FAO calls for “paradigm shift” towards sustainable agriculture and family farming
Director-General urges support for science-based options in pursuit of global food security
29 September 2014, Rome
Excerpt

Policy makers should support a broad array of approaches to overhauling global food systems, making them healthier and more sustainable while acknowledging that “we cannot rely on an input intensive model to increase production and that the solutions of the past have shown their limits,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today in his opening remarks to the 24th session of the Committee on Agriculture (COAG).

Calling for a “paradigm shift,” he said that today’s main challenges are to lower the use of agricultural inputs, especially water and chemicals, in order to put agriculture, forestry and fisheries on a more sustainable and productive long-term path.

Options such as Agro-ecology and climate-smart agriculture should be explored, and so should biotechnology and the use of genetically modified organisms, FAO’s director-general said, noting that food production needs to grow by 60 percent by 2050 to meet the expected demand from an anticipated population of 9 billion people. “We need to explore these alternatives using an inclusive approach based on science and evidences, not on ideologies,” as well as to “respect local characteristics and context,” he said.

Graziano da Silva also asked the COAG, which will conclude its biannual meeting on Friday, Oct. 3, to consider the importance of family farming in all aspects of its agenda…