Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

Secure land tenure allows farmers to live on land with security, grow food and supply productions to consumers. It is an empowering tool for farmers and communities to invest on land and manage their eco-systems sustainably where relevant. How, when, where and by whom food is grown are essential elements of food sovereignty. Farmers who grow food should be able to produce seeds for their cultivation. They hold knowledge on locally driven demands. Security and control over land by farmers and local communities are essential elements in both growing seeds and food. Building sustainable food syst... Read moreems holds its foundation at the local level based on understanding local needs, retaining local knowledge and talents, job creations to production of seeds and agricultural products. Local and small-scale farmers are both producers and consumers. Their families and local communities depend on their farm products. There is no food sustainability when farmers cannot access and control production factors, primary of which is land. Over the years, climate change has brought severe challenges to local food productions. If efforts on mitigation and adaptation measures are to be successful, local communities should be able to participate in mitigation and adaptation measures and restore their local eco-systems. Having security of land is the first steps in this process. Policies on resource allocation should focus on supporting and strengthening communities and their ecosystem values through improving local governance structures, extending technical assistance such as skills relating to agroecological management. The Covid19 pandemic unravel the economic and social inequalities among local farmers. Protecting land rights of these communities is the first step towards protecting their socio- economic rights and food security. To tackle these challenges: • Secure land rights of all to build sustainable food systems: women, youth, IPs, pastoralists & small holders/landless farmers • Recognise right to land as a fundamental human right • Revisit current value system in food systems (land use in global south for food & timber for global north) • Recognise importance of both formal & informal land ownership in building sustainable food systems • Recognise pastoralists as food producers (social & environmental value of land) • Recognise indigenous community lands & customary land systems as part of building sustainable food systems/ their contribution to mitigate climate change & protect nature • Take measures to protect access to commons as part of securing food systems of local communities • Increase transparency & accountability in land investments & make sure that agreed plans are followed through citizen monitoring Read less

Women and Youth Challenges Despite their contribution to agriculture, a large proportion of women in the region do not have access to or control over land. Even with legal assurance for women’s ownership of land, in certain social circumstances, male-dominant hierarchical societal structures prevent women from having full ownership of land. Both weak legal and discriminatory social structures for women to own land make them further vulnerable in situations of large-scale investments. Lack of confidence among youth about farming as a sustainable form of livelihood, attracts fewer from the you... Read moreth for agriculture. Solutions - Right to land for all should be a constitutional right. This is the first step in paving the way for legal frameworks which recognise and facilitate equal ownership of land among women and men - Focus more on the implementation of laws and policies which guarantee women’s ownership of land - Simplify administrative procedures that facilitate women’s access to land. Such procedures should be easily understandable and accessible - Tackle cultural norms which hinder women ownership of land with sensitivity - Include women and youth in decision making processes particularly relevant to customary tenure systems - Discriminatory practices based on patriarchy should be addressed through confidence building showcasing the benefits of achieving gender equality - Accessing common land can be the basic opportunity for women and youth to access land. To achieve this, the natural and socio-cultural values of the commons should be recognised at local, national and regional levels. Further, development of a chain or mode of marketing of the communal production give them incentive and allow them to better position themselves in the market. - Study the existing customary rights and traditions and remodel them to adapt to the present socio-economic circumstances Stakeholders and partnerships - Multi-stakeholder platforms consisted of government, CSOs and international organisations - Public officials particularly working on land and agricultural issues Read less

Pastoralists Challenges Having access to land is the source of a sustain livelihood system for pastoralists. This should be recognised by the law. Food sovereignty among pastoralists rely on land as the key supply source of food. Land degradation, interest of investors and large private sector businesses impend the land rights of pastoralists. They are often not a part of compensation schemes in situations where their land is taken over by governments. In certain circumstances, tensions exist between farmers and pastoralists in relation to commons. Despite legal and policy guarantee, there are... Read more serious gaps in their implementation in certain jurisdictions. Governments often do not make resolving challenges relating to pastoralists a priority. Modern economic models should recognise and respect the contribution by pastoralists to food systems. Solutions - Recognise pastoralism as a way of life and custom. - With recognition of pastoralism, government should demarcate land for pastoralists - Develop natural resources user contracts recognising the land rights of pastoralists living in conservation areas - Allocate resources (funds) to strengthen land use among pastoralists and develop infrastructure to increase food production among them - Raise awareness about issues relating to pastoralists recognising them as legitimate land users - Develop community by-laws to protect rights of pastoralists - Build capacity among pastoralists to stand for their land rights Stakeholders and partnerships - Governments - Inter-governmental organisations - Civil Society Read less

The Poll results conducted during the session: find in attachments Key points that were shared during the discussion:- Sister Jayanti “One sacred aspect of life is that all food ultimately comes from nature.” “We are in the same boat, if one part of the boat has water coming into it, how long is it going to take to reach the rest of the boat.” “It’s only through a shift in our consciousness and coming back to the awareness of one family that we are able to say that we cannot continue, we have to make a change and we are the ones who can do it.” “Personal change is w... Read morehat generates systemic change” David Fletcher “To have a sustainable system we need to recognize we are a part of the system” “Revalorization for the producers who are close to the land and water and take the energy that’s put into our food and an understanding that, that is where the system starts would be helpful to put the sacred energy back into people and will make a difference to the food systems.” Gopal Patel “Change begins from inside and it is the shift in inner consciousness that will reform the external food systems” “It is important to understand that whether we are from a particular faith or not we are all concerned with the social issues we face today and we need to connect these concerns with the food system and act responsibly” Pramisha Thapalia “Unless we know our problems we can’t move to solutions” “The youth can have a significant impact on the food systems through education, empowerment & advocacy” “Young people are not only the future leaders but the leaders of today” “Action is the most important step to bring a change in the food systems” Read less

Food like language exists as a medium for expressing culture. It has the power of being both a necessity for our body as well as a deeply symbolic artefact, one that expresses our identity. So naturally there will be some reluctance and difficulties in making a shift to conscious food choices for individuals from different cultural origins. This barrier was addressed by the organizers and different opinions were expressed. One of the organizers held the view that if we can understand that the food choices we make are for our own health, for the future of our planet, and realize that the food w... Read moreill notably affect our state of mind, then it’s not going to be seen as a cultural or a border issue but as a need of the moment for the human survival. The other speaker expressed his view regarding the same by sharing one of his experiences with the young students from all over the world. He believes that the awareness of the origin of the food and the industrialized process it undergoes and the understanding of our connection with nature can bring a change in our awareness and we will be able to make more conscious food choices as individuals of one big family. The dialogue emphasized on shifting one’s consciousness and becoming aware of the interconnections in the food systems. With regard to this the speakers held different perspectives. One of the speakers expressed that they are in line with the idea that understanding the system, how it works and that we have an influence on that just as that has on us means that there are choices we have to make about how we interact with the food and food systems. The other speaker held that its only through a shift in our consciousness and coming back to the awareness of one family that we are able to say that we cannot continue, we have to make a change and we are the ones who can do it. Read less

The major focus of the dialogue was considering a shift in awareness as a significant lever of change for all five action tracks. That shift, to a Food Care system, is an innovative approach that encourages people to take a values-based and spiritual approach to all their interactions with food and the food system. This approach instills in everyone an understanding that a change in our inner consciousness is what will have a significant impact on the outer food system.

The main findings of the dialogue were that all individuals have the opportunity to make choices that will have an impact on food systems. Globalized food systems, as they currently exist, are a vast interconnected economic system that do not have the well-being of people and the planet at their core. Tackling the transformation of such a system can seem overwhelming. However, every individual has some ability to chose how they interact with the system and millions and billions of these individual choices will eventually lead to a change in the system. This aspect made it possible for the orga... Read morenisers to deliver their message in a detailed yet lucid manner and hence for the individuals to incorporate this understanding of conscious food choices in their lifestyle with at most ease. The insight that emerged, and was endorsed from the dialogue, was that “we are what we eat” and individual conscious choices about the food we eat and knowing how it gets to our plate can reorient the food system in a positive, sustainable direction. Some of the themes that came out of the dialogue where: 1. Food and consciousness 2. Food and choices – mindfulness, the power to recognize and change 3. Food and sacredness 4. Appreciating interconnectedness of our food systems 5. Honoring nature’s role in our food systems 6. Instilling values into our food systems 7. Creating sustainability in our food systems 8. Taking action to shift how we think about food and food systems It became clear from the dialogue, the sharing between panelists and with participants, that efforts to bring issues such as conscious and sacredness into more discussions of the food system are important. Based on this the convenors are committed to the following actions: • With BK Youth India • With BK centres • Other faith institutions • BK network internationally • With UN youth connections The conveners are also committed to continue their work in exploring global and local food systems in more detail and understanding the actors at every step in the process, the interconnections and the environmental, socio-cultural, and political-economic dimensions of food systems. In doing this the team will develop workshop and teaching materials that will be translated in to multiple languages (eg. English, Hindi, …) and shared to target groups and made generally available on the BK environmental websites. Some of the specific materials that will be developed include: • Video that captures themes • Tool kit for workshops • App for colorful plate of food • Poster of themes • Briefing note on themes Read less

Action Track 3 • Engage all society • Strong political leadership

Action Track 4 • More active role of Governments in ensuring equitable livelihoods for small holder farmers • Food affordability for consumers

Action Track 5 Strengthening public-private partnerships

A major area of divergence was the perceived conflict between traditional livestock production (especially ruminants) in terms of its large environmental footprint and the health implications of high levels of meat consumption. There was a high level of advocacy for a more plant-based diet and for cell- cultured meat.

We developed the following 3 central questions to guide discussions across all 5 Action Tracks of the Dialogue: 1. What are the innovations in science and technology that you see improving the sustainability of our current food systems by 2030? You can think about all points along the entire value chain from food production and processing, to marketing and sales, to consumption and health outcomes (eg. food type, post-harvest losses and food waste, storage, distribution, nutrition, and dietary patterns). 2. The current structures, policies, and systems (in the broadest possible terms) are perh... Read moreaps the root causes of today’s unsustainable food systems. What transformations do you envisage being required to make the fundamental changes needed for the “food world” of the future? 3. Who are the key stakeholders that would need to be mobilized and become more prominent (than currently prevails) to allow the above innovations and transformations to materialize? These questions were designed to prompt discussions about food system transformation and identifying levers of change. The following themes are examples of levers of change identified during the Dialogue: • Food waste; crop and diet diversity; consumer awareness of healthy eating; healthy food marketing; improved food labelling and packaging for consumer education; • Advanced technologies, food ethics and GMOs; • Urban agriculture- home gardening, community gardens; community food sharing • Food forests; respect for indigenous and cultural food habits; • Food subsidies and government regulation. Read less

Action Track 1 • Need for more accountability & responsibility by companies profiting from the current food system • Enhanced consumer awareness of food system sustainability and healthy eating • Need for Public policy enforcement of livable wage for healthy eating and sustainable living Action Track 2 • Shifts to more localized food production • Nutrition education of consumers • Government incentives and subsidies for production and market access to local foods • Production disincentives for unhealthy foods • Aligning consumption with seasonality of produce • Diet diver... Read moresity and culturally appropriate food systems • Youth education and awareness of food waste and recycling Action Track 3 • Enhanced government regulations (of food marketing?) • Changes in ethics and economics of environmental sustainability • Rights-oriented food system • More localization of food production and supply • Governmental support programs for diversified food production • Emphasis on food system resilience and skills training • Free trade and agriculture Action Track 4 • Including women and more minorities in the food chain • Community gardens • Access to fresh local food • Reduce food waste- incentives • Food education for consumers • Shifts to plant-based rather than animal-based farming • Public-private partnerships • Fair trade • Incentives to localize food production • Encourage basic living wage • Knowledge sharing Action Track 5 • Change in marketing language; • Nutri-score (nutrition label that converts nutrition value into a 5 letter code) • Vertical agriculture • Diversification in agriculture • Make farming more popular among youth Read less

Action Track 1 • Mobilization of people and communities • Changes in the food industry (reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods)

Action Track 2 • Youth engagement • Commitment of government institutions • More involvement of medical & health care community • Responsible land ownership and land utilization • Changes in school cafeterias and supermarkets • Enhanced corporate social responsibility

INOFO is a network that facilitates relationship between organic farmers unions through the autonomous, self-organised infrastructure within which farmer organizations consult & cooperate on matters of common concern and speak in any forum with legitimate professional voice. With its mission to unite organic farmers and support their voices at all levels of food systems development, towards producing healthy, nutritious food and preserve mother earth, INOFO Asia is conducting the independent dialogue to discuss the issues and challenges of the present food system, from seed to table and p... Read moreropose just, equitable, sustainable and healthy solutions with the farmers at the core and forefront. The objectives are of the dialogue are to: discuss and draw up solutions to the challenges and issues of the current food systems, covering the five Action Tracks of the UNFSS, based on the realities and on-ground situation of the farmers and their communities in Asia; and make use of the Independent Dialogue to put the voices of the small farmers and the marginalized in setting the agenda and proposing pro-farmer, pro-people and pro-planet solutions to the Food Systems Summit. Read less

A. Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all a) There is increased initiatives from the community and consumer participation is important, especially during the pandemic, where production became in harmony with nature. b) There is also exploring the potential and documenting local food and food ingredients, especially non- timber forest products, and maintain the continuity of native local varieties in organic agriculture. c) Theres should be trainer of the trainer for small organic – agroecology farmers and training on market access. Small organic farmers can also have collaborati... Read moreon with university, local NGO, CSR program as well as farmers exchange education. d) There should be support in Partisipatory Guarantee System, conduct training on this aspect and marketing of product. e) Seed bank for family farming which is important in the preservation of local variety. f) Collaboration with local government to make center of local food production at specific area specially product from small farmers and indigenous people, farmers should work hand in hand with local government. g) Food product-based innovation in local varieties is related to local wisdom of the community based on geographical uniqueness. There are training for women community and educate consumers about the nutritional value and goodness to return to the forgotten local and how to process local materials and food. B. Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns a) Sustainable use of resources can only be possible with a good working knowledge of those resources. b) Organic farmers work in range of ecosystems -there is a maximum sustainable yield of each ecosystem from any landscape and what’s happening today is from forests to farms that are managed organically but as we move towards urbanization, you will find that the impervious surfaces - a tremendous amount of capacity to produce ecosystem services is lost. c) The price is that fossil led development is creating climate change. d) In the future, monoculture, corporate farming will not work. It will be too hot for it. Therefore, we should stop thinking monoculture small farm and think of farms that are surrounded by trees and tree crops, landscapes that are diverse and developed, this has to be landscape to survive climate change and as small farmers, this is our strength. C. Boosting nature-positive production a) The world has shrink into a small world and that whatever happens to it, affects everyone so that the call is to deglobalize and relocalize food systems. We have to argue as well that global Free Trade under WTO is not favorable to small farmers. b) Environmental components of nature-boosting production: Regenerate and conserve soil/reduce soil degradation; Efficient water harvesting /uses renewable energy; Seeds/planting materials; Conservation of agrobiodiversity, genetic and species diversity: intercropping / polyculture; Agro-forestry; Crop-livestock integration; Functional biodiversity (biological mgt of pests/disease/weeds); Holistic landscape management c) Local/farmers market (short food mileage and a mitigation to climate change) and to enhance food security of the local systems. Farmers should determine market price of products, enhance fair, distribution webs that are interconnected locally so that this is more sustainable and has more contribution to local food security and sovereignty. Farmers need to have a sustainable livelihood and steady income, without it, there will be no more farmers and the so called “farming without farmers” and ultimately moving into corporate agribusiness farming which will create more socio-economic and political problems of feeding the hungry. d) Grow the food that you eat, eat the food that you grow! e) Organized/Strengthened farmers organization is needed. We need stronger participation of farmers/consumers in decision-making about food and agriculture. Lobby for public policies in support of farmers/ IP; decentralized, collective participatory governance of farming and food systems and farmers control of seeds, land, market price set by producers. f) Develop a new food system that is for small scale farmers, for sustainability, for the earth and for the coming generation. D. Advancing equitable livelihoods a) Improved access to organic markets through a guarantee system for small scale producers as costs are mostly in the form of voluntary whihc is very important and usefule for small scale farmers. b) Promote short supply chains and local market development because farmers already have quite a lot of access to internet , mobile phones so short supply chains will be very good. c) Strengthen international cooperation to exchange experiences, study and improving human resources d) More local enterprises, including local processors and retailers should be invited and benefit from organic projects. These are the powerful engines of small organic producers. Farmers should learn how to do business so they could control their own enterprise and do not depend on traders anymore. e) E. Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress a) Farmers used to grow different varieties for different purposes. b) Farmers not only check the production, but they also check the cultural use and diet. c) Varieties are being used for medicinal purposes and we shou Read less

1. increased awareness on the UNFSS, its objectives and tracks - the discussion on improving our food systems that revolves around recognition of farmers rights to resources and other support, will not end after this dialogue but will become the basis for more discussion, lobbying, practice and campaign for a world of Regenerative and Sustainable Food Systems for All . 2. Stronger cooperation between members of INOFO in the promotion of agroecology and organic agriculture and for exchange of experiences, study and improving human resources. 3. Stronger conviction on the importance of existence... Read more as individual and as a farmer. Participants were in the dialogue for no reason. People have been exposed to systemic apathy, the whole education system (and that includes the education in agriculture) has been dominated by West and the industrialised way of farming. That chain of empathy should be broken. 4. Stronger call for rights recognition. Food is right for all. Moving the food management fully by corporation without farmer's role is something impossible. ight pricing and market recognition of small scale producers. Farming and agriculture is about culture, life of nature, life in Asia. We must push our gov’t to recognize the rights before agriculture is culture and heritage. 5. Reiterating calls to UN-FAO: UN should make a program with concrete actions to promote family farming. Can guide small farmers especialy in highland/ mountainous area where available conditions for organic/agroecology and link thier products to markets. To make it happen, think about road transportations those for connecting people, knowledge and markets. 6. Proposal to create a hub to promote business , selling not only locally, in a country but doing business without borders in this group. Thus, the larger the market, the greater the market demand. We need a really good logistics team to solve the paperwork problems for farmers who lack business skills. 7. Highlighting small farmers in all aspects of production, processing and marketing: Food system by corporate won't be beneficial for the small farmers, because all the capital and source will be controled by the big corporate. Farmers have their indigenous knowledges about farming and live in the unique cultures that different each village. So points are : a) Farmers must have an organization or cooperative b) Farmers must have a fair price in the market that tolerate to their production cost c) An alternatif market for farmers, so would be easy for farmers to deliver their harvest d) Farmers must feel free to do their technical when doing farming that comes from their own knowledges not from corporate guidelines that only consider about the market. Read less

There is not much divergence in term of principles and what are the participants are trying to convey to attain a better food systems. They are united that there should be strong implementation of biodiversity conservation policies nationally and internationally, better support structure for small scale producers - from production to marketing, including infrastructure, impelementation of climate change policies nationally and internationally and stop the corporatization of agriculture. The divergence is mainly in the priorities at the national level since many countries in Asia are not gettin... Read moreg enough support, specially vaccine, to be able to continue producing more food. In the Philippines, farmers have produced more during the pandemic however, the challenge was the transportation of the food to the urban centers that caused overproduction and wastage in the rural area and insufficient supply of food in the urban communities. With this, the priority now is to bring the harvest to the urban centers but not in supporting farmers have better marketing skills and improve the production and processing capacities so that food do not go into waste. The same is happening in many countries in Asia, priorities of the governments are misplaced, which are pushing small scale and marginalized farmers further in the periphery. The proposed solution are all in the agroecology framework of FAO, but as part of the output of the dialogue, there is a strong recommendation to include the political dimension, specially farmers right recognition, to bring the back the resources (land, biodiversity, knowledge, technology, market) into the hands of the farmers, as this is basic requirement to have a better food systems. Read less

Sujet 7 : L’accès au marché Question 7. Comment améliorer l’accès au marché aux petits producteurs ? Contraintes : - Faible accès des producteurs au marché ; - Manque d’infrastructures au niveau des marchés ; - Réseau routier défaillant ; - Le marché numérique totalement absent. Résultats : - Améliorer les infrastructures dans les zones rurales (y compris le réseau routier). - Favoriser la création de petits groupements au niveau local pour la commercialisation. - Développer des plateformes numériques pour la commercialisation de certains produits (produits de niche).