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(UN) UN report supports sustainable agriculture

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UN report supports sustainable agriculture - March 9
by Staff

UN: Eco-Farming Feeds the World
Paula Crossfield, Civil Eats

For years now, the most-asked question by detractors of the good food movement has been, “Can organic agriculture feed the world?” According to a new United Nations report, the answer is a big, fat yes.

The report, Agro-ecology and the Right to Food, released yesterday, reveals that small-scale sustainable farming would even double food production within five to 10 years in places where most hungry people on the planet live.

“We won’t solve hunger and stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations,” Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and author of the report, said in a press release. “The solution lies in supporting small-scale farmers’ knowledge and experimentation, and in raising incomes of smallholders so as to contribute to rural development.”

The report suggests moving away from the overuse of oil in farming, a problem that is magnified in the face of rising prices due to unrest in the Middle East.
(9 March 2011)

The full report is available online (PDF) -BA

Labels: AGRICULTURE, SUSTAINABILITY

posted by MrK @ 7:33 PM