FAO Conference in Rome- Its all about Food and Hunger

( Editor's note-Assistant Programme Director Margaret and SI UN Rep to Rome- Else recently went to Rome for the Annual FAO Conference for FAO -Food Agriculture Organization. Read this interesting excerpt from APD Margaret's report!)

‘ENOUGH FOOD IS BEING PRODUCED TO FEED EVERYONE!’

‘Yet nearly 1 billion people still live on less than $2 a day.
MDG 1 ‘Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’ seems to be further away than ever.
We are confronted with ever rising trends in energy consumption and climate change.
We use far more of our natural resources than our planet can regenerate- some reports indicate four times!’

At the 21st Session of the Committee on Agriculture at the FAO session last week in Rome , Governments were left in no doubt that they MUST act now in order to meet the challenges that we are facing and reverse the damage that is being done to our planet.

The focus was on agriculture but it became startlingly obvious that agriculture cannot be viewed apart from sustainable development and climate change. A strategic approach for the FAO was a focus for discussion by governments, with interventions from some NGO’s, on the second day. The paper before us was a developing one. There was hearty debate on:
-whether the amount of water used in agriculture was over estimated
the monitoring of land degradation
- the policies on biofuels and a need for vigorous objective analysis
-whether the polluter should pay
- should a set of simple core indicators be evolved?

NGO’s questioned the use of pesticides, eating of locally produced food, learning from indigenous peoples, the continuing development of biofuels and the continued development of organic farming.

Other papers were presented highlighting the need for an ecosystem approach to all the challenges we face rather than an ‘agriculture alone’ consideration.

Sustainable agriculture-learning from women! There was an acknowledgment that women are often the farmers- particularly in the South- and a valuable asset for developing good practice in sustainable agriculture.

I attended COAG with Else Larsen, our UN Representative at FAO. We did a lot of networking- establishing useful links and ensuring that the work of Soroptimists is known well in FAO. The Gender Equity Department was particularly helpful- they were very interested in what we achieve and I know that this contact will help us develop our presence at FAO.

The NGO’s represented there are a strong group and certainly have access to departments and their officers. Their interventions at the debates was evidence of regard for their importance at the UN.

Climate change is certainly the ‘hot topic’ and it is evident that there must be interaction between UN centres about this very important issue which affects the future of the planet!

Soroptimists, there is much we can and must do about climate change and sustainable development and our awareness, advocacy and action is urgent!
Margaret Cook
SI Assistant Programme Director
April 2009