good evening to all and thank you to you
all and all of you to be here I
today would like to talk to you about
agriculture the food of the
trajectory of our systems
regulations and our power to
all to change it
I start from an observation is that since 40
50 years maybe our systems
agrifoods have focused on
the increase in production in a
Productivist approach
quantum quantitative opinion aimed at
increase in volume and its options that
were taken in the 60s – 70s the
common agricultural policy has been launched
in 1961
these options could be explained to
the time by the concern to guarantee the
food security in a world where the
population growth was still
very important
today however the choices that have
been made in the 60s and 70s
produce consequences
problematic that is no longer possible
to ignore this food economy low
cost developed from the idea
that we could pay little
producer except by subsidies which
compensates for the shortfall on the
production pay very low wages
to agricultural workers do not
force producers to internalize
negative social externalities
environmental health they
cause
we have developed a food economy
low cost that aimed to guarantee access
to a cheap diet including
for the poorest households but
problematic consequences you
say years have resulted consequences
environmental first the
development of large monocultures
that destroyed the biodiversity that has
leads to considerable increase
greenhouse gases systems
This is 33% of
greenhouse gases of human origin to
the global scale a destruction of
soils that have undergone with these monocultures
erosion of ollier compaction
used his and big machine the
soil salinization linked to
poor irrigation techniques
agricultural and then
social consequences we saw
everywhere disappear the small
so-called family farms
in belgium for thirty years we lost
almost two-thirds of our farms the
smaller, less competitive
disappear in a growing market
more competitive and finally
health consequences since we
develop these great crops for
provide raw materials to
the processing industry
agribusiness which from then on and flows
in the markets for prepared meals
ultra processed processed products
explaining the explosion in the world of
overweight and obesity rates with the
noncommunicable diseases that are
related diabetes type 2 diseases
cardiovascular cancers
gastrointestinal
see for example this published study
in lan 7 in 10 years in 2016
from 200 countries 19 million
people were followed during
thirty years and between 1975 and 2014
obesity everywhere to increase then we
sometimes says that this approach
productivist it serves to satisfy the
needs of the world it would be necessary that
europe for example feed the
developing countries
increasing its production to meet
the ability of other countries to feed themselves
themselves but in reality these countries
complain that their markets are
overgrown with food
cheap heavily subsidized by
rich-country taxpayers and this
photo that one day there is a
arthus-bertrand took and who took me
asked to comment on an illustrious day
this on the metaphor mode we see
these products strongly transform into
ballet flowing into the markets of
developing country doing
competition to small producers
agricultural of those countries then yes he
must change it must change but the
system is inert it is difficult to
reform
and this because this system is composed
different elements that have evolved
and who today support each other
mutually
technical choices were made to
have invested in
logistics infrastructure for
to promote economies of scale
mass production
we have therefore brought out
big players
the champions of the food economy
low cost on the buyers side of
raw materials companies
agri-food processing and
side of the big distributors
this fits into the lifestyles of
more and more hurry where we no longer have the
time to cook fresh products
from local producers or from elsewhere
we lose culinary knowledge and this
helps to strengthen the power of
political influence of the big players
of agribusiness these big
companies that dominate today the
agrifood systems and asks the
government to develop
logistics infrastructure a
economic system that will strengthen
still their dominant power
therefore our way of us
fuel the lifestyles that we
have developed our report to
food and cooking are co
responsible for this situation, including
present we are victims
so that explains that a lot of
citizens of ordinary citizens gets started
in motion to search for
alternatives to the dominant system
For example, we will develop
urban farms like here at the singing of
cayes to boitsfort we see develop
direct distribution channels
connecting local producers to
consumers for example through the
network of solidarity buying groups
of peasant agriculture in Brussels
buying groups common in wallonia
where thousands of souls ap
associations for the maintenance of
peasant agriculture in France we see
develop initiatives across
which charities
that help households
disadvantaged people use unsold
large distribution to supply them to
these very poor families
we will develop supermarkets
cooperative model often on the
park slope crowd coop created in brooklyn
in the 1970s and that put
today the coop biz
for example in brussels all this is
important
all this is important and basically we
shows that we can get out of our
position of consumers criticize or
empowering readers to the listened
messages from political parties this
are real actors looking for
to invent alternatives
but the question that arises today
is to know if basically we are
not in a kind of deadlock dilemma
have these alternatives remained
in the state of two innovation niches or
well are going to be coopted by the system
as sometimes some organic sectors
some fair trade brands
is the alternative really
between the preservation of these initiatives
small scale or capture by the
dominant system that can co-opt
these alternatives basically buy themselves
always a little more time to last
to continue to dominate I would like to
for my part that we imagine how
get out of this dilemma and I do not see
other possibility than to encourage
food democracy that next to
alternative seizure that develops to
through the short chains through
farmers’ markets through the
supermarket cooperative long politicizes
the issue of food and that’s
is doing more and more in California we have
developed a policy board
food and its policy advice
food these citizen forums where
bring together the different actors of
food systems to think
how to transform the system
food is growing everywhere
canada in united states uk
here in the city of cork for example
in the south of england
these citizens understood that he
was not enough to consume evil
critical to vote for the right parties
or even become a systems player
alternative
they understood that it was necessary to
not be able to take power but
exercise power by putting
together to imagine alternatives
to the dominant system at the bottom their motto
the one by which I would like to finish
their motto is that the only real
limit to our power
is that we dare not exercise them
Thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
”
Be First to Comment