STWR - Share The World's Resources

To avert a humanitarian catastrophe of major proportions, new agrifood systems are desperately needed - to meet the needs of a growing world population, to ensure food security to all people, and to do so in environmentally sound ways. By Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar.

Influential orthodox economists like Paul Collier see the food price crisis as the result of insufficient production. But the real cause is the globalised system of industrial agriculture, which prioritises profit over the needs of the global majority and the environment, argues Walden Bello.

Economic recession combined with persistently high food prices is dramatically increasing the number of hungry people globally. Hunger is now a reality for a sixth of the world's population, with both rural and urban communities in developing countries most severely affected, says the FAO. 

The global trend of 'land grabbing' is likely to worsen the impact of the food and climate crises in poor countries, and compromise the land rights of local communities. Governments must regulate investment to prioritise food security and the realisation of human rights, argues Alexandra Spieldoch.

As the global pressure to reduce carbon emissions mounts, corporations from rich countries are buying huge tracts of land in poorer countries to cultivate biofuels. This 'climate colonialism' violates the land-rights of local communities and threatens their food security, argues Seif Madoff.

Although we are agreed in defending the right of people to adequate food, as promoted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, the most effective way to help the world feed itself is by promoting food sovereignty, say Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International.

Current ideas for overhauling the food system have a tendency to replace complexity with checklists. Can we develop a resilient alternative to benefit all people, or will the concept of sustainability simply go to the highest bidder, asks Paul Roberts.