“Over the past fifty years, the food system has become increasingly globalised and has become heavily dependent on cheap raw materials, chemical inputs and mechanisation. The system favours large-scale intensive agriculture over small-scale farmers, international food corporations over local producers. In short, the global food system is broken – increasingly controlled by a handful of multinationals, small-scale farmers and local companies are driven out of business, both obesity and food poverty are rife, nature is being destroyed and citizens are increasingly footing the bill for one food crisis after another.” In addressing this, Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE) has created a new briefing and a video (below), demonstrating how people across Europe are re-organising their food supply chains – re-connecting producers and consumers and re-localising agriculture and food distribution in a sustainable way. This includes short supply chains, alternative food networks, local farming systems and direct sales.
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
FOEE is encouraging agro-ecological food systems that work within ecological and equitable limits – to achieve food sovereignty in Europe and the rest of the world. Only in this way we will be able to build a resilient food system that will provide enough food for the future whilst supporting small and peasant farmers without destroying the environment.
Stanka Becheva, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said: “We need a radical overhaul of the industrialised and corporate-led food and farming system if we want to feed the world without destroying the planet. This means putting food and farming back into the hands of the people.”
See Also:
- Agro-ecology: building a new food system for Europe FOEE briefing, March 2014
- UN Right to Food expert demands radical change, ARC2020, March 2014
- All ARC2020 articles on Agro-ecology
