A Sobering Report on Food Production and the Current Food Crisis

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on October 26, 2009

As I blogged a couple of weeks ago, I referred to the world report on agriculture, endorsed by 55 countries and growing. The report titled “Agriculture at a Crossroads” is an International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). I have been reading bits and pieces so far, but was fortunate to hear the summary presented at the recent national community food security coalition meeting in Des Moines, IA by one of its editors and authors Hans R. Herren, of the Millennium Institute.

Once one gets a deeper understanding of the the state of our current food crisis and what it can turn into if not addressed, and as we look at the most affected, the majority among the children in the U.S. especially those among minorities, it is hard to understand how we continue to support a food system that has already failed. We continue to watch the human pain and economic cost associated with the consequences of unhealthy food choices that have turned obesity, diabetes and cancer from exposure to synthetic chemicals into a national epidemic.

Not only are we currently failing our children in terms of designing systems that work, but we are compromising their health and their ability to deal with the challenges they will face, especially those more vulnerable living in poverty but who today represent a large majority and the brains of the future. While we deliver a deteriorated system and a systemic crisis, we are also interfering with the full development physically, mentally and intellectually, which will inhibit their ability to deal with the problems we are passing on. That is an equation for more trouble.

A radical systems based change is needed, one based on different social and economic paradigms that result in the engagement of grassroots available talent, idling agriculture resources, and tapping into one of the greatest opportunities to generate massive, large scale, societal changes. Through a circular way of thinking in terms of engaging talent and resources rather than the traditional linear way of thinking, we can ignite the launching of a new food system based on principles that generate a higher social, economical and environmental return on investment.

These opportunities can be tapped for permanent solutions to poverty, by building competitive advantages through the engagement of disadvantaged families themselves. In fact these families currently provide the bulk of the labor and skills to our food system anyway, while unable to afford the food they produce, how in the world will a system that perpetuates this discrepancies ever deliver competitive results in a world economy. By launching community-based, local, regional and national support infrastructure, systems, and programs that generate enterprises designed to deliver on a triple bottom line (people, profits and the planet), we can generate engagement and productivity at levels that no current vertically integrated corporate structure can. As bad as we have it now, the opportunities and the best times are ahead, unless we leave things the way they are.

Although this food crisis and the issues associated with its origins are complex, some folks have found easier ways to explain it, such as in this report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.