Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
What, then, would an ideal global food system - a food utopia - look like? Revis-
iting the left-hand side of
Table 14.1
,
we can propose a food utopia comprising a
global food system that values communities, regions, cultural and ethnic diversity,
the interdependence of social and environmental systems to produce and, more im-
portantly, reproduce food and the biological conditions necessary for that produc-
tion. It will provide a balance between local and regional flavours as well as the
pathways to share those reciprocally. It will include plans for resilience suh that
local and international markets can draw on reserves when the inevitable drought
or blight or agri-terrorist plot occurs. Floods will happen, temperature will fluctuate,
farmer demography will hange and corporations (at least for the immediate future)
will play a huge role in how food is processed and distributed. Thus, an ideal food
system would include more flexible, adaptive and just systems of production and
governance, and more consumer options that respect cultural and social expression.
Further, discussions about what an ideal food system might look like can provide
important space to foster discussion between policymakers, agribusinesses, activists,
academics, consumer groups and governments.
At the production level, the science of agroecology counters the hegemony of
green revolution methods and the promotion of mono-cropping that erodes the in-
herent vibrancy and capacity for caloric output of farmland. Not only can agroeco-
logical methods contribute more than enough food, they also repair the rent social
fabric by drawing on local knowledge systems and providing muh needed employ-
ment opportunities (Altieri 2008; McIntyre,
et al.
, 2009; de Shuter 2010). Researh
suggests we already produce enough food to feed the world and we can do more
by re-imagining our assumptions about what is good agriculture (de Shutter 2010).
Furthermore, the benefits of agroecology include more food, more biodiversity, more
employment and more stability.
While calls for radical hanges to the production methods and organizing prin-
ciples of the global agriculture system have become more mainstream (as is evident
in recent international and government sponsored researh suh as the IAASTD, the
UN special rapporteur, the National Academies of Science from the US as well as the
OFPS), opposition to business-as-usual - the quality side, as termed by Stok and
Carolan - moves predominantly from the botom up. Nor are the specific features of
recommended hanges for food governance new. he ideas of local self-provisioning,
an emphasis on food sovereignty and livelihood preservation all speak to privileging
the dignity of people as individuals and cultural groups. Decentralizing food systems
