The Slow Food USA Blog

More notes from the U.N.

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by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer

As this article from last Friday's Wall Street Journal reports, the U.S. has proposed 770 million additional dollars of food aid to address the growing food crisis. The U.S. delegate to the U.N. reported this in his remarks on Monday to the Commission on Sustainable Development, although he (as well as many other delegates) also emphasized that while giving aid is a nice thing, we, as a global community, need to address food security in a more long term way.

The U.S. delegate also stressed the need for "science-based" approaches to food security, and he was not alone. A British Ag Professor who presented on a panel on Tuesday made the case for the positive potential of biotech, i.e.: GMOs as the solution to many nutritional deficiencies in the developing world and GMOs as a way to increase production. He spoke out VERY harshly again the anti-GMOers, saying that Africa cannot feed itself without GMOs.

Interestingly, one thing everyone there can agree on: climate change is real, and is having real effects on agriculture, especially in Sub Saharan Africa. For better or for worse, climate changes' effects have become so incontrovertible that gone are the days when anyone could get away with challenging its veracity.