Title: UN report warns of unsustainable herbicide and pesticide use

[UNEP Rio de Janeiro, 20 June 2012] - The world urgently needs to focus on maintaining and boosting the underlying ecological foundations that support food production, which face growing threats from human activity, to help ensure food security for a growing population, a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said. The report, Avoiding Future Famines: Strengthening the Ecological Basis of Food Security through Sustainable Food Systems, finds that food security must embrace the environmental services nature provides if the world is to feed its seven billion inhabitants - a population predicted to climb to over nine billion by 2050. “The era of seemingly ever-lasting production based upon maximizing inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, mining supplies of freshwater and fertile arable land and advancements linked to mechanization are hitting their limits, if indeed they have not already hit them,” said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “The world needs a green revolution but with a capital G: one that better understands how food is actually grown and produced in terms of the nature-based inputs provided by forests, freshwaters and biodiversity.” Inefficiencies along the food delivery chain further complicate the challenge, and the report highlights that an estimated one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, amounting to 1.3 billion tons per year.The debate on food security so far has largely revolved around availability, access, utilization and stability as the four pillars of food security, barely touching on the resource base and ecosystem services that prop up the whole food system. The report aims to increase the focus on these crucial environmental aspects, which are being undermined by overfishing, unsustainable water use and other human activities. It also frames the debate in the context of the Green Economy, calling for food production and consumption practices that ensure productivity without undermining ecosystem services. “The environment has been more of an afterthought in the debate about food security,” said UNEP Chief Scientist Joseph Alcamo. “This is the first time that the scientific community has given us a complete picture of how the ecological basis of the food system is not only shaky but being really undermined.”

While pointing out the current challenges, the report also offers a clear way forward to shore up the ecological foundations and improve food security. It issues recommendations on the redesign of sustainable agriculture systems, dietary changes and storage systems and new food standards to reduce waste.

The report, produced in collaboration with other international organizations including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Resources Institute (WRI), took a holistic approach to analyzing the food system. Eleven scientists and experts authored the report, covering many different areas of expertise including food consumption patterns, agricultural production, marine fisheries and inland fisheries.

While the problems are many and varied, the report issues a raft of recommendations that can shore up the ecological foundations and create the conditions for sustainable food production.

“The solutions are to be found along the whole food value chain - from the farms that need to grow food more sustainability, through the large companies that need to certify that their products are from sustainable fisheries and farms, up to the consumer who needs to think seriously about switching to a sustainable diet,” said Mr. Alcamo.

“Of course, we have to deal first and foremost with all the socio-economic issues having to do with food security - questions of access and affordability of food, and so on,” he added. “But ultimately we won't have enough food to distribute unless we find out a way to produce it sustainably without destroying its ecological foundation.”

Additional information

The full report can be downloaded here: mahb.stanford.edu…



Article: WeedsNews3448 (permalink)
Date: 21 June 2012; 4:42:14 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time

Author Name: David Low
Author ID: adminDavid