Food and Agricultural Organization Background Guide

Transcription

1 Food and Agricultural Organization Background Guide The FAO was established when President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a conference on Food and Agriculture in Representatives of forty-four countries convened in Hot Springs, Virginia and committed themselves to founding an organization for food and agriculture. The First Session of the FAO Conference was held in Quebec, Canada from October 16 to November 14, FAO is an agency of the United Nations that leads the international fight to eradicate hunger. FAO acts as a neutral forum where all countries meet as equals and is directed by the Conference of Member Nations, which meets every other year to review the work carried out by the agency and approve a budget for the next two-year period. The Conference elects a council of 49 member states (serve three-year rotating terms) that acts as an interim governing body, and the Director-General, that heads the agency. The primary work conducted by the FAO includes helping to eliminate world hunger, making agriculture, forestry, and fisheries more productive and sustainable, reducing rural poverty, enabling efficient agricultural systems, and helping countries prepare for natural and human-caused disasters. I: Sustainable Fishing Practices in Small-Island Nations For decades, our seas and oceans have been considered an endless supply of food. However, unsustainable fishing practices over the last 50 years, driven by poor management and control measures are putting increasing pressure on important commercial fish stocks and their marine habitats. These unsustainable fishing practices have put an insurmountable amount of pressure on our aquatic ecosystems and by the year 2030, the global aquaculture market is expected to grow by 50%. 1 Currently, the global fishing fleet is 2-3 times larger than what the oceans can sustainably support and unless the current situation improves, stocks of all species being fished for food will collapse by Billions of people rely on fish for protein and for the citizens of small-island nations, fishing is their primary source of income. This has created a difficult issue for the international community to address. Thus, sustainable fishing is widely considered a viable solution to the problem of overfishing. Sustainable fishing is seafood fished or farmed in a manner that can maintain or increase production in the long term, without jeopardizing the health or function of the web of life in our oceans. 3 Seafood from sustainable fisheries is typically defined as having a low probability of being overfished, having stock structure sufficient to maintain or enhance 1 The World Bank, FISH TO 2030 Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture, The World Bank, World Wild Life Fund for Nature, Unsustainable Fishing, World Wild Life Fund for Nature 3 David Suzuki Foundation, "What Is Sustainable Seafood?," David Suzuki Foundation

2 long-term fishery productivity, being captured using techniques that minimize the catch of unwanted species, being captured in ways that do not result in irreversible ecosystem state changes, and having a management regime that implements and enforces all national and international laws. 4 The implementation plan adopted at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg established the maximum quantity of fish that can be harvested annually with a view to protecting the world s stocks. This is known as the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). The MSY is the maximum annual catch that can be taken from a species stock over an indefinite period without jeopardizing that stock. The volume of the catch that can be sustained over an indefinite period depends on the size of the stock. For many stocks, the size of the stock that would permit MSY is equivalent to around half the natural equilibrium stock without fishing activity. 5 Additionally, in 2014, the General Assembly adopted a resolution called Sustainable Fisheries, Including Through the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and Related Instruments, which essentially reaffirmed and called for all states to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 6 Although there have been great strides in raising awareness regarding overfishing, the international community has yet to directly implement further restrictions on aquaculture. However, many nations throughout the world have passed legislation restricting overfishing similar to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in the United States. As a result of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the United States is ending and preventing overfishing in federally-managed fisheries, actively rebuilding stocks, and providing fishing opportunities and economic benefits for both commercial and recreational fishermen as well as fishing communities and shoreside businesses that support fishing and use fish products. 7 However, the problems and challenges that Small-Island Nations face are much different than that of larger, developed nations. Many of these nations rely on fishing as their main source of income and would be deeply devastated by restrictions on fishing practices. Questions to Consider: What can be done to reduce the worldwide demand for aquaculture products? What laws can the international community pass that do not hinder the economic development of small-island nations? What further action can the international community 4 David Suzuki Foundation, "What Is Sustainable Seafood?," David Suzuki Foundation 5 United Nations, Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, United Nations, Oceans and Law of the Sea United Nations, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Overview and full text, Oceans and Law of the Sea United Nations 7 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

3 take to reduce overfishing? What can countries do to reduce overfishing within their own borders? II: Biotechnology and Food Security At the 2009 Food Security Summit, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proclaimed that on this day, more than 17,000 children will die of hunger. Once every five seconds. Six million children a year. [T]oday more than one billion people are hungry. This is not acceptable. 8 Food security has been prioritized to such an extent that it has been folded into the first Millennium Development Goal, to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 9 Biotechnology also offers several additional benefits, including higher crop yields, protection against insects, disease, and other threats, and in some cases more nutritious and tastier food. 10 Biotechnology is an overarching term that has been defined by some academics as the use of a living organism or its products for commercial purposes, and that may help supplement general health by infusing fruits, vegetables, grains, and other foodstuffs with nutritional benefits otherwise not found in nature. 11 The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity officially defines biotechnology as any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use. 12 Informally, modern biotechnology has been understood to mean, modification of living organisms (plants, animals, and fish) through the manipulation of genes. 13 The FAO has distinguished two different types of biotechnology: (1) the use of genetic information to alter current plant animal breeding practices and (2) creating a completely new organism by modifying genetic patterns in plants and animals (GMO s). 14 For years, biotechnology has included physical manipulation such as cloning, but the international community is now making more advanced molecular alterations. 15 Indeed, today s manipulation of organisms not only occurs at a visual level, but also at a smaller molecular level. 16 In other words, scientists are selecting desired genes of an animal or plant and then injecting these preferred characteristics into organisms Moon, Opening Remarks at Food Security Summit, UN, Millennium Development Goals 10 University of Arizona, Biotechnology and Food, Ibid 12 Food and Agricultural Organization, Biotechnology and food security 13 Ibid 14 Ibid 15 Biotechnology Institute, What is Biotechnology? 16 Ibid 17 Ibid

4 One of the primary purposes of biotechnology is to help the hungry by making agricultural practices easier, cheaper, more convenient, and/or have higher yields. 18 Ismail Serageldin writes, Poverty continues to limit access to food, leaving hundreds of millions of people undernourished in developing countries. Biotechnology one of many tools of agricultural research and development could contribute to food security by helping to promote sustainable agriculture centered on smallholder farmers in developing countries. 19 Research and development (R&D) focused on enhancing crop traits is also facilitating the development of crops that are resistant to droughts and tolerant to detriments like salt, thereby paving the way for more resilient crops. 20 The FAO has conducted research on biotechnology and the impact it has on developing communities. The FAO concluded that the current economic downturn plus the effects of climate change both reinforce the need to extend the effectiveness of crop improvement and management programs. 21 While biotechnologies aid in crop improvement and providing food security across the globe, controversies associated with the utilization of biotechnology (adverse health effects, side-effect, etc.) complicates decision making. 22 One of the arguments in favor of adopting biotechnology as a tool capable of strengthening agricultural practices and ultimately aiding the hungry is that biotechnology offers an alternative to conversion of land for agricultural use. 23 The FAO states, Even with improved food distribution and access, food security cannot be achieved without dramatic increases in crop production made possible by biotechnology converting more land for agricultural use is unsustainable. 24 The FAO further notes that there are increasing opportunities for larger crop yields, adding further nutrients to plants, and mitigating the threat that insects pose to agriculture. 25 With recent statistics showing an increase in the number of a worldwide hungry population, FAO is actively committed to promoting the sustainable intensification of agriculture to reverse this trend through several multifaceted approaches, including but not limited to: helping to raise levels of nutrition by regular access to sufficient high-quality food; modernizing and increasing agricultural productivity through simple, sustainable tools and techniques; and improving lives of rural populations through the safe use of biotechnology. The potential benefits of plant biotechnology and its ability to curb hunger and contribute to 18 Serageldin, Biotechnology and Food Security in the 21st Century, Ibid 20 Food and Agricultural Organization, Biotechnology and food security 21 Food and Agricultural Organization, Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries: Options and opportunities in crops, forestry, livestock, fisheries, and agro-industry to face the challenges of food insecurity and climate change, Ibid 23 Ibid 24 Ibid 25 UNCTAD, Key Issues in Biotechnology, 2002.

5 fulfilling the first Millennium Development Goal has already been generally acknowledged; though biotechnology, while it has seen success in enhancing food production opportunities in some developing countries, has in other circumstances received scathing criticisms and allegations of negative impacts on health, the environment, and economic opportunity for small-scale farmers. The international community remains dedicated to putting an end to global hunger and continuing to research biotechnologies. Questions to Consider: How can the international community ensure that regionally-specific biotechnologies are both affordable and available? How can potential hazardous health effects associated with some GMOs be effectively countered? What should the foci of future R&D developments be and how should they be funded?