Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems
UN COMMITTEE ON WORLD FOOD SECURITY Forty-first Session
Rome, Italy, 13-18 October 2014
pdf: http://www.fao.org/3/a-ml291e.pdf :: 16 pages
Plenary of CFS endorses guidance to ensure investment in agriculture and food systems benefits local food security and workers’ rights
Media Release [excerpts]
16 October 2014, Rome — Governments from around the world have approved a landmark set of principles meant to guide investment in agriculture and food systems, aimed at assuring that cross-border and corporate investment flows lead to improved food security and sustainability and respect the rights of farm and food workers.

…FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva applauded the agreement, saying that a clear and unified set of principles would “enable larger and more sustainable investment in agriculture while also making all stakeholders responsible for creating the conditions for the principles to be met. The private sector will play an important role in implementing the principles…”

The Principles were hammered out over two years of consultations and negotiations. They build on and are complementary to the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, endorsed in May 2012 amid heightened global concern about rising food prices and large-scale purchases of agricultural land and operations in developing countries, dubbed “land grabbing” by critics and widely seen as a threat to smallholders.

The Principles are voluntary and non-binding, but represent the first time that governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, UN agencies and development banks, foundations, research institutions and academia have been able to come together and agree on what constitutes responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.

…FAO estimates that an average net investment of $83 billion a year will be necessary to raise agricultural production by 60% and feed the global population of more than 9 billion expected by 2050.

The cornerstone of the agreement, Principle 1, states that responsible investment in agriculture and food systems contributes to food security and nutrition, especially for the most vulnerable parts of local populations, and “‘supports states’ obligations regarding the progressive realization of the right to adequate food.” That entails increasing sustainable production and productivity of safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable food, reducing food loss and waste, improving income and reducing poverty, enhancing market efficiencies and fairness – in particular taking into account the interests of smallholders.
From the Background ad Rationale section:
2. Agriculture and food systems encompass the entire range of activities involved in the
production, processing, marketing, retail, consumption, and disposal of goods that originate from agriculture, including food and non-food products, livestock, pastoralism, fisheries including aquaculture, and forestry; and the inputs needed and the outputs generated at each of these steps. Food systems also involve a wide range of stakeholders, people and institutions, as well as the sociopolitical, economic, technological and natural environment in which these activities take place.
3. Addressing the four dimensions of food security and nutrition – availability, access, stability,
and utilization – requires a significant increase in responsible investment in agriculture and food
systems. Responsible investment in agriculture and food systems refers to the creation of productive assets and capital formation, which may comprise physical, human or intangible capital, oriented to support the realisation of food security, nutrition and sustainable development, including increased production and productivity, in accordance with the Principles outlined in this document. Responsible investment in agriculture and food systems requires respecting, protecting, and promoting human rights, including the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security, in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international human rights instruments. Responsible investment can be supplied by a wide range of stakeholders.
4. Given the vital role of smallholders, including those that are family farmers, – women and men – in investing in agriculture and food systems, it is particularly important that their capacity to invest be strengthened and secured. Responsible investment includes priority investments in, by, and with smallholders including those that are small-scale producers and processors, pastoralists, artisans, fishers, communities closely dependent on forests, indigenous peoples, and agricultural workers. To strengthen and secure smallholders’ own investments, it is also necessary to engage with and promote responsible investment by other stakeholders in accordance with the following Principles….
Supporting content:
:: Committee on World Food Security
:: Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure
:: The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014