Industrial agriculture has failed, a new report says.
The report, sponsored by the World Bank and the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, calls for a fundamental change in farming that better addresses soaring food prices, hunger and social inequities.
“We’ve got to make sure the footprint of agriculture on climate change is lessened. We have to make sure that we don’t degrade our soil, we don’t degrade the water, we don’t have adverse effects on biodiversity,” said Robert Watson, one of the lead authors of the report prepared by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology Development (IAASTD).
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Fifty-four governments approved the document, which took four years to complete and included input from 400 scientists from 100 countries. Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have not signed.
“The old paradigm of industrial, energy-intensive and toxic agriculture is a concept of the past,” the IAASTD said in a news release.
The group does not support further industrialization and globalization of agriculture and was particularly harsh in its criticism of genetically modified crops.
“The key message of the report is that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis and meet the needs of local communities,” the IAASTD said.
The report has caused a case of “serious indigestion” for plant technology companies. “We’re obviously very disappointed. To be quite frank we see the report as very superficial and negative,” said CropLife Canada president Lorne Hepworth.
CropLife International helped fund the study, which was initiated to explore ways to alleviate hunger and poverty.
Hepworth said somewhere along the way, politics and ideology got in the way of good science. His biggest concern is that it fails to recognize the yield-boosting potential of crop protection products, hybrid seeds and GM crops, which goes to the heart of the hunger and poverty issues.
“When you get a report like this that comes out so dismissive of these technologies, I think it’s very troublesome for the world in terms of meeting some of these challenges,” Hepworth said.
Laura Telford, executive director of Canadian Organic Growers, said the report is refreshing and resonates with her beliefs and those of the organic community.
She said it is rare for a big international study to look at the entire system rather than focus on one aspect of the problem.
Previous reports have assumed hunger is a function of inadequate food production rather than a flawed distribution system, and solutions have focused on technological fixes such as higher-yielding hybrid and GM crops and new and improved fertilizers and chemicals.
“Although these new fixes often do result in more food, the problem of world hunger is never solved, probably because lack of food was not the problem in the first place,” Telford said.
“But now, in addition to the hunger, we also have all the unintended consequences of monkeying with Mother Nature.”
She agrees with the IAASTD conclusion that the key to feeding the world is sustainable, small-scale, localized agricultural initiatives that encourage innovative management of soil, water, biological resources, pests, disease and genetic diversity.
Telford said she didn’t see the word “organic” used in the report but was encouraged by the emphasis on soil building, managing biological resources and empowering farmers.
“This is exactly what the advocates for organic and alternative farming systems have been saying for years.”
Hepworth said the IAASTD report is at odds with the findings of other studies conducted by the FAO and the World Bank, such as the World Development Report 2008 on Agriculture for Development, which recognized that technological innovation is critical for agricultural development.
It is also at odds with statements made by leaders of the two organizations.
Both the president of the World Bank and the director general of the United Nations have recognized the need for a green revolution for Africa that includes access to science and technology.
CropLife isn’t the only group critical of the IAASTD report. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the Public Research and Regulation Initiative also panned it.
Hepworth said the issues of hunger and poverty are even more acute today now that cheap food has disappeared.
The World Bank estimates 33 countries face potential social unrest because of the rising cost of food and energy.
Hepworth said plant technology offers a viable solution to the hunger issue. He disputed the notion that the products produced by his member companies aren’t friendly or practical in developing nations, noting that 12 million farmers, including 11 million resource-poor farmers, planted 282 million acres of GM crops in 2007.
