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OAS FORUM UNDERSCORES FOOD CRISIS AS OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW DEVELOPMENT MODEL

While the current food crisis poses a severe challenge, it is also an opportunity to devise a new model for economic and social development globally, Deputy Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Christopher Hansen, told delegates at a special Organization of American States (OAS) meeting.

“Aside from the challenge they bring, rising food prices provide an opportunity to reexamine the international food situation and come up with appropriate strategies to protect mankind from similar uncertainties in the future,” said Hansen. He warned that food security touches on a complex set of cross-cutting issues involving political, social and environmental dimensions that cannot be addressed through short-term measures.

Addressing a special session of the OAS Permanent Council on Wednesday, the IICA Deputy Director General recalled that within a one-year period there was an unprecedented jump in food prices that even triggered riots in more than 20 countries. He said wheat has seen a 130% price increase; rice, 74%; soy, 87%; and corn 52%.

Against that background, the food crisis also represents an opportunity for the agriculture sector and rural areas of the Americas, he argued. “The longstanding problems must be addressed,” Hansen asserted, adding that farmers should take advantage of increases in international prices for food. Agricultural and rural development policies must be incorporated more effectively into national development programs, he suggested. “We need a new development model that places agriculture and rural economies on the development agenda. The model must accentuate how it enhances food security, energy security and employment as well as environmental protection and natural resources conservation preservation, peace-keeping and social stability.”

Hansen recalled as well that just as food is a basic right worldwide, “the food component of the agriculture sector must be a central issue on the development agenda for all countries, and should be allocated the resources needed for growth and sustainability. That sector can no longer remain on the periphery of the development process.”

In another warning to the Permanent Council members, the 2005 Nobel Peace laureate Thomas C. Schelling, who is also a University of Maryland lecturer, said climate change has had a major effect on food and agriculture worldwide.

“Agriculture has perhaps seen the greatest impact of global climate change,” said Schelling, citing the adverse effect on food supply, prices and distribution as well as on people who make a living from farming, and this also has implications for health. Asserting further that climate change is “real,” Schelling lamented how leaders worldwide have ignored the importance and gravity of this situation.

While inaugurating the special session, Permanent Council Chairman Ambassador of Bolivia Reynaldo Cuadros Anaya and OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin accentuated the importance of hemispheric discussions on the food security and climate change challenges.

Ramdin welcomed Wednesday’s discussion as a timely move by IICA, given the focus on rural prosperity and improving agriculture development. “It is very relevant for the OAS to deal with the development problems countries are facing, in the context of climate change and its impact on agriculture and food supply,” he argued, insisting “it is now time to translate that into concrete action on what should be done and how they can counteract the influence of climate change on their economies.” Ambassador Ramdin offered that this is one way the OAS could mobilize political support to redress development problems in the Americas.

David C. Hatch, IICA Assistant Deputy Director General and Representative in the United States, in closing remarks noted that increased investment in agriculture is key to tackling poverty levels in the hemisphere, and it is also to achieving Millennium Development Goals.

Several member state representatives exchanged ideas with the presenters, pointing to specific policies in place in their own countries aimed at addressing food security and climate change.

Reference: E-374/08