Issues and Concerns

"Knowledge for a Sustainable Food System" covers three main areas. The first is the transition to a sustainable food system, and the steps that governments and major actors at the CSD can take toward this in terms of policies, education and awareness. A second concern is the knowledge, education and training which farmers and farmworkers need, especially the small farmers who comprise the vast majority of family farms throughout the world. Within this area, the role of women and of indigenous peoples is of particular importance. A third issue is the education and knowledge consumers need about the food system, food choices and food skills. All three themes raise numerous points for the four stakeholder groups in the CSD dialogue sessions.

1. The Transition To A Sustainable Food System

Problems

Our conventional food system is widely seen as being modern, efficient, and able to produce cheap and abundant food. The unsustainable costs of this system, however, are becoming increasingly apparent. These include environmental costs - eroded soils, polluted water, loss of habitat, threats to wildlife: the destruction of what is called "natural capital." In addition, this system produces social costs - the loss of family farms, of farming jobs, and the decline of rural communities: the disintegration of what is called "social capital." (Pretty, pp. 1-43)

Small-farm agriculture as a central component of a sustainable food system faces multiple threats. Trade liberalization and globalization threaten the existence of small farms. Domestic food producers can not compete against cheap food from major grain-exporting countries, and the cheap, subsidized products of giant monoculture farms. Power over the food system is increasingly in the hands of agribusiness corporations. Rural communities die out as farmers and farmworkers are driven off the land and migrate to cities, adding to the growing number of unemployed city-slum dwellers. Export crops are grown for distant markets while millions go hungry. If we are to make the transition to a food system based on sustainable farms, vibrant rural communities, and safe, healthful food, we need a new awareness, training and education, flowing into changed policies and actions. (USDA Report on Small Farms, 1998: Peter Rosset article, 1999)

 Solutions and Recommendations

Governments, international agencies, and communities should develop education and information policies to communicate the scale, the productive potential, and the multiple social and environmental contributions of sustainable agriculture, with particular attention to small-scale farming and rural development. These communication policies should break through the misconception that sustainable and regenerative agriculture is a return to a low-technology, backward form of agriculture. Sustainable agriculture incorporates innovations from scientists and farmers, uses high technology and ancient wisdom, and can be used by all types of farmers and on every kind of farm (Pretty, 89-108).

Scale and Productive Potential: Small-farm agriculture remains the predominant form of agriculture in the world, numerically dominant in the United States, and central to the production of staple foods in developing countries. In addition, there is growing evidence that small farms can produce more food than large-scale agriculture when total output rather than a single commodity is taken into account. A strong family farm agricultural development has been and is in fact the precondition for economic transition in most countries.

Diversity: Further, small farms have multiple functions which large farms lack. They embody diversity - biodiversity, diversity of ownership, of cropping systems, landscapes, culture and traditions. Small farms produce environmental benefits in terms of soil, water and wildlife. Special reference should be made to indigenous peoples as creators and conservers of agrobiodiversity, and holders of knowledge, practices and innovation systems that sustain food security in large areas of the planet.

Decentralized land-ownership encourages economic opportunity in rural areas. Small farms create a personal connection to food through rural-urban exchanges and farmers markets. They are vital to the economy, both in developed and developing countries. The vital role of women in food production and rural well-being, especially in the South, must be supported in agricultural policy and communicated in education and training. (USDA Report on Small Farms, 1998: Peter Rosset article, 1999)

Support for a sustainable food system includes the sustainable use of natural resources (often in communal property regimes), including community forestry, fishing, grazing, and environmental services (including through agro-ecotourism).

Farming systems are extremely diverse throughout the world, and the transition to sustainable agriculture can be communicated in terms of a series of "steps toward sustainability" (Pretty, 108-122). These steps from conventional modern farming move through improved economic and environmental efficiency (Step 1), integrating regenerative technologies

(Step 2), and redesign with communities (Step 3), which involves farmers and rural communities themselves in creating sustainable practices.

This vision of a sustainable food system for farmers, farmworkers, traders and consumers can only be achieved through a participatory approach. Sustainable agriculture is not a fixed set of practices or policies but a process of social learning and participatory research, starting with the assets already within communities, and supplying targets and indicators to measure progress. (Pretty, 232-264)

2. Farmers' and Farmworkers' Knowledge, Training and Education

Problem

Too often, the training of farmers and farmworkers is based on a top-down diffusion of information from scientists to "uneducated" farmers and farmworkers, based on the assumed superiority of a scientific, technical, industrial model of agriculture.This approach does not recognize many important facts which are essential for effective farming policies:

1) That no technology is appropriate for all types of farmers; each farmer has unique constraints, limits and assets. Resource-poor farmers must use low input and "appropriate" technologies to survive. 2) Farmers live in highly variable and diverse environments - soils, water regime, biological fertility, etc. They have accumulated a wealth of site-specific knowledge and experience which the researcher does not have, especially on local biodiversity and its possible uses. 3) Many farmers face urgent problems of being unable to reduce or eliminate their dependence on pesticides without information and training which will help them adopt sustainable alternatives. 4) Moreover, farmworkers have the right to a living wage and safe working conditions, to belong to a trade union and to elect health and safety representatives,to protection against exposure to hazardous pesticides, and they have the right of refusal to work with pesticides which damage human health and the environment. 5) Traditional knowledge and technologies that have evolved from millennia of experimentation and practices are often the most appropriate tools to achieve sustainable practices in agriculture. 6) The role of women in the transmission of knowledge and in sustainable food production must be recognized and strongly supported. The majority of farmers in the South are women. Provide equal gender opportunities for education, training and information on food production and nutrition.

 Solutions and Recommendations

Farmer-centered research and extension has no single organisational form, but its philosophy and objective are common across many programs. Farmers are no longer to be considered as the recipients or adopters of technology. Rather they are central to its generation, application and monitoring in a process of participatory technology development (PTD). Examples include farmer to farmer extension, Participatory Action Research and others. Instead of the "linear" model of research and extension, where scientists develop new technology that is transmitted through extension workers to farmers, experience and observations support the "triangular" model. This envisions scientists, extensionists and farmers interacting with one another directly in a three-cornered relationship.

Governments and agricultural agencies can improve the knowledge, training and education of farmers and farmworkers through the following policy initiatives to develop sustainable agriculture and rural development - these should be considered at CSD discussions:

 Improve Rural Education:

Increase investments in rural education, and develop rural education programs which integrate farmers' training and practices in their curriculum e.g."rural family schools".

Improve Farmers' and Farmworkers' Training:

Recognize the central role of small farmers in research and development. Support the training programs of farmers' own organizations. Reform the training of agricultural and communications professionals to serve small farmers and the rural poor through an integrated approach of rural development, including an agro-ecological approach of farming systems and landscapes. Where appropriate, develop decentralized information networks and databases on agricultural innovations and locally based success stories via CD ROMs and the Internet.

Facilitate the participation of small farmers in national policy debates:

Give farmers' organizations access to modern communication techniques and material, and help them develop their communication strategies.

Promote national debates and conferences on the role of family farming for the future of the nation, and highlight farmers' successful initiatives in terms of economic organization, education, and management of natural resources.

Support the conservation, protection and development of traditional knowledge and innovation systems, and integrate these into national educational systems and agricultural projects.

People's participation at the local, national and level, particularly women's, is necessary for improved food production, better access to food, and nutritional well-being.

 3. Education and Knowledge of Consumers and Other Participants

In addition to what has been said about governments and farmers, a sustainable food system cannot be built without the education and knowledge of consumers and other participants in the food system, such as retailers, distributors, and banks.This knowledge extends to the food system, food choices, and food skills. The following is a brief summary of some problems and proposed solutions.

Problems

A crucial problem, at least in the developed world, is that many people are increasingly separated from their food system. Faced with a food system of apparent abundance, with supermarkets providing a seemingly endless supply of food, people have lost touch with such basic questions as: who is growing our food and how is that food being grown? Who controls the land and the food system itself? Who gets to eat and who is going hungry? How healthful and safe and nourishing is our food? Why are family farms being lost and rural economies in decline, not only in the developing world, but also in the developed world? A connected problem is the loss of traditional knowledge of small-scale agriculture and traditional skills of using local food.

Solutions and Recommendations

Family farms and other sustainable agriculture institutions need markets for their products, and markets reflect the choices of distributors, retailers, lending institutions, and consumers. Educational programs are needed to make these choices informed by knowledge of sustainable food systems: information on the hidden environmental and social costs of chemical agriculture and GMOs in terms of loss of top soil, pollution of groundwater, the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms, and threats to human health.

Governments should phase out subsidies in agricultural production, energy, transportation, advertising, export, etc., which support unsustainable food systems, and replicate publicly funded models which support the transition to low-input, ecological and organic farming. They should also support in priority small family farmers, through appropriate policies including land reform and trade protection for national food markets when needed.

Education for a sustainable food system would build on many successful programs such as community gardens for disenfranchised youth in the United States, ecological youth networking in Latin America, ecological footprint initiatives in Europe, farmers markets and community-supported agriculture, policy initiatives by governments to subsidize the transition to organic and low-input farming. Programs to recover skills of food preparation and cooking, and nutritional education in schools and communities are also urgently needed.

References:
Jules Pretty, The Living Land: Agriculture, Food and Community Regeneration in Rural Europe (Earthscan Publications Ltd: London, 1998) .
The US Department of Agriculture. 1998 A Time To Act. A Report of the USDA National Commission on Small Farms. USDA Miscellaneous Publication 1545.
Peter Rosset, "Small Is Bountiful", The Ecologist, December 1999, pp. 452-456.