Prima visita al'UN FAO x l'occasione di World Food Day

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is located in Rome and October 16th was World Food Day. Our program had originally arranged for us to visit the FAO for World Food Day to witness a talk given by Marion Nestle, a leading food activist that has written several books concerning food safety and the perils of the industrial diet and is a nutrition professor at New York Uni.

I have mixed feelings about Nestle's talk. It was refreshing that she discussed the local food movement and that small scale organic farming is one of the most logical solutions to a clean and equal food supply that would feed and nourish the world, and showed a documentary called "Fresh" the exemplified these solutions. But when it came to the issue of GMO's, she hid behind her microbiology degree to proclaim that she couldn't fully believe it was a harmful technology and sang the progressive praises for the US Secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsak, who happens to be pro-Monsanto. Of course she was in front of the US ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Ag, Ertharin Cousin, whose track record includes her once high management position at Albertson's and pro-GMO stance. I did however win a door prize, a book on the the dangers of our current regulatory FDA standards and how they lack enforcing food safety (e.coli, etc). and she signed it at the end of her session.

BUT in addition! Our teachers announced that we were FORMALLY invited to the UN Ceremony commemorating and recognizing World Food Day, with UN Ambassadors! I couldn't believe it that we were able to enter the room shown on the news when reporting on UN talks/events!  So I already was thrilled to be able to see Nestle in real life speaking at the FAO, but then we were able to exclusively attend the opening ceremony! I have to say, after sitting down and sitting through 2 hours of various foreign ambassadors including: The director/general of the FAO Jacques Dioff,  The 1st lady of the D.R. who is also a Goodwill FAO Ambassador, The italian under-secretary of state of the ministry of agriculture, food and forestry policies Antonio Buonfiglio, and the secretary general of the Ibero/American Summit Enrique Iglesias.  I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. They all seemed to repeat the same thing about being devoted to ending world hunger, but the solutions as they saw seemed to come back to "technology" and expanding the 3rd world to the global "free market". No talk of creating sustainable solutions that would promote self-sufficiency, local economies, and eliminate the need for foreign meddling, such as "technology", the World Bank, the IMF, and Monsanto. These are the institutions we are learning that have helped CREATE world hunger. No such talk was given on solutions to eliminate poverty but to increase food production with the help of technology. I wonder if anyone has ever told them that food production is well above par with human need, the problem is a lack of access caused by poverty, a problem that could be solved socially with the help of local uncorrupted politics. And there is not only no proof, but hard proof that industrial agriculture does not increase yields but actually leads to less food produced per hectare. But yet this is what policy is subsidizing and supporting rather than small scale sustainable agriculture.

here are some facts that I gathered from the talk:

80-90% of cereal prices remain 25% higher than 2 years ago. Affecting mostly the food security of Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

As of 2009, fertilizer costs are up 175%. Seeds: 70% and animal feed 75%.

The question we should pose ourselves is how can productivity, the answer that the UN FAO proposes to alleviate hunger, increase with cost increases like these?

In addition to these staggering rates, FDI (foreign direct investment) has taken a 42% nose dive that should have been used to invest in roads, infrastructure, development, food, etc.

So tell me, mister directors/generals/secretaries: how will technology and higher production solve hunger when FDI is down and cost inputs and grain are at a record high? How is it that most of the ambassadors at this talk are more than well-clothed (some with servants) and eat the organic food in its cafeterias yet suggest conventional farming and keep your wealth to yourself?

I will end this post with some wise words, the only sense spoken of during this ceremony, by the FAO Goodwill Ambassador, The 1st Lady of the D.R. Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez:


"What we need is social justice and structural change. We need to address the problem of inequality and improves access to more nutritional food. We need to change worldwide consumption patterns."