{"id":5902,"date":"2023-12-03T17:22:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T09:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panap.net\/?p=5902"},"modified":"2023-12-03T17:22:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T09:22:19","slug":"rural-peoples-slam-corporate-agenda-in-cop28-food-systems-declaration","status":"publish","type":"panap_updates","link":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/updates\/rural-peoples-slam-corporate-agenda-in-cop28-food-systems-declaration\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural peoples slam corporate agenda in COP28 Food Systems Declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dubai \u2013 Rural peoples from the Global South today slammed the corporate agenda apparent in the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action<\/em>, highlighting the outsized role of big agri-businesses and the corporate-led Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in implementing the Emirates Declaration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chennaiah Poguri, spokesperson of the Global People\u2019s Caravan for Food, Land and Climate Justice, said that significant reductions in emissions from global food systems are unlikely as agri-business corporations who are among the world\u2019s biggest emitters continue to dominate global food systems, and are now being given the opportunity to use the climate crisis to tighten their monopolies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Emirates Declaration signed by 134 leaders mentions the imperative for \u2018food systems transformation\u2019 but fails to hold into account big corporations who are mainly responsible for food systems emissions. Rather than dismantling corporate-controlled, fossil fuel based industrial agriculture and putting in place radical policies that place people at the center of a just food and energy transition, world leaders have joined hands with big agri-businesses to scale-up greenwashing schemes,\u201d said Poguri, also chairperson of APVVU, a federation of farmers and agricultural workers in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COP28 UAE announced a USD 200 million partnership with the BMGF for \u201cagricultural research, scaling agricultural innovations and funding technical assistance\u201d for implementing the Declaration. Negotiations also see the CGIAR cornering a lion\u2019s share of climate pledges. \u201cIt is farcical that the same corporate-led institutions responsible for the massive adoption of unsustainable farming practices through the Green Revolution are the same institutions being given the reins on climate action. We instead demand that world leaders end subsidies for fossil fuel based agriculture and transition to people-led agroecology. Climate action must be anchored on food sovereignty and peoples\u2019 right to land and resources, prioritizing local production to empower small food producers,\u201d said Poguri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COP28 UAE is also working together with the CEO group World Business Council on Sustainable Development and Boston Consulting Group, whose clients include the world\u2019s largest corporations, to harness USD 2.2 billion in investments to supposedly \u201ctransition\u201d 160 million hectares to regenerative agriculture by 2030. \u201cThe corporate definition of \u2018regenerative agriculture\u2019 is locking in farmers to the use of certain products and enrolling vast tracts of lands into carbon markets that only serve to perpetuate the fossil fuel industry,\u201d Poguri added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural peoples from the Global South also found the Emirates Declaration\u2019s commitment to the strengthening of the World Trade Organization (WTO) unacceptable. \u201cThe WTO has caused massive destruction of the environment and local peasant and indigenous agriculture. It turned self-sufficient food systems in the Global South into import-dependent, export-oriented economies that exploit natural resources and rural peoples to serve fossil fuel hungry globalized agri-food chains. For instance, in Indonesia, millions of hectares of tropical rainforests have been converted to palm oil plantations, with the WTO playing a major role in expanding biofuel markets, a false solution,\u201d said Rendy Khasmy, national committee member of AGRA, a peasant movement in Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Gertrude Kenyangi of Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN) and People\u2019s Coalition on Food Sovereignty Africa said that rural peoples movements from Africa will be vigilant and closely follow actions taken to implement the Declaration, which aims to integrate food systems into National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions, among others. \u201cPolicy is only as good as its implementation. Rhetoric must be turned into results! African youth, women, and civil society are ready to ensure that African leaders center the demands and aspirations of rural peoples in climate solutions that work for Africa,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note to editors:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The Global People\u2019s Caravan for Food, Land and Climate Justice (www.ourfoodsystems.org<\/a>) is a Global South-led campaign of rural peoples movements mobilizing for radical food systems transformation. A product of community consultations & petition signings held since early this year, the People\u2019s Caravan is pushing for five demands to COP 28 negotiators<\/a> (bit.ly\/RuralPeoplesToCOP28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media contacts:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chennaiah Poguri, Global People\u2019s Caravan spokesperson, chennaiah.poguri@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0
Rendy Khasmy, AGRA Indonesia
Gertrude Kenyangi, People\u2019s Coalition on Food Sovereignty Africa, ruralwomenug@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0
Ilang-Ilang Quijano, Global People\u2019s Caravan communications officer, ilang.quijano@panap.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dubai \u2013 Rural peoples from the Global South today slammed the corporate agenda apparent in the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, highlighting the outsized role of big agri-businesses and the corporate-led Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in implementing the Emirates Declaration. Chennaiah Poguri, spokesperson of the Global…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5906,"template":"","update_categories":[107],"class_list":["post-5902","panap_updates","type-panap_updates","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_categories-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates\/5902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/panap_updates"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates\/5902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"update_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update_categories?post=5902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}