Rich Countries block Land Reform Initiative

The Special Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) came to an end today without substantial decisions or recommendations to strengthen the struggle against hunger. In 1996 governments had promised to halve the number of hungry people by 2015. Since then the number has grown from 840 to 854 millions according to the FAO. “Governments, particularly those of rich countries, demonstrated a tremendous lack of political will to analyse the reasons for the growing hunger and to change their politics in accordance with the right to food”, said Martin Wolpold Bosien from FIAN International.

During the session Brazil, Argentina, the Philippines and other countries advocated for a stronger role of the FAO in the promotion and monitoring of Agrarian Reforms. The US, Canada and EU however blocked this initiative and impeded the Special Session to recommend concrete action to the FAO Council which will take place from November 20 to 25. Instead the discussion was postponed to 2007 and delegated to the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) which traditionally is not in favour of agrarian reforms for the implementation of the right to food. “It’s a scandal that rich northern countries refuse the support for land reforms clearly requested by the southern countries. Agrarian Reforms would be an essential precondition for the realization of the right to food”, said Armin Paasch from FIAN Germany. To give marginalized people access to productive resources like land is also a crucial part of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food, which were approved by all 187 member states of the FAO in November 2004.

Other important issues discussed during the one week FAO meeting like Food Sovereignty and the need to protect small farmers from cheap and subsidised agricultural imports are not reflected in the final report of the session. The report reaffirms the recommendation to implement the above mentioned Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food, however fails to recommend concrete steps. “The world lost already 10 years in the fight against hunger. We don’t see any commitment in the Final Declaration beyond the status quo”, Wolpold-Bosien concluded. “We strongly urge the northern countries, especially those of the EU, to give up their resistance against Agrarian Reform initiatives and to support the position of developing countries in the FAO Council later this month.”