New Report Calls for More Democratic Food Systems

Rome, Utrecht, Heidelberg, Geneva, Berlin, Cairo, 8 October 2014 –
Food security and human rights remain deeply threatened by concentration
of land ownership, corporate domination of food systems and policy
incoherence, reports the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2014,
officially launched today with the participation of the new UN Special
Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Dr. Hilal Elver, at the FAO in Rome.

As we celebrate the progress made over the past decade, it is
important to keep in mind that we will have to work even harder to
realize the right to food in order that hunger and malnutrition no
longer afflict humanity, Dr. Elver cautioned on the occasion of the
ten-year anniversary of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the
Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of
National Food Security.

The Watch 2014, entitled Ten Years of the Right to Food Guidelines:
Gains, Concerns and Struggles, discusses key policy processes and
highlights the increasing influence of companies in international food
and nutrition governance as a growing challenge in the global struggle
for the right to adequate food.

On one hand, increased power of multinational food and beverage
corporations over what ends up on the consumer`s plate has led to a
higher consumption of unhealthy ultraprocessed foods, thereby
contributing to obesity and malnutrition in both developed and
developing countries.

Between 40 and 50 per cent of the adult population in Belgium and Colombia are overweight, reports the Watch 2014.

On the other hand, agribusiness and financial investors are taking
control of natural resources and undermining the rights and food
sovereignty of local communities and small-scale food producers. Such
practices are promoted and condoned by governments in the name of
development.

An estimated one million hectares of land have been appropriated in
Mali in recent years, depriving peasant communities of their
livelihoods. The expansion of mining in Sweden and its impact on peasant
and indigenous populations illustrate that land grabbing is a worldwide
phenomenon. The protracted crisis of blockade and serial conflict in
Gaza, Palestine has left 71% of households either food insecure (57%) or
vulnerable to food insecurity (14%) even before this summer`s war.

The Watch calls on governments to exercise political will in
addressing the inequities in food systems, demanding the right to food
be mainstreamed in coherent food, nutrition, energy and trade policies.

Democratic institutions and mechanisms that engage those most
affected by hunger in policy making are among the goals of ongoing
social mobilization and resistance worldwide, from Guatemala to India to
Norway, as revealed in the Watch 2014.

As Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to
Food, stressed, [t]here are major actors who are able to block change as
a result of the dominant position they have acquired in the food and
political systems. That is why food democracy is really the key to
achieving more sustainable [and accountable] food systems.

Contact:

M. Alejandra Morena, Coordinator – Right to Food and Nutrition Watch.

Download The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2014 (English edition)

Go to the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch website

Further information

More background information

Articles of the Watch in separated pdfs

Read the civil society report `Ten Years of the Right to Food Guidelines: Progress, Obstacles and the Way Ahead`

Watch the video `The Right to Food – A People`s Struggle`