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Opinion: Unsung heroes by Anil Gupta

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Report from the Nyéléni Pan-European Forum for Food Sovereignty by Madeleine Florin

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Andersen and T. Winge (eds.), 2013. Routledge, Oxon. 214 pages.
The diversity of crops enriches our lives with different tastes, smells, nutrients and colours. These traits can equip farmers to meet challenges of marginal soils, crop pests and diseases, drought and changing environmental conditions. Farmers not only conserve this diversity but also continuously adapt the crops to changing environmental conditions, keeping their knowledge of these crops alive. To do this effectively farmers need the right to save, use, exchange and sell  seeds, to participate in decision making and benefit sharing, and to have their traditional knowledge protected. This book looks at success stories, spanning across a whole range of countries and continents, on how these rights have been realised. It looks at the future challenges and ways forward.

Towards co-creation of sciences: Building on the plurality of worldviews, values and methods in different knowledge communities.

Haverkort, F. Delgado Burgoa, D. Shankar and D. Millar, 2012. Nimby Books, New Delhi. 291 pages.
When thinking about knowledge, science is usually the first thing that comes to most people’s minds. But there are also local, endogenous, and traditional ways of knowing that successfully guide the lives of many people across the world. These can be considered as expressions of science in their own right. However, they are often thought of as less valid than empirical mainstream science which continues to form the basis of formal education and which receives the lion’s share of public funding. This book presents the worldviews, values, methods and concepts from four different knowledge communities in Ghana, India, Bolivia and the Netherlands. The authors argue that a plurality of sciences is the best option to meet the sustainability challenges of our time.

Women’s rights and the right to food: Report submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter

de Schutter, 2012. UN, Rome. 20 pages.
Women should be at the centre of food security strategies, states Olivier De Schutter, not only for their own sake but for that of everyone. When women have the same access to farms’ productive resources as men, yields increase by 20-30%. When they have control over the household budget, their children’s chance of survival increases by 20%. But too often women have a weak bargaining position in the family farm, leading them to be restricted to household tasks. This results in less time for them to seek outside jobs or education, which in turn leaves them ill-equipped for political participation. This report looks at different ways through which access to food can be secured and outlines a strategy to eliminate discrimination against women based on human rights.

The future of agriculture: Synthesis of an online debate

OXFAM, 2013. Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Winnipeg. 94 pages.
With an ever growing pile of reports, papers and books on feeding the world, the time has come to be selective. This discussion paper by OXFAM addresses the issue in a very creative way. It is a synthesis of an online debate, complemented by 23 essays by experts from 16 countries and OXFAM’s own concluding remarks. It addresses issues of who is in control, biofuels, the risks faced by farmers and investments in agriculture. While the debate did not reach a consensus, there were a few points of general agreement. Perhaps the most significant is that “multi-pronged approaches are needed, with much more attention paid to the potential of agro-ecological, biodiverse systems” to address contemporary global challenges.

Trade and environment review 2013: Wake up before it is too late

UNCTAD, 2013. FAO, Rome. 200 pages.
UNCTAD’s message is clear. What we need is a “rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high external-input dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers.” This is because the dominant model of agriculture is failing. Food prices are increasing, agricultural productivity is stagnant or in decline, the global nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions limits have been crossed and one billion people are chronically underfed. So, how can we change that? By shifting towards diverse production patterns that close nutrient cycles and by localising food production as much as possible.

Right to food and nutrition watch 2013: Alternatives and resistance to policies that generate hunger