Colin Todhunter writes:

“In the report ‘Who Will Feed Us? The Industrial Food Chain vs the Peasant Food Web (ETC Group, 2017), it was shown that a diverse network of small-scale producers (the peasant food web) actually feeds 70% of the world, including the most hungry and marginalized.

“The flagship report indicated that only 24% of the food produced by the industrial food chain actually reaches people. Furthermore, it was shown that industrial food costs us more: for every dollar spent on industrial food, it costs another two dollars to clean up the mess.

“However, two prominent papers have since claimed that small farms feed only 35% of the global population… [In response] “ETC Group has published an 16-page report ‘Small-scale Farmers and Peasants Still Feed the World‘ … indicating how the authors indulged in methodological and conceptual gymnastics and certain important omissions to arrive at the 35% figure – not least by changing the definition of ‘family farmer’ and by defining a ‘small farm’ as less than 2 hectares (5 acres).”

Read more: An Inconvenient Truth: The Peasant Food Web Feeds the World