G8 ministers to redesign agriculture

“The simple solution to the global food emergency is to put farm produce back in the front seat in the economy.” So said Italy’s farm, food and forestry policies minister Luca Zaia, who chaired the first-ever G8 farm summit in Italy late last month.
“To come through this crisis undamaged we must strengthen the industry from the foundation up, and its foundations are our farmers,” said Zaia.
He explained the G8 ministers of agriculture would now redesign the future of farming assisted by relevant organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Bank.
“This industry is enjoying a renaissance after years of political short-sightedness, when governments in industrially-advanced countries thought they could cut back on farming,” continued Zaia. “We’re paying a high price for those decisions today.”
He added food prices are sure to rocket once more when the global economic cycle picks up again. “We must cut the waste that comes at a social and economic price we can no longer afford,” he explained. “For every calorie we eat we use up seven just to transport the food. We must narrow the gap between demand and supply by coordinating the way we manage international stocks so we can put the major producer countries’ reserves on the market.”
In a final declaration after the three-day meeting, the attending G8 ministers pledged to pull out all the stops to alleviate the financial crisis’s impact on hunger and poverty.
The ministers undertook to use all available tools to strengthen and encourage sustainable agriculture and food production, increase investments in agriculture and research and avoid unfair competition and agricultural-trade distortions, including export-restrictive measures.
They also recommended monitoring and analysing factors potentially affecting commodity markets, such as speculation. Additionally, the G8 partners emphasised the significant impacts agriculture can have on the health and environmental policies of countries around the world, and underlined the need for shared strategies dealing with climate change.
Lamenting the fact the world is far from the 2000 Millennium Declaration goal of halving poverty and undernourishment by 2015, the ministers said the recession has increased the number of poor and hungry people. This happened despite repeated calls for developing countries and countries in transition to expand agriculture and food production, and increase investments in agriculture from both public and private sources.
Representatives of international organisations such as the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nation’s high-level task force on the Global Food Security Crisis also attended the summit. – Roelof Bezuidenhout