Ecological Food Provision

The UK Food Group is working to raise awareness of the importance of ecological food provision in the framework of food sovereignty. One dimension of this is the need for localised food systems that use sustainable and resilient ecological practices based on locally-developed agricultural biodiversity.

The UK Food Group Briefing "Securing Future Food" provides an overview of the issues and the calls from social movements for a move towards ecological food provision for strengthening local food webs within localised food systems.

An activity is the UK Agricultural Biodiversity Coalition (UKabc) which aims to increase the understanding of policy makers, NGOs and the public, of the importance of the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity for food and livelihood security. This also includes issues concerning Benefit Sharing, Farmers' Rights, Patents, Intellectual Property Rights, Seed Saving, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and GM Food Aid. A special focus is on the ratification of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the implementation of the recommendations of the UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights.

The UKabc website contains much more information relating to agricultural biodiversity and related international processes. It contains an archive of CSO activities around the negotiations and implementation of the International Seed Treaty (IT PGRFA).