BeFriending Creation
UN delegates: Food sovereignty is essential to world food security
Issues closely related to food security were at the heart of the 16th annual meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16) May 5th through May 16th at UN headquarters in New York. Here are some of my observations as an appointed representative from QEW as an NGO.
The food controversy
While we were meeting in New York there were food riots in over 30 countries. Two points of view on addressing this crisis emerged. The industrialized nations spoke for increasing food production worldwide by 50 percent or even 100 percent. They would create "food security" by stepping up the kind of food production used in the "Green Revolution" in India, specifically by increasing the role of agribusiness.
"Food security" means that all people in a country or region have access to enough culturally acceptable food to stay healthy; "access" refers both to ready availability and to affordability even for the poorest. However, achieving "food security" doesn't necessarily include support for small farmers and nurturing a thriving local food production system. You can ship tons of materials here and there, while ignoring land-tenure rights, the restoration of soil to health, maintenance of forest cover, sustainable water use, and so forth.
The "Green Revolution," while increasing production, was in other ways a disaster for India. Seeds needing extra water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were introduced, leading to lowering of water tables, soil death, increased wealth for some, and increased poverty for more, landlessness, and urban migration with its concomitant problems. I did hear one African delegate ask for a "Green Revolution" in his country to address poverty, but others were clear that very little trickles down, and means of subsistence are taken away.
The other viewpoint agreed that emergency food is needed right away, providing it is handled by agencies set up to address such crises in the short term. The CSD should focus on long-term solutions to problems behind the crisis, solutions leading to debt-free economies, poverty reduction and sustainable land use. These nations want "food sovereignty" as well as "food security."
With "food sovereignty" a nation is able to decide its own food production policies. It can protect itself by refusing to let cheap food be dumped by overproducing nations, and by supporting the local food economy. It can opt for sustainable land use and water policies, and address poverty by encouraging locally-based food production and local industry.
La Via Campesina, an organization of farmers, indigenous people and farm workers, expressed very well a fear felt by many: "The serious and urgent food and climate crises are being used by political and economic elites as opportunities to entrench corporate control of world agriculture and the ecological commons."
Land and bio-fuels
New interest in "sustainable" energy is putting more large areas of land into bio-fuel crops. One resulting problem is the loss of this land to food production. Another is that there is no consensus on a definition of "sustainable."
The European Union has set an official goal of using bio-fuel for 10 percent of their transport needs, but without establishing criteria for ecological sustainability and social impact. The Netherlands is developing a set of monitoring principles in the hope they can be belatedly adopted. But NGO leaders from "developing nations" were quite critical, insisting that increased production of bio-fuels needs pre-impact assessments and discussion that includes the people directly affected. For example Mozambique, a nation listed as a potential source of more bio-fuels, is experiencing a food crisis with 40 percent of its agricultural land already given over to bio-fuel production. What will happen if more land is used this way?
Next year
The CSD operates with a two-year cycle. CSD 16 was a "review year" of the topics mentioned above; CSD 17 will be a "policy year" for the same topics. Tensions will run much higher because the outcome will not just be a "Chair's Summary" of what was said by all parties, but a negotiated document among nations. Between now and then discussions will go on and positions may shift. I was pleased to hear that the Netherlands will chair next year's meeting.
The outcome of the presidential election in the United States will also have a major effect on global negotiations. I urge readers who can vote in U.S. elections to consider candidates' positions on global cooperation and membership in the community of nations. •
Back by popular demand!
Earthcare for Children updated
Since its first publication in 1995, Earthcare For Children has been a popular resource for children's religious education programs around the country, including many non-Quaker groups.
As QEW's last copies were being shipped earlier this year, the authors, Sandra Farley, Diana Egly, and Tom Farley of the Palo Alto (Calif.) Friends Meeting began updating all the units to address Friends' current concerns on a variety of ecological issues from a spiritual perspective, including harmful climate change. They also provided significant new resources and references.
First Day School teachers and parents will find that in this Second Edition, like the first edition, the units are very child-friendly and filled with engaging activities that they can adapt to a variety of learning situations and time allotments. The 13 units are titled, "Appreciating the Beauty of Creation," "We Have No Home But Earth," "Earth Is Dirty and Alive," "Diversity: The Seeds of Life," "We Circle the Sun," "Water, Water, Everywhere," "Air, Winds, and Climate," "Interrelatedness: The Web of Life," "Carrying Capaicyt: Is Earth Full?" "How to Care," "Taking Responsibility," "Working with Others," and "Field Trips." There is also an appendix full of resources.
Those who have been using the first edition of Earthcare for Children will find many advantages to buying this upgrade. For example, many activities and readings have been improved in response to feedback from users.
Copies can be ordered for $15.00 + $3.50 S & H from the QEW office or from the QEW on-line order form.
New edition of Healing Ourselves and the Earth
This updated booklet is based on a talk, "Mistaken Beliefs that are Helping to Destroy the Earth," that the late Elizabeth G. Watson presented at the FGC Gathering in 1990.
Her challenging insights about the spiritual roots of humans' ecologically destructive behavior are as relevant—and urgent—today as they were then.
After surveying the many fronts on which the earth's ecological integrity is seriously threatened, Elizabeth outlined five common beliefs that need rethinking if we are to live sustainably as part of the family of life on this planet. In the process, she demonstrated that Earthcare requires not only a new manner of living on the earth but a transformed consciousness about our place in Creation.
Copies may be ordered for $4.00 + $1.00 S & H from the QEW office.
An Inconvenient Truth now part of the QEW video lending library
The new film of Al Gore's presentation on global climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," is helping to inform the public about this urgent issue, and to stimulate conversations. Eco-Justice Ministries has prepared a free discussion guide to help church groups talk about the film. Go to <www.eco-justice.org/TruthGuide.asp>.
A DVD of Gore's film was released in the fall of 2006, and the Regeneration Project, working with state Interfaith Power & Light groups, included free copies in the "Spotlight on Global Warming" kits they distributed to thousands of religious groups in the fall of 2006, including Quaker Earthcare Witness. For more information, go to: <www.theregenerationproject.org/inconvenient.htm> or call 415/561-4891
