World Food Summit Must Place People and Environment above Corporate Interests

To:  Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations

We demand that the upcoming World Food Summit sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations serve the needs of people rather than the desires of corporations. We expect the Summit to result in hunger relief efforts which feed the world while preserving the planet.

We call upon participants in the World Food Summit to rise above national interests and profit motives in order to agree upon a set of genuine solutions that will feed the world while preserving the planet. We call upon the Director-General of the FAO to ensure that the World Food Summit is a democratic forum at which such genuine solutions are favored. We ask that participants in the World Food Summit consider the following points:

(1) Hunger is a global emergency. The problem of hunger will be solved by more efficient and equitable use of existing world food resources and by increased international support for the self-determined efforts of low-income food-deficient nations to redevelop self-sufficient and sustainable agricultural operations. Neither of these aims will be met by the expansion of foreign-owned industrial animal agriculture operations into low-income food-deficient nations.

(2) The FAO is to be commended for its support for sustainable cultivation of indigenous and locally-adapted food crops. However, FAO support for corporate plans to expand their industrial animal agriculture operations into low-income food-deficient nations is dangerous and counter-productive.

(3) Actions taken to address hunger must be cost-effective so that they will feed the greatest number of people possible. Because industrial animal agriculture operations entail higher usage of land, plant, water and fuel resources per unit of protein than the cultivation of food crops for human consumption, the expansion of such operations in low-income food-deficient nations would worsen rather than lessen the problem of hunger in those nations. In contrast, sustainable cultivation of plants for human consumption offers a cost-effective method of producing healthy food for hungry people.

(4) Foods produced as a result of hunger relief efforts must be safe, healthy, and consistent with traditional diets. Hunger relief plans which elevate consumption of animal-based foods are culturally inappropriate and likely to increase the incidence of diseases which are known to be related to high levels of consumption of animal-based foods. Low-income nations would be left to bear the health care costs and lowered levels of productivity associated with these diseases.

(5) Pollution and depletion of natural resources also threaten human survival. The impending global water crisis is a particularly emergent problem. Demands upon and pollution of already depleted water resources by new industrial animal agriculture operations would worsen this growing worldwide crisis. Land degradation and desertification associated with intensive grazing would worsen the impact of cycles of drought and flooding, further threatening global water security.

(6) Poverty eradication must be pursued in the context of self-determination. External corporate control of industrial animal agriculture operations in low-income food-deficient nations would lead to profit extraction from impoverished nations as well as diminished self-determination within the agricultural sectors of those nations.

(7) Self-sufficiency is an important component of food security. Industrial animal agriculture operations are highly dependent on capital and technology. They require large amounts of bought-in feed inputs, energy and water. Therefore, the introduction of such operations into low-income food-deficient nations would worsen, rather than lessen, food insecurity in those nations.

(8) The aim of agriculture is to feed people. Low-income nations must not be pressured to convert their agricultural sectors into profit-generating components of foreign-owned corporations or to place the demands of international markets above the needs of their own citizens. Conversion of agricultural resources now devoted to food for local and regional consumption into resources devoted to the production of food for foreign markets would increase vulnerability to market shocks and, hence, increase food insecurity.

(9) The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the participants in the World Food Summit must act in the interests of low-income food-deficient nations and must also recognize the shared interest of the citizens of the world in the preservation of the environment. The FAO must not cede to the interests of private corporations by promoting practices which would ultimately further impoverish low-income food-deficient nations and further despoil the environment upon which we all depend.

(10) The World Food Summit will result in programs and policies which impact food security for the next several decades. Participants in the Summit have an ethical obligation to ensure that these programs and policies feed the world while preserving the planet.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The World Food Summit Must Place People and Environment above Corporate Interests Petition to Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations was created by Global Hunger Alliance and written by pattrice le-muire jones.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no express or implied endorsement of this petition by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. The petition scripts are created by Mike Wheeler at Artifice, Inc.  For Technical Support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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