Global Agriculture Assessment Report Released Amid Growing Food Crises

This is the conclusion of the Global Report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), released on April 15, 2008. The report was commissioned in partnership with the United Nations and World Bank, and approved by 54 governments. It comes amid growing discontent among the world's poorest over rising food prices that have led to deadly protests in Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Mauritania, and riots in Haiti, Egypt, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

While acknowledging the benefits of modern agriculture for food production, the report asserts that they have not been equitably shared and have come at an increasingly intolerable cost to the poor and the environment. It states further that political and economic interests continue to hinder efforts to address the basics of food production and distribution and the environmental effects of our actions.

MI's president, Dr. Hans Herren, who served as one of IAASTD's co-chairs explains: "Specifically, this refers to the many OECD member countries who are deeply opposed to any changes in trade regimes or subsidy systems. Without reforms here many poorer countries will have a very hard time..."

However, not everyone agrees on the report's findings. Sixty-four countries considered the report, ten of which did not approve it. Also, representatives of the genetically modified foods and biotechnology industry pulled out of the assessment because the findings reject biotechnology and modern-industrial farming as a viable solution to sustainable food production.

On its part, MI plans to develop a Threshold 21 (T21) model with an expanded agriculture sector to better understand and analyze the feedbacks in the system. The model will be developed with input from important stakeholders and used with them to play out of scenarios that look at the challenges of sustainable food production and develop policies that foster attainment of the common goal.

The global report as well as other regional reports can be downloaded here: http://www.agassessment.org/