The UN Food Systems Summit, which took place in Washington DC last month, couldn’t be faulted for ambition. “The way we produce and market food is harming our environment,” said its website. “This has to change.”

The summit was called by UN Secretary General António Guterres to address the serious impacts of the growing demand for commodities on the world’s ecosystems, as well as the consequences this has for people’s health and wellbeing.

So, it may come as a surprise that campaign groups representing local farming and fishing communities around the world decided to boycott the event, even though it seemed to be ideally suited to further their aims.

Speaking ahead of the event, Elizabeth Mpofu, a member of the International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina, a global network of peasant organisations, said it would “not only promote corporate interests, but it will also shrink even further the already limited space available for social movements and civil society inside the UN”. A summit spokesperson challenged this, stating: “There is no single business or agribusiness in any part of the Summit process. The Summit was developed by the three food agencies of the UN.”

La Via Campesina, among other groups, has long campaigned for the interests of small-scale farmers and for a trade system that puts the interests, health and welfare of people above profits. It is a deeply emotional issue: many farmers suffer loss, poverty and poor health because of the policies of the big agricultural companies, whose financial and legal muscle can influence markets and effectively, if unintentionally, disenfranchise local communities.

However, these commercial juggernauts are facing pressure to change as an increasingly stringent body of regulations reaches into their operational and management structures, changing the way they do business, manage people, consume resources and treat the environment.

Source: China Dialogue