This weekend, the G-8 agriculture ministers are meeting in Treviso, Italy, to discuss the global food crisis. In a pre-meeting commentary, IATP's Anne Laure Constantin outlines the good, the bad and the ugly on the G-8's agenda.
Anne Laure writes, "The key players at the G-8 meeting are countries largely responsible for creating the crisis in the first place—and they are entirely unapologetic about it. G-8 countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, have pushed agriculture policies that reward short-term private profits over essential public priorities like food security, jobs and proper management of scarce natural resources. Aggressive trade liberalization polices and agreements, focused on the commercial interests of G-8-based firms, have shaped an unfair and concentrated global agriculture market."
Aside from trade, another controversial aspect of the G-8 agenda is its promotion of industrial agriculture, particularly biotechnology, as a solution to the global food crisis. Earlier this week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack discussed the need to overcome resistance to biotech in developing countries. IATP is part of the U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis, which issued a press release yesterday calling on the G-8 to reject the high-input, biotech approach and to follow recommendations by the International Agriculture Assessment on Technology, Knowledge and Development for more low-input, sustainable agriculture that uses local knowledge.
On Monday, Anne Laure will be in Rome co-organizing a meeting at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on strategic food reserves and other supply management strategies to address the food crisis. The G-8 Agriculture Ministers should skip out of Treviso early and attend.
