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Rome Summit Takes Bold Step Toward Agroecology
Leaders endorse agroecology as one of the cutting-edge innovations we need to help small-scale farmers adapt to climate change.
Oct 24, 2019
The Climate Action Summit at the UN last month was widely considered a disappointment, failing to garner the kinds of government actions needed to address the climate crisis. Sadly, the same can be said for actions on agriculture and climate change, despite a well-publicized commitment of $790 million to "to enhance resilience of over 300 million small-scale food producers in the face of mounting climate impacts."
That is not because the investment isn't needed. It is, desperately. Small-scale farmers in developing countries are already bearing the brunt of climate change yet they have received little of the promised funding to help them adapt to drought, flooding, heat, and other climate changes.
These new initiatives won't bridge that gap. Just as government actions to date are proving far too weak to address the climate emergency, these agriculture programs support familiar measures that have thus far failed to help small-scale farmers. Some measures have left them even more vulnerable to climate change.
Many recognized that business as usual, in the face of climate change, is not an option. They moved beyond the failed policies of the present, endorsing agroecology as the kind of innovation farmers need to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.We need a more decisive shift. Fortunately, government leaders took a major step in that direction gather in Rome next last week at for a different summit, the annual meetings of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS). They will be discussing approved an expert report on agroecology, an innovative and cost-effective way a more promising innovation to address rising hunger and malnutrition while helping farmers adapt to climate change. A host of recent UN reports calls for just this sort of break.
"Agroecology is the only solution we have to address the multiple crises we are facing," said Aisha Ali Aii Shatou of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa to the government representatives at the summit.
When the solutions are part of the problem
The new $790-million agriculture initiative is driven by recommendations from the Global Commission on Adaptation (CGA), which is co-chaired by Bill Gates, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva. Its report, "Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience," has as one of its core initiatives enhancing the resilience of smallholder producers.
Unfortunately, the Commission largely doubles down on the misguided effort to "modernize" agriculture in developing countries by encouraging farmers to adopt precisely the sorts of fossil-fuel-intensive practices that have made agriculture one of the greatest contributors to global greenhouse-gas emissions. As I saw in researching my book, Eating Tomorrow, crop diversity and soil fertility often decline as a result.
In its recommendations, the commission includes agroecology only as an afterthought, warning that we need to improve "the evidence-base for the effectiveness of adopting different agroecological approaches" - as if we don't know enough yet to act.
They clearly hadn't read the new expert report on agroecology and other innovations for sustainable food systems, released July 3 by the CFS's High Level Panel of Experts. The expert report, two years in the making, is clear on the urgent need for change. "Food systems are at a crossroads. Profound transformation is needed," the summary begins. It goes on to present a wide range of evidence that such methods have been shown to simultaneously increase soil fertility, diet diversity, and food security for small-scale farmers.
Agroecology promotes just the kinds of soil-building practices that "agricultural modernization" often undermines. Multiple food crops are grown in the same field. Compost and manure, not fossil-fuel-based fertilizer, are used to fertilize fields. Biological pest control decreases pesticide use. Researchers work with farmers to improve the productivity of their seeds rather than replacing them with commercial seeds farmers need to buy every year and douse with fertilizer to make them grow. As the expert report documents, soil fertility increases over time, and so do food security and climate resilience.
Agroecology: a proven response to the failing policies of the present
The growing global interest in agroecology comes in response to the widespread failures of input-intensive programs like the Gates-inspired Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Fed by heavy doses of government subsidies for commercial seeds and synthetic fertilizers, AGRA has promoted monocultures of a few staple crops, decreased crop and diet diversity, undermined soil fertility, and produced disappointing gains in productivity and farmer incomes. Global Hunger Index scores remained in the "serious" to "alarming" category for 12 of the 13 AGRA countries.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its influential report on "Climate Change and Land," echoed the urgent need for change and the direction that change should take: "[I]ncreasing the resilience of the food system through agroecology and diversification is an effective way to achieve climate change adaptation...."
Fortunately, in Rome government leaders were forward-looking. Many recognized that business as usual, in the face of climate change, is not an option. They moved beyond the failed policies of the present, endorsing agroecology as the kind of innovation farmers need to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.
As African farmer Aisha Ali Aii Shatou told the summit, "Agroecology allows small-scale producers a dignified life, producing affordable, healthy food in healthy conditions. It eliminates dependence on costly inputs and adopts practices which regenerate seeds and soils while mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change."
The CFS next year will take up the challenge of translating this visionary report into practical policies.
Author attended the UN's Committee on World Food Security summit in Rome October 14-18 as a civil society delegate.
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Thousands of Italian Women March Across Country. Demand: 'My Body, My Choice'
'40 years on from the passing of Law 194, there is still a long road ahead of us'
May 26, 2018
Thousands of women marched across Italy on Saturday afternoon to mark the anniversary of Italy's 194 Law, which passed in 1978 and legalized abortion in the country.
Marchers fear that the far-right, anti-European Union, anti-immigrant League, which contains many anti-choice militants, will soon threaten the 194 Law. The League stands on the brink of forming a government with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement following the general elections in March.
Saturday's mobilization was organized by 'Obiezione Respinta' (Rejected Objection) and the 'Non una di meno' (Not one less) movement.
"Italian women's battles over the last four decades show that any abortion law has to be founded on women's freedom of choice -- or it won't work," Michela Pusterla, an Italian feminist involved in the Non una di meno movement, wrote Friday in Jacobin. " In Italy and elsewhere, as fascist and sexist anti-choice movements grow their presence in Parliaments and public hospitals, the fight for reproductive rights becomes larger than itself. It becomes a global fight for liberation; for another society based on autonomy and self-determination."
The anti-abortion movement is strong in Italy, due in part to the strong influence of the Catholic Church.
Under Law 194, women have the right to an abortion in the first 90 days of pregnancy due to health, economic, social or family reasons, while between the 12th and 20th week, either a significant fetal abnormality must be present, posing a serious risk to the woman's mental or physical health, or there must be a danger to the woman's life if she continues with the pregnancy.
The law includes a recognition of the "social value of motherhood," and allows medical professionals to refuse to carry out abortions on the grounds of conscientious objection. According to the Italian health minister, just over 70 percent of gynecologists in Italy refuse to carry out the procedure. Campaigners say that the increased difficulty in accessing abortion is pushing more and more women to illegal, unsafe abortions or to travel abroad for the procedure.
Italy has been criticized by both the Council of Europe and the UN for the serious obstacles to accessing safe abortion.
Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and former EU Commissioner Emma Bonino was at the forefront of bringing about the enactment of Law 194. Bonino called on Italian women not to "take their rights for granted," speaking on the 40th anniversary of the law she helped introduce. "40 years on from the passing of Legge 194, there is still a long road ahead of us," she said.
\u201cBologna in piazza #MoltoPiuDi194 @nonunadimeno\u201d— Favolosa Coalizione (@Favolosa Coalizione) 1527354698
\u201c#26maggio data che ricorderemo per lo storico del referendum irlandese: la libert\u00e0 delle donne vince! Anche noi oggi in piazza perch\u00e9 vogliamo #moltopiudi194, libera scelta sui nostri corpi! A decidere sono i corpi delle donne! A decidere sono i corpi delle soggettivit\u00e0 lgbitqi+!\u201d— NonUnaDiMeno (@NonUnaDiMeno) 1527350366
\u201cThis is a powerful moment for Ireland and for empowerment and struggle for sexual self-determination associated with reproductive rights, healthcare and healthy relationships. #Repealthe8h #IrelandReferendum\n https://t.co/jtQNUWUesI\u201d— Emma Bonino (@Emma Bonino) 1527355488
\u201c@Amitegbert @egbertconrad The new italian fascist government wants to make abortions illegal again....the medieval times are rising..\n\n#RepealThe8th #VoteYes #legge194 #save194\u201d— Gio (@Gio) 1527185222
\u201cMy body my choice #moltopi\u00f9di194 #nonunadimeno\u201d— en_abyme (@en_abyme) 1527352953
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Pope Francis Thanks Bernie Sanders for Advocating the 'Moral Economy'
Even in Rome Sanders encountered enthusiastic supporters
Apr 16, 2016
Pope Francis met with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in the Vatican on Saturday morning and the two discussed the need for morality in the world economy.
Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs said that the meeting took place in Domus Santa Marta, the pope's residence, where Sanders had slept Friday night after addressing a Vatican conference on social justice.
Sachs, who has advised the United Nations on climate change, said Sanders thanked the pope for his pronouncements on the need for morality in the global economy and statements in defense of the environment.
"The pope thanked the senator for coming to the meeting and for coming to speak about the moral economy," Sachs said.
The meeting lasted about five minutes, said the economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, an adviser to the Sanders campaign who said he had been present.
The senator's wife, Jane Sanders, and Msgr. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, who organized the conference, were also at the meeting, Mr. Sachs said. Michael Briggs, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign, said no photographs were taken, in accordance with rules at the guesthouse.
"It was a real honor for my wife and I to spend some time with him," Senator Sanders told The Associated Press on Saturday morning during an interview at a hotel rooftop overlooking St. Peter's Square. "He is one of the extraordinary figures not only in the world today but in modern world history."
Pope Francis later confirmed the meeting saying the two men shook hands and that the meeting was not political. "This is called good manners," the pope said. "If someone thinks that greeting someone means getting involved in politics," he added, laughing, "I recommend that he find a psychiatrist!"
Even in Rome Sanders encountered enthusiastic supporters. Backers bearing hand-made signs welcomed him as he drove through a gate to enter the Vatican. "Rome is Berning," one sign said.
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