Second lecture (out of three) in the Master on European and Global Governance by the Institute for European Global Studies (University of Basel, Switzerland).
https://europa.unibas.ch/fr/weiterbildung/cas-europe-2050/
This presentation includes a critical assessment of a recent foresight report on the future of Global and European Food Security in 2030, an analysis of the Common Agricultural Policy (past and future) and the rising numbers of food insecure european households.
Concete policy proposals that could be included in a yet-to-be Common Food Policy (replacing the current CAP in 2020) are discussed at the end.
Comments are more than welcomed.
Call Girls in Rajkot / 8250092165 Genuine Call girls with real Photos and Number
Europe’s Food & Agriculture in 2050 A critical analysis of prospective reports
1. Europe’s Food &
Agriculture in
2050
A critical analysis of
prospective reports
Course on Advanced Studies
“Europe 2050. Trends and
Challenges”
Institute for European Global Studies,
University of Basel (05-04-2016)
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL
PhD Research Fellow in Food Governance
Centre for Philosophy of Law/Earth & Life Institute
1
3. Food Insecurity (unability to eat meat
every second day): 10.9%.
13.5 M people
2.7% increase since austerity
measures
30 M Malnutrition
(Transmango Project)
3
5. • 123 M poor EU people
(1/4) (Oxfam, 2015)
• 50 M severe material
deprivation: food,
water…(EUROSTAT, 2015)
• 2009-15, + 7.5 M
poor
• 30-40% children (6
EU members) below
poverty line (UNICEF, 2014)
• Increasing children
at school with no
breakfast (UK,
Netherlands, Spain)
5
6. No RtF in EU: How is that possible?
• NOT in European Social Charter
• NOT in any EU constitution
• NOT in MDGs & SDGs narrative
• Proposal in Belgium: National Food Policy
Council including whole food chain (Eggen, 2014)
• Proposal in Spain: RtF in Constitution
• European Citizen´s Initiative + EP: water as
human right + commons
• Universal Food Coverage (non-existing)
6
9. RECAP: Europe´s Food Security in 1 min
• 1945-1980: Increase production at any cost
• 1980-2008: Production reached. So…quality,
lower prices, commodification (biofuels,
financialisation, long chains, global trade)
• 2008-2016: Two food crises. Climate change
will threat Food. Limited resources (water, soil,
P, N). Obesity
• 2016-2050: Securing Food Supply. More trade.
Common Food Policy
9
10. Global food system: crisis & transition
• Rising Obesity / Steady Hunger (2.3 billion): We eat badly
• Inefficient (wasting one third, yields stagnated, few crops)
• The way we produce/eat food is main driver of climate
change & moving beyond planetary boundaries
• Population as a threat but world produces enough food for all
• Diet transition towards more meat (less efficient, less healthy)
Food kills people
OBESITY: 3.4 million deaths annually, 1120 million people by
2030 (Ng et al. 2014; Kelly et al. 2008)
HUNGER: largest contributor to maternal-child mortality
worldwide, 3.1 million children (Black et al. 2013).
10
11. Commodification (C) of food as major driver
• (C) dominant force since XIX (Polanyi, 1944; Sandel, 2013; Sraffa, 1960)
• (C): development of traits that fit with mechanized processes
• Human-induced social construct that denies non-economic
attributes of food in favour of its tradable features (durability,
external beauty, standardisation, cheap calories, food miles)
• (C) crowds out non-market values and the idea of food as
something worth caring about (Sandel, 2012).
• (C) root cause of crisis (Magdoff, 2010; Zerbe, 2009; Kloppenburg, 2004).
• Food speculation as ultimate alienation of food from its
primary value-in-use (feeding people)
• Metabolic rift between consumers and distant producers
• Food agency restricted “sovereign act of consuming”
11
13. Causal links
& Incidence Share
Based on heuristics
and ideologies
Where do we want to
go? Agency in Transition 13
14. Global Food Security 2030
Joint Research Centre
Foresight research
with ideological stance
and biased worldview
14
15. Scientific facts or Ideological Positions?
Imagining beyond the permitted ideas
15
16. Food security is securing the supply of food
that answers the emerging demand
17. 1.- Demand-driven Food Systems
• Consumer Sovereignty (individual consumer is
the king, societal citizen is secondary)
• Private satisfaction VS common good
• Responsible consumer behaviour
• Influencing power of commercials, media,
subsidized agriculture, cheap prices (absent)
• Empowerment of consumer: Where is the
state?
17
18. Page 21
• Are we safe by a low cost food system?
Not healthy, not diverse, not sustainable
• Food deserts in US (what´s consumer´s choice?)
• Unhealthy ultra-processed food (one Macdonald = 1 Euro)
• GMO Labeling war in US (Maine, California)
18
19. The right to food is not mentioned
• Although food is legally-technically a human
right for EU institutions & members, it is not
politically endorsed (Vivero & Schuftan, in press)
Free Trade – Corporate Driven
• Sustainable intensification (PPPs driven, Hawkes & Buse, 2011)
• Pro-poor Enabling Environment
• Freer & more transparent Markets & Trade (EuroGroup?)
19
20. Setting public health objectives &
policies is simply not an
appropriate role for the private
sector. They shall be excluded
from decision making processes.
20
21. Current free trade is detrimental to Global South
Deadlock in WTO Doha Round: the Global South
is against
21
22. De Schutter (2011)
“The food bills of LDCs
increased five- or six-fold
between 1992 and 2008.
Imports now account for
around 25 per cent of their
current food consumption.
These countries are caught
in a vicious cycle. The more
they are told to rely on
trade, the less they invest in
domestic agriculture. And
the less they support their
own farmers, the more they
have to rely on trade,”
De Schutter (2011). The World Trade Organization and the Post-Global Food Crisis
Agenda: Putting Food Security First in the International Trade System. 22
23. JRC Report Recommendations
1. Food products liberalised
2. Food safety standards more stringent
3. Demand-driven, market-supplied
4. “Feeding the World = Feeding the cities”
(70% of hungry people are rural producers)
23
24. Decentralised entities having a
larger role in food governance
(municipal, cities)
Culture of innovation
from the ground up
World Food Governance cannot
be restricted to WTO, but broader
than CFS (Rome)…
Do they mean G-20, G-8, WEF?
POSITIVE
REFLECTIONS
24
25. No mention to
food as vital need
No food as cultural
determinant
Food as opportunity for
trade, innovation, health,
wealth & geopolitics (p.34)
No food as
human right
25
26. What would happen if…international trade
in agriculture broke down? (p.34-35)
JRC: Positive
prospects
26
28. Food security
in compliance
with societal
requirements
Fair income
Singularity of
the agricultural
sector
Reasonable
consumer
price
Guiding
Principles of
EU CAP
1962-2016
28
29. 1962: produce more + good prices
for farmers
Guaranteed Prices & Shared Funding
1992: From market to producer
support
1990s: Organic farming & food
quality
2000: Rural Development
2003: CAP REF (market oriented &
conditionality)
2000s: Open Food Trade (EBA)
What do we do with farmers?
2007: Farming population doubles
2011: CAP REF (competitiveness).
Climate Change, Rural Landscapes,
employment, leisure, innovation
2014: CAP is 40% of
EU Budget
52 Billion Euro
(0.43% of EU GDP)
29
31. • Farmers represent 5.4 percent of the EU’s population. Yet
they receive 40 percent of the EU’s total budget through
CAP.
• Bigger farmers are the greatest beneficiaries, with 20% of
farmers estimated to receive 74% of funding
• Europe’s taxpayers hand over €52 billion in subsidies
EU AGRICULTURE´S SHARE
• 12 million farms in the European Union (2010).
• Around 10 million persons are (directly) employed in
agriculture, representing 5% of total employment
• Farm Structure Survey (FSS) indicates that 25 million
people were regularly engaged in farm work (agriculture +
non-agriculture) in the EU during 2010
Source: EU Agricultural Economics Briefs No 8 | July 2013. How many people work in agriculture in the European
Union? An answer based on Eurostat data sources
http://www.ecpa.eu/information-page/agriculture-today/common-agricultural-policy-cap 31
32. Why so much for so few?
Although not recognized publicly, food is not like
other commodities. It is “the special one”
In 1985, around 70% of EU budget went to agriculture
“Agriculture's relatively large share of the EU budget is entirely
justified; it is the only policy funded almost entirely from the
budget. This means that EU spending replaces national
expenditure to a large extent”
“The average EU farmer receives less than half of what the
average US farmer receives in public support”
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/explained/myths/myths_en.cfm
32
38. To support local purchase
(small farming, agro-
ecology & cooperatives) to
satisfy food needs of
municipal premises
38
39. Stricter & innovative rules to
avoid food waste
To recycle all expired food (i.e. France)
Supporting citizens´ collective actions to
reduced waste,
promote food sharing
and co-producing
39
40. Shifting from charitable food
(Food Banks) to food as right
(Universal Food Coverage)
A food bank network that is
universal, accountable, compulsory
and not voluntary, random, targeted
40
43. Encourage Food Policy
Councils (open membership
to citizens) through
participatory democracies,
financial seed capital and
enabling laws43
44. Set target for food provisioning in
2030
(Food Council)
• 60% private sector
• 25% self-production (collective
actions)
• 15% state-provisioning (public
buildings, destitute people,
unemployed families) through
Universal Food Coverage
44
45. 45
Eager to exchange on food as a commons
Many uncertainties & gaps remain to be
developed in a common way combining
praxis with normative social constructs
@joselviveropol
joseluisviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
Jose Luis Vivero Pol
joseluisvivero@gmail.com