Sustainable food during multiple crises - a new challenge

The Financial Crisis has all but knocked off the table the powerful memory of the food crisis of 2005/6. But during the Farmer First initiative at the UN conference on Sustainable Development last week, Ajay Vashee of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers does not shy away from warning of another food crisis. He argued that as soon as the global economy shows some degree of recovery and the price of fuel rises again, the price of food will also rise - which could very easily lead to yet another food crisis. During our times of climate change, this is particularly likely.

For Africa, aid is important, but aid and food relief is not enough. Nor is it sustainable. There is growing recognition that nations need to grow their own staples. As the food crisis showed, markets are not always enough. And to do that, private-public partnerships are necessary to enable the farmers to get the fertilizer (which might not always be organic) that they need to increase their yields. Creative, mutual-learning partnerships are also needed between scientists and 'civil scientists'- the farmers who know their land and their crops better than anyone else.

In Malawi in 2005, the food crisis led to unusual action where the government, UN agencies and others gave the needed (inorganic) fertilizer and seeds to thousands of farmers with conditions to also support education and the most vulnerable. It was an expensive programme that did, indeed, lead to a good harvest, though the poorest were still very hard hit.
As the coalition of business, farmers and scientists stressed at the UN meeting this past week, it is essential to put farming first. And small amounts of subsidies - for fertilizers and seeds for example - now could save large amounts of relief- money later. For some short films about FarmingFirst, check out: www.youtube.com/farmingfirst

Will putting farmers and their needs first prevent another food crisis? That depends on what priority policy makers give it. It's a stance that raises questions not only for Africa, but for the UK and the developed world. If markets and trade between the UK and Europe were, for some reason, to fall apart, the UK could not support its own population for very long. The former great agrarian-exporting economy no longer has the capacity to feed itself. In a global economy where one can guarantee that we can import food, this is not a problem. But what about now, when financial crises, global warming, and potential food shortages from other parts of the world lead to such uncertainty? Is it time the UK joins Africa in putting a higher priority on their own farming sustainability?