Transcript Presentation from Howard Petch - Partners in World Development

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP ENSURE
ACCESS TO FOOD FOR ALL?
SPEAKER PANEL MEMBER
HOWARD PETCH
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
INTRODUCTION
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Born and bred (during the war) on North Yorkshire Farm—Youngest of 4
Boys
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Father started as tenant farmer in 1921 (overdraft of £300)
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Left school aged 16, worked 5 years in family business
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College, VSO, offered a job lecturing in agriculture 1969
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Career (40 years) in Further and Higher Education (land based subjects)
including 12 years as principal Bishop Burton College
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Profound interest in food and farming locally and in a global context—
consider myself member of farming community; Vice Chair FCN
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Brought up in a Christian family—made renewed commitment to Christ 32
years ago following family trauma
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Climbed Kilimanjaro for Compassion UK March 2012
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
OBSERVATIONS
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‘Live as if you are going to die tomorrow and farm as if you are
going to farm forever’ (first heard from father)
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears
of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground
where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind,
and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race
of politicians put together. (Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels)
‘that as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter day and night will
never cease’ (Genesis 8)
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great
deal more than we give and it is only with gratitude that
life becomes rich (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
FROM FIELD TO PLATE
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GROWTH AND PRODUCTION--Farmers & Growers—Many—
Limited power
PROCESSING & DISTRIBUTION--Processors & RetailersFew--Powerful
PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION—Consumers—Power?
Rights? Obligations?
CORPORATE---PERSONAL
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
SO WHERE ARE WE NOW?
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As a consequence of the amazing increase in food production
over the last half century there is available 17% more calories
per person per day (across the globe) than were available per
person 30 years ago this despite there being 70% more people;
Equivalent to >2700 calories per capita (World Hunger Education Service- Based
on FAO data)
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Enough food but almost 1 Bn seriously malnourished and many
more living on < 2 dollars per day
Reasons for such disparity are complex include: poverty,
bad governance, abuse of power, waste, apathy,
malpractice, lack of will, ignorance, war, and climate.
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
THE CHALLENGE
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Population
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Food Water Energy
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Climate Change
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Land Availability Per capita
1950—13.5Ha:(33.3Ac)
2005—3.2Ha: (7.9Ac)
2050—1.5Ha: (3.7Ac)
In summary address the problems of today and feed more people tomorrow
with less resources
It is no good trying to solve the problems of tomorrow with the same level of
thinking that created them (Einstein)
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
NEED TO:
The case for urgent action in the global food system is now compelling. We are
at a unique moment in history as diverse factors converge to affect the
demand, production and distribution of food over the next 20-40 years”
(Beddington)
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Balance demand & supply sustainably with affordability: increase
production, new technology, reducing waste, better governance, influence
demand
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Ensure stability in food supply protecting the most vulnerable from
extreme volatility
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Achieve global access to food & end hunger
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Manage the food system within the constraints of climate change (more
production less emissions)
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Maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the world
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
NEED BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF:
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Consumption, nutrition, health and waste
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Sustainable Intensification
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Agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change
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Food price dynamics and market dysfunction
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Governance and regionally appropriate interventions
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Application and monitoring of new technologies
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION (FAO)
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No one size fits all in UK let alone across the globe
‘Productive agriculture that conserves and enhances natural
resources. It uses an ecosystem approach that draws on natures
contribution to crop growth and applies appropriate external
inputs at the right time and in the right amount to improved crop
varieties’
Should be about an equitable balance between ‘sustainable’ and
‘intensification’ and as such will be a radically different food
system than we have today
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
SOME TESTING ISSUES
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BIO-TECHNOLOGY: THE GM DEBATE
SOURCES OF ENERGY: THE USE OF LAND: BIO FUELS?
INTENSIVE OR EXTENSIVE: IS BIG BAD?
THE CARBON FOOTPRINT(UK Agric 7% ghg)
ANIMAL WELFARE & DISEASE (TB)
POWER IN THE FOOD CHAIN
REGULATION OF SOIL, WATER & ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT / PRODUCTION TENSION
DIET; WASTE
TRADE POLICIES; FREE; FAIR:
FOOD PROVENANCE;LOCAL/DEVELOPING WORLD
INVESTMENT IN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
CONSUMER RIGHTS & OBLIGATIONS
FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE
THINKING THEOLOGICALLY
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To live we must daily break the body and shed the blood of
Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skilfully,
reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily,
clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we
condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness and others to
want (Wendell Berry)
To eat is still something more than to maintain bodily functions.
People may not understand what that ‘something more’ is but
they nonetheless desire to celebrate it. They are still hungry and
thirsty for sacramental life’ (Alexander Schmemann)
‘To eat is to be implicated in a vast, complex, interweaving set of
life and death dramas in which we are only one character among
many’ (Norman Wirzba)
‘The character and pace of much contemporary life makes it less
likely that people will perceive the mystery of food or receive it as
a precious gift and a sign of God’s sustaining care’ (Norman Wirzba)
Ingratitude is the sepulchre of love
(Portuguese proverb)