Do some investments in agriculture contribute better than others to the realization of the right to food?
The reinvestment in agriculture, triggered by the 2008 food price crisis, is essential to the concrete realization of the right to food. However, in a context of ecological, food and energy crises, the most pressing issue regarding reinvestment is not how much, but how.
By supporting the multiplication of large-scale monocultures, we risk further widening the gap between this model and small-scale, family farming, while promoting a pattern of industrial farming that is already responsible for one-third of man-made greenhouse-gas emissions. Similarly, schemes solely based on the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers have also shown their ecological limits, and their ability to sustainably benefit the poorest farmers working on the most marginal land is questionable.
Under these circumstances, moving towards agroecological ways of production is needed if we want to feed the world, fight rural poverty and combat climate change at the same time. This was the subject on an official report by the Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2011 (see below).
| Read | 14/03/2012: An Open Letter from Special Procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council to States negotiating the Outcome Document of the Rio+20 Summit “If Rio+20 is to deliver, accountability must be at its heart”, also available in French, and Spanish. |
| Read | 14/03/2012: Background note to the Open Letter from Special Procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council to States negotiating the Outcome Document of the Rio+20 Summit “Human rights essential role for sustainable development”, also available in French, and Spanish. |
| Read | 14/03/2012: Background note to the Open Letter from Special Procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council to States negotiating the Outcome Document of the Rio+20 Summit “The right to food as a global goal”. |
| Read | 08/03/2011: “Agroecology and the Right to Food”, Report presented at the 16th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council [A/HRC/16/49], also available in French, Spanish, Chinese, Russianand Portuguese, (translation made available by the Brazilian 'Câmara Interministerial de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional'). |
| Read | Press release “Agroecology outperforms large-scale industrial farming for global food security”, 22 June 2010. |
| Read | Twenty-sixth McDougall Memorial Lecture. Opening of the 36th Session of the FAO Conference “The Right to Food and the Political Economy of Hunger” (18 November 2009). |
| Read | Statement 'Large-scale land acquisitions and leases: a set of core principles and measures to address the human rights challenge' (June 2009) |
| Read | Contribution for the 17th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-17) “The right to food and a sustainable global food system”, 4-15 May 2009, New York (May 2009) |
| Read | Statement “The Human Right to food and the Challenges facing an African ‘Green Revolution’” (March 2009) |
| Read | Message “Guidance in a Time of Crisis: IAASTD and the Human Right to Food” (February 2009) |
| Read | Summary of Discussions of the Consultation on the African Green revolution (December 2008) |
| Read | The September 2008 report to the Human Rights Council: "Building resilience: a human rights framework for world food and nutrition security" |