As the upcoming United Nations climate talks known as COP21
in Paris nears, La Via Campesina, an international movement, is demanding an
end to what they see as the corporate domination of the conference. "Corporate
solutions are false solutions, and will not solve the climate crisis,"
their statement declares. "Our solutions are real solutions, and should be
prioritized by the UN." It goes on to assert “We in La Vía Campesina
declare once again that Food Sovereignty—based on peasant agroecology,
traditional knowledge, selecting, saving and sharing local adoptive seeds, and
control over our lands, biodiversity, waters, and territories—is a true,
viable, and just solution to a global climate crisis caused largely by TNCs. To
implement Food Sovereignty, however, we need far-reaching change. Among other
things, we need comprehensive agrarian reforms, public procurement of peasant
production, and an end to destructive free trade agreements (FTA’s) promoted by
TNCs. In short, we need justice—social, economic, political, and climate justice.
The statement reads:
“The global food system imposed on people by Transnational
Corporations (TNCs) is both a total failure and one of the main causes of the
human-induced climate crisis – dependent on fossil fuels to produce, transform
and transport, it is responsible for an estimated 44 to 57% of all global
greenhouse emissions. Instead of nutritious food for the world's people, TNCs
have produced hunger and obesity, land grabs and rural displacement, and a
climate crisis they now hope to cash in on with false solutions sold at the
United Nations." Unlike TNCs, "peasant agriculture and local food
systems have proven themselves capable of feeding people for centuries,"
the statement reads.
Industrial agriculture is a key driver in the generation of
greenhouse gases (GHGs). Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, heavy machinery,
monocultures, land change, deforestation, refrigeration, waste and
transportation are all part of a food system that generates significant
emissions and contributes greatly to global climate change. Industrial agricultural
practices, from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to synthetic
fertilizer-intensive corn and soy monocultures, genetically modified to
tolerate huge amounts of herbicide, not only contribute considerable amounts of
GHGs, but also underpin an inequitable and unhealthy global food system. Modern
conventional agriculture is a fossil fuel-based, energy-intensive industry that
is aligned with biotech, trade and energy interests, versus farmer and
consumers priorities…
…Compared to large-scale industrial farms, small-scale
agroecological farms not only use fewer fossil fuel-based fertilizer inputs and
emit less GHGs, including methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide (CO2), but
they also have the potential to actually reverse climate change by sequestering
CO2 from the air into the soil year after year. According to the Rodale
Institute, small-scale farmers and pastoralists could sequester more than 100%
of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available, safe and inexpensive
agroecological management practices that emphasize diversity, traditional
knowledge, agroforestry, landscape complexity, and water and soil management
techniques, including cover cropping, composting and water harvesting.
Importantly, agroecology can not only sequester upwards of
7,000 pounds of CO2 per acre per year, but it can actually boosts crop yields.
In fact, recent studies by GRAIN (www.grain.org) demonstrate that small-scale
farmers already feed the majority of the world with less than a quarter of all
farmland. Addressing climate change on the farm can not only tackle the
challenging task of agriculture-generated GHGs, but it can also produce more
food with fewer fossil fuels. In other words, as the ETC Group
(www.etcgoup.org) has highlighted, industrial agriculture uses 70% of the
world’s agricultural resources to produce just 30% of the global food supply,
while small-scale farmers provide 70% of the global food supply while using
only 30% of agricultural resources.
Small-scale farmers are especially critical to confronting
the food and farming crisis at the root of climate change. Small-scale farms
are demonstrably more resilient in the face of severe climatic events,
weathering major storms much more effectively than large-scale industrial
farms. Small-scale, agroecological farmers in particular have fared
comparatively better after major hurricanes and storms.”
Disappointingly even though they correctly judge that much
of the COP21 agenda will be determined by Big Business, their own solutions do
not quite achieve what they hope. The industrialised farming of North America,
Europe and elsewhere exists cannot be turning the Prairies and Steppes into small-holdings
and returned to non-existing farmers. La Via Campesina are still not tackling the root cause of the ecological
crises which is the economic system that places profits before people and
Nature. The debate between differing farming approaches will continue within socialism
but the motivation will be solely on efficiency, minimising any damage to the
environment and meeting peoples needs.
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