The HLPE and the CFS have, with this discussion on agro-ecology, been handed an excellent opportunity to reorient the wavering direction they have been providing FAO for the last three-odd years. I cannot recall a more ringing endorsement of socially just, culturally grounded, ecologically sound cultivation methods as we have read during this consultation.
The writing is very clearly on the wall for the proponents of industrial, chemically intensive monocultures which have harmed biological habitats as much as they have harmed animal species and humans. The demand that FAO recognise and unequivocally support agro-ecology (as defined by the many excellent contributions provided) is widespread, from both 'South' and 'North'.
Therefore, members of the HLPE Steering Committee - Patrick Caron (France), Martin Cole (Australia), Louise O. Fresco (the Netherlands), Mahmoud El Solh (Lebanon), Alex Godoy-Faúndez (Chile), Maria Kadlecíková (Slovakia), Eileen Theresa Kennedy (United States of America), Muhammad Khan (Pakistan), Xiande Li (People's Republic of China), Paul Mapfumo (Zimbabwe), Mohammad Saeid Noori Naeini (Islamic Republic of Iran), Elisabetta Gioconda Iole Giovanna Recine (Brazil), Shiney Varghese (India), Martin Yemefack (Cameroon), Rami Zurayk (Lebanon) - grasp this opportunity and return FAO and the CFS to the true meaning of the principles embodied in "fiat panis".
To aid your task, here are some of the contributions towards a report which will win very much more goodwill and cooperation by being instead 'Agroecological approaches for sustainable cultivation and the provision of culturally appropriate food':
Maywa Montenegro University of California, Berkeley, USA
Phil Tuite United Kingdom
Leidy Casimiro Rodríguez Universidad de Sancti Spíritus, Cuba
Nout van der Vaart, Hivos, Netherlands
Miguel A Altieri
Teresa Maisano, Civil Society Mechanism of the CFS
Annie Shattuck, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Emile Frison, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), Italy
Georges Félix, Cultivate!, Netherlands
IPES-Food
Susan Haffmans, Pestizid Aktions-Netzwerk e.V, Germany
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Pesticide Action Network North America, USA
Maria de Fatima Fajardo Archanjo Sampaio Rede Brota Cerrado de Cultura e Agroecologia, Brasil
Marian Simon, Madrid Agroecologico, Spain
Massimiliano Sanfilippo, COSPE, Italy
Samantha Mullender, The Organic Research Centre, United Kingdom
Meriel Watts, PAN Asia Pacific, New Zealand
Saúl Vicente Vázquez, Consejo Internacional de Tratados Indios (CITI), USA
Carline Mainenti, C2A - Coordination Sud, France
Marijana Todorovic, German NGO Forum on Environment and Development
Claudio Schuftan, Viet Nam
Walter Alberto Pengue, Area de Ecologia - Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, Buenos Aires
Tarek Soliman, Egypt
Lal Manavado, Norway
Rahul Goswami, Centre for Environment Education Himalaya, India
With best wishes
Rahul Goswami