المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Hello Friends,

Thanks for sending me the Draft Report. Here're some initial remarks. In case of further interest, I'll be prepared to expand.

1 – I'd expect much broader coverage of aquaculture, including marine farming. Its importance for world nutrition is fast growing and so is its production.

2 – That's OK with me that you have concentrated on livestock, however, from more general point of view, it's the most wasteful branch of the food production system. Among others, it's consuming many millions of mt of edible marine food to produce fishmeal for livestock's consumption, not to speak of the mega-millions of mt of agricultural production that either could be used for direct human consumption, or could expand over areas presently used to grow animal fodder.

3 – I'd like to draw your attention to the tremendous lobbying power of various environmental groups, like WWF, Pew, GP, and the like, which have been attacking fisheries for "global overfishing" and for bringing the marine production to "the brink of collapse". I just wrote an article, debunking it, by confronting them with the latest FAO data. Such panic-mongering may be occurring also in other branches of agriculture, esp., where they may be encroaching major petro-chemical interests. So, watch out!.

4 – I'd recommend, while presenting the livestock to expand the discussion to contain also alternative approaches to massive food production for the billions of hungry people.

Best regards,                         

Menakhem Ben-Yami

FAO Fisheries Officer 1975-1982.