There has been an upsurge in the push by grassroots movements to change how and for whom we produce food amid the worsening hunger and destitution of the world’s poor, ironically including food producers. The COVID-19 pandemic both exposed the structural flaws of the global food systems\u2014currently unjust, inequitable, unhealthy and unsustainable\u2014and underscored the urgent need for a truly radical transformation.<\/p>\n
Transnational corporations (TNCs) and their lobbyists are constantly trying to squeeze every drop of profit in the food and agriculture sector by introducing more layers of corporate capture such as public-private partnerships, financialization, and digitalization. As if their current control over food and agriculture systems wasn\u2019t enough, TNCs are vying for even bigger market dominance and expanding its sphere of influence in public policy spaces, particularly the UN.<\/p>\n
The United Nations\u2019 Food Systems Summit<\/strong> (UNFSS) that will be held in September 2021 promises \u201cnew actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food.\u201d However, the blueprint for the Summit appears to have stemmed from the UN\u2019s 2019 Strategic Partnership with the World Economic Forum<\/a> (WEF), a platform for the global economic elite to promote the corporate agenda in the guise of \u201cimproving the state of the world.\u201d By financing Agenda 2030, the WEF is ensuring that global governance perpetuates neoliberal policies in food and agriculture and promotes market-oriented \u201csolutions\u201d and techno-fixes to hunger and climate change. Capitalist-philanthropic organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation\u2014which have been responsible for much of the world\u2019s food producers\u2019 dependence on corporate-controlled hazardous technologies\u2014are also said to have underwritten<\/a> the Summit\u2019s organization.<\/p>\n Corporate capture<\/strong> in the UNFSS is made evident by the appointment of Agnes Kalibata<\/a> (president of the Gates-funded Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, which supports chemical-intensive farming and the adoption of GM crops in the region), as UN Special Envoy for the Summit. It is further being materialized through the UN Food and Agriculture Organization\u2019s (FAO) strategic alliance with CropLife International<\/a>. An agreement signed last October 2020 between the UN FAO and the world\u2019s biggest pesticide industry association pledges closer cooperation, threatening to undercut, among others, the UN agency\u2019s commitments to agroecology as an alternative to a food and farming system heavily reliant on toxic pesticides that are estimated to poison 385 million people annually and cause massive ecosystem damage.<\/p>\n With the aim to demand food systems which put people\u2019s fundamental rights above profit, our planet over corporations, and our sovereignty over monopolies, PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and the People\u2019s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) are launching the #Hungry4Change campaign for just, equitable, healthy and sustainable food systems<\/strong>, which will culminate in the Global People’s Summit on Food Systems.<\/p>\n On April 22, Earth Day, we’re inviting you to join us in #TheFoodWeWant: <\/strong>Global Day of Action Against Corporate Control of Food Systems<\/strong> as part of this campaign.<\/p>\n Ways to participate<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n #TheFoodWeWant is ____(examples: organic, non-GM, healthy, locally-produced, indigenous, puts farmers first, does not enrich Monsanto, is not linked to deforestation\/land grabbing, is grown in harmony with nature, does not destroy the planet, does not poison farmers\/the soil\/water, in the hands of the people, nutritious and affordable, etc etc)___<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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