the realities of production.

Agriculture is part of the culture of every nation. Its traditions go back thousands of years and have marked our environment. It cannot be standardized across different countries. What would Tuscany be without its hills and vineyards? And what would Bavaria be without its typical farms and the vast pasture lands for dairy cows? The English enclosures are as fascinating as the landscape created in France through the 'herbage et bocage' system.

Europe’s agricultural safeguard policies are a result of the desire to preserve its 1,000-year history (which would be lost if we allowed agriculture to disappear,) and to provide the food needed in the country. Developing countries should be given the same rights to develop and protect their agriculture, and food production system as well as their cultural and landscape treasures. And in order to save biodiversity we must seriously question the system of uniformity which prevails today and which mostly benefits rich countries.

Reforms in global trade policies and rules concerning food production are urgently needed in order to decrease poverty and accordingly food insecurity and hunger – as the recent food riots in many countries show.

Strengthening farmers’ ties to their land means avoiding rural flight, a trend which can be observed today mainly in developing countries, where people give up rural life to move to big cities. At the same time, the European Union, faced with an agricultural crisis caused by competition from outside, had to put forward new policies for rural marketing, aimed mainly at preserving local and typical production. Take the situation in Italy: the boom of the farming areas and the new law on Multifunctional Farming Undertakings are actions aimed at offering farmers alternative sources of income to prevent their abandoning this vital branch of the economy.

In addition, a new actor has appeared on stage: the GMO (Genetically Modified Organism), giving rise to much controversy: on one hand, its proponents advocate the further development of research with the perspective of progress for agriculture. On the other hand, its opponents fear unknown consequences for people’s health and the possibility of a gradual disappearance of our biodiversity. Many farmers refuse to become fully dependant on big multinational companies controlling seed-production. There is clear confrontation between the advocates of alternative agriculture (organic or bio-dynamic farming, farming with integrated pest management…) who fight for respect for the environment, and the advocates of the new biotechnologies used in farming, and this promises to continue for a long time.

The interests at stake make any attempt to create understanding and common search on this debate almost impossible. But the challenge is there! And it is with this challenge in view that we are organizing a conference in October in Italy, near Bologna. Watch this space for more news!

Taken from a text related to a conference organised by Initiatives of Change in partnership with Peace Now (Bologna), sponsored by the Mayor of Castel S. Pietro, Italy, 9 - 13 October 2008.