Perhaps today’s biggest question is, “Will we have enough to eat in a hot and crowded planet in coming decades?” It’s easy to feel pessimistic when facing the challenge of feeding an estimated 9 billion in 2050 without destroying the planet in the process [1]. As food production becomes more challenging under stresses like climate change and dwindling resources, Big Agriculture is becoming ever more confident and overbearing in advancing its industrial model, insisting that only agribusiness offers a solution for hunger, poverty and climate change.
While this may increase production, it is not a credible way to eradicate hunger and overcome food insecurity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing only the supply side of global food systems undermines understanding of the demand side of food policies, which determines whether people can actually obtain the food they need. Increasing production does not solve the challenge of hunger, which is not a result of food shortages, but a question of access. For some time, the world has been producing more than enough calories to adequately feed the global population. It is my claim that a human rights approach is vital to eradicate hunger, and to reach food security by closing the gap between the adequacy of supply and the inadequacies of access.
”Climate smart agriculture,” first articulated in 2009 by the World Bank and subsequently developed in 2010 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is proposed as a solution [2]. The argument is that it increases productivity in a sustainable way, boosts resilience and reduces greenhouse gas emissions while contributing to the achievement of national food security and development goals.
However, these claims have been disputed by civil society groups, including those representing peasants and farmers, as well as faith-based organizations. In a joint statement, ”Don’t be fooled! Civil society says NO to ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ and urges decision-makers to support agroecology,” more than 350 organizations – including Via Campesina, Greenpeace, Slow Food, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Friends of the Earth, the African Food Sovereignty Alliance, Actionaid, Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité (CIDSE) and many more – explain their concerns ahead of the COP 21 climate change conference in Paris this December [3].
There are many reasons to be suspicious about “too good to be true” hype. First, the absence of measurable criteria makes it impossible to evaluate the sustainability of the approach. Second, it ignores the right to food, which alone can ensure that those who are hungry are able to obtain food. Third, as there is a limited understanding of agricultural resilience, this idea incorporates a misplaced confidence in climate change mitigation strategies and fails to take account of the historical responsibility of the developed countries in relation to greenhouse gas emissions. Most importantly, the lack of clarity around the concept enables socially and environmentally detrimental practices to be included.
While the aims of climate smart agriculture are laudable, no details are given as to how the end goal is to be reached other than by simply presupposing that the approach is a solution for each and every problem.
One of its supporters is the new Global Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, a voluntary initiative, leveraging policy changes to help corporations increase control of agricultural markets and resources in both the Global South and the Global North. While organizations such as the World Committee on Food Security and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are appropriate and legitimate forums for tackling the challenges of food security and climate change, the Alliance has pushed for its own initiatives, establishing a roadmap during the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit in September 2014 to build support for the approach as the recommended response to climate change. There is also a real danger that it will be connected with the Green Climate Fund in the near future.