المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Dear all, 

please find attached our contribution to the call: The Agri-Food Systems Transformation Protocol. It is a concise guide to developing transformation pathways in different contexts and at different levels. It is designed to help a wide variety of decision-makers, stakeholders and actors – including agri-food producers and businesses, grassroots groups, practitioners, researchers, national policymakers, and international organizations – gain a clearer understanding of what must be done and in which sequence. The Protocol has been developed as  part of the FORESEE (4Cs) Report Series (tmg-thinktank.com), which aims to develop a systematic understanding of how food systems can be transformed. 

Dear Editor,

I am pleased to submit our contributions regarding the transformational efforts undertaken and needed to enhance the resilience of Sri Lanka's livestock and poultry value chain. Our insights stem from a comprehensive analysis of the challenges, interventions, and outcomes in the context of sustainable economic, environmental, and social development. In our submission, we have meticulously outlined the complex approaches adopted to empower small-scale farmers, promote gender inclusivity, improve food safety and quality, and foster stakeholder collaboration. We have highlighted the transformative nature of our interventions in improving the livelihoods of the most disadvantaged sectors of the population and contributing to a more inclusive food system.

Thank you for considering our submission. We look forward to the opportunity to contribute to ongoing discussions and initiatives aimed at building sustainable and resilient food systems.

Warm regards, Dr. Hasitha Priyashantha

Dear All

With due respect, I would like to share my thoughts with you. Temperature is a crucial component for agriculture and fire breakout. Various Researches show that changes in climate not only create extreme weather but also create warmer, drier conditions, leading to longer and more active fire seasons and increased flammability and combustibility. Like many other sectors agricultural sector is suffering from various natural and man-made disasters including fire. As fire prevention is better than fire protection so I think that from global level to country level if there is a Temperature Management Law to form a Temperature Management Authority, then it would be better. I think that the Temperature Management Authority will be able to promote, patronize, and oblige us to use various sustainable environment friendly, economically viable and energy efficient technologies for better temperature management, and fire management integration into all sectors including agriculture.

En México se logró la aprobación de la Ley General de Alimentación Adecuada y Sostenible para abordar la gobernanza de la transformación del sistemas agroalimentario mexicano.

L'une des principales façons dont la FAO peut soutenir les pays dans la gouvernance de la transformation des systèmes agricoles est en élaborant des politiques agricoles inclusives. Cela implique de travailler en étroite collaboration avec les gouvernements nationaux pour élaborer des politiques qui favorisent l'innovation, la durabilité et l'équité dans le secteur agricole. En encourageant l'adoption de bonnes pratiques agricoles et en mettant en place des réglementations efficaces, la FAO peut contribuer à transformer les systèmes agricoles de manière positive.

Un autre aspect essentiel de l'action doivent etre la promotion de l'innovation technologique dans l'agriculture et les bonnes pratique agricole en promouvoir les biotechnologies. En soutenant la recherche et le développement de technologies agricoles avancées, la FAO doit aider les pays à moderniser leurs pratiques agricoles, à accroître leur productivité et à s'adapter aux défis environnementaux et climatiques. De plus, en facilitant l'accès des agriculteurs aux nouvelles technologies, la FAO doit contribue à réduire les inégalités et à renforcer la résilience des communautés agricoles.

La FAO doit encore  s'engager  à renforcer les capacités des acteurs locaux, y compris les agriculteurs, les coopératives et les organisations de la société civile, pour favoriser une gouvernance efficace des systèmes agricoles. En fournissant une formation, un soutien technique et des ressources financières, il doit aider les acteurs locaux à améliorer leurs compétences, à promouvoir la durabilité et à participer activement aux processus.

I am writing regarding animal agriculture.  Very little has been said by UNFAO regarding animal welfare in #Food. 

If the people in charge of UNFAO and OIE really saw what went on in the world, perhaps they would speak to governments about it much more.  In the opening statement for the SDGs it does say all animals are sentient and all animals deserve protection.  However not much more has been said since especially by FAO.

Why do animal rights organisations and activists always have to send petitions to government's on the horrible issues like boiling alive, dismembering alive, steaming alive, live export where animals die from heat, dairy calves freezing to death, force feeding?  Governments should have been humane and banned these things decades ago.  None of these animal production methods are green or have anything to do with the OIE Terrestrial Code or EU 5 Freedoms.  The animal rights organisations send in thousands of letters to governments for help. But the governments ignore it time and time again.   In the EU they have the 5 Freedoms, yet ducks and geese are force fed, using an ancient Egypt method that cause their back sides to split open and the torture goes on for weeks and octopus are cooked alive. The governments don't care about animal welfare, if they did they would pay attention to the petitions sent in. But they ignore them.  It would help if the UNFAO and the OIE were much more vocal about the atrocities that occur.  And the UNFAO had a proper pact that governments signed up to on animal welfare. Not just in food. But animals are used everywhere, fashion, medicine, sports, work. FAO should start it though.

The UN has forgotten to talk about sentient beings in the SDGs. Governments don't care. As FAODG says, Food System Transformation is required, especially with animal production(torture) yet dogs and cats are routinely boiled alive in China for food, using the traditional method by workers who are left behind using 2000 year old live processing.

Here is an idea: 

https://sentientism.info/sentientism-in-action/sentientist-development-goals

Here are some of the issues, that the governments just ignore time and time again, In fact in USA, those that try to report on issues like live scalding and live dismemberment are considered terrorists. I hope the UNFAO carefully discuss each of these issues. And find a way to get governments to address it,. I believe the UN Animal Welfare Officer needs to take such issues to governments. Have a big meeting where they all watch the videos and agree on a pact. Otherwise there is no green agriculture. The UN will have failed on food production goals if all this continues on and on.

https://mercyforanimals.org/blog/uk-study-thousands-of-farmed-animals-scalded

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8372727/Thousands-pigs-steamed-death-Iowas-largest-pork-producer.html

https://www.kinderworld.org/videos/meat-industry/pigs-burned-alive-china/

https://animalsaustralia.org/our-work/farmed-animals/lynn-simpson-a-life-live-export-stories/

https://mercyforanimals.org/blog/sickening-new-video-reveals-calves-freezing/

I repeat, if all of this carries on, then the SDGS is a failure because animal sentience comes over many of the squares, you just don't see it.

The most important shift we recommend to FAO is to base policies on a "woman small-holder"-centric systems approach. As past FAO studies have shown, if the food system worked for her, there would be 150 million fewer hungry people. I wrote a paper on this subject at this link. One aspect is to focus more attention on that market power of rural women from village up to district market level, focusing on the goal of a local food system that be far less dependent on global value chains and therefore more resilient.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Attached submissions on examples of governance-related measures and interventions with transformative impact for agrifood systems.