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Geoff Tansey and Elisabeth Dowler (Chair)
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Rewriting the Rules…
…to secure our future food
28 September 2009, 10:30 - 16:00, Dragon Hall, 17 Stukeley Street, London WC2B 5L
Chair: Prof. Elisabeth Dowler
Professor, Food and Social Policy, University of Warwick. Member, DEFRA's Food Policy Council**
Keynote address: Geoff Tansey
Joseph Rowntree Visionary and BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards best food campaigner 2008*
Download the address as a 131kb PDF | Download audio as a 6128kb MP3
"we need to see better, more just rules and rule making processes that are supportive of the sharing of knowledge, scientific and technical skills about food and developing poor producers' livelihoods."
Over the next few months there will be many processes and meetings, discussing urgent solutions to rising hunger and the multiple crises affecting the world's food system, which UK Food Group members will attend. These include meetings around World Food Day, the European Food Security Group (on which the UK Food Group represents BOND), the FAO High level Expert Forum on "How to feed the World in 2050", the Committee on World Food Security, the November 2009 World Food Summit and parallel people's forum for food sovereignty in Rome. This UK Food Group meeting for World Food Day will help members prepare for these processes and for the future challenges to the world's food system...
Panellists
| Kerstin Lanje | Senior Adviser World Trade and Food, Germanwatch (lead consortium member of the EC project 'African smallholders in focus') | Removing the trade threats including t of the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Download the presentation as a 1503kb PDF Download as a 2466kb MP3 Download Hellen Yago presentation as a 806kb MP3 |
| Michel Pimbert | Director Sustainable Agriculture, Biodiversity and Livelihoods; International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) | Changing 'models of production' Download the presentation as a 863kb PDF Download as a 2593kb MP3 |
| Saquina Filimone Mucavele | ROSA, Mozambique (Rede de ONG's/ Associações em Serviço da Agricultura e Segurança Alimentar) | Recognising and supporting rural women's contribution Download the presentation as a 199kb PDF Download the address as a 3986kb MP3 |
| Julian Oram | Head of Policy, World Development Movement (WDM) | Preventing speculation in food Download the address as a 1648kb MP3 |
| Helen Rimmer | Food Chain campaigner, Friends of the Earth | Changing livestock production and consumption Download the presentation as a 1586kb PDF Download the address as a 1226kb MP3 |
| Patrick Mulvany | Co-chair UKFG and Senior Policy Adviser, PracticalAction, | Towards food sovereignty - changing access, and control of the food system Download the presentation as a 185kb PDF Download as a 1286kb MP3 |
Our one day conference, Rewriting the Rules…to secure our future food, identified and proposed changes to some selected national and international rules and regulations that need to be "rewritten" if we are to secure future food supplies in ways that are socially and environmentally sustainable. The food sovereignty framework can provide the backdrop for these proposals.
The programme was participative with contributions from many in plenary and working groups. The panellists introduced the topics in a plenary session for which rules must be changed. The participants then divided into working groups to discuss specific changes and alternatives. Topics included trade agreements including Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), access to productive resources, agricultural models of production, refocusing on small-scale food providers, changing consumption and trade, speculation in food. Further ideas from participants will be welcome. Each working group had specialist inputs from participants and panelists and was moderated by a member of the UK Food Group committee.
The outputs of the meeting included a 'list' of achievable changes. They contributed to our joint EC project consortium's work on trade and agriculture, focused on African smallholders, and informed UK Food Group members in key meetings in the UK, Europe and internationally. They also contributed to the discourse on healing our dysfunctional food system that leaves one billion hungry and makes one billion obese, forces small-scale food providers off the land and their fishing grounds, and threatens the environment.
AGENDA / approx timings
| 10:00 | Registration | Arrivals and coffee |
| 10:30 | Introductions | UKFG Co-Chair and Liz Dowler |
| 10:40 | Keynote address Questions | Geoff Tansey |
| 11:20 | Panel presentations Clarifications | |
| 12:45 | Organising working groups | |
| 13:00 | ||
| 13:45 | Working groups | |
| 15:00 | Plenary | |
| 15:45 | Closing comments |
Liz Dowler and UKFG Co-Chair |
| 16:00 | Conference ends | Tea and depart |
| 16:30 | Optional informal meeting to prepare for EFSG in Brussels on 5 October | UKFG / EFSG members |
Working Groups
| Topic | Moderator | Resource person(s) |
| Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) | Jeanette Longfield | Kerstin Lanje, Hellen Yego (presentation) |
| Access to productive resources | Patrick Mulvany | Geoff Tansey |
| Agricultural models of production | Michel Pimbert | Barnaby Peacocke |
| Refocusing on small-scale food providers | Dan Taylor | Ruchi Tripathi, Saquina Mucevo, Chris Wardle (presentation) |
| Changing consumption and trade | Linda Craig | Helen Rimmer, Liz Dowler |
| Speculation in food prices | Christopher Jones | Julian Oram |
** Liz Dowler is a member of the Food Ethics Council and the UK National Heart Forum. Recent publications, with colleagues, include "Reconnecting Consumers, Producers and Food: Exploring Alternatives".
*Geoff Tansey is a Joseph Rowntree Visionary for a Just and Peaceful World - Working for a fair and sustainable food system; Winner, Derek Cooper Award for best food campaigner/ educator, BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards 2008; member and trustee of the Food Ethics Council; and co-editor of "The Future Control of Food", Earthscan
Downloads
Download the Conference flyer as an 65kb PDF
Download the Agenda as an 95kb PDF
Hidden Threats
An analysis of intellectual property rights in EU-ACP EPAs: unveiling the hidden threats to securing food supplies and conserving agricultural biodiversity. Download the report
The European NGOS members of CONCORD common position on the reform of the FAO Committee on Food Security (CFS)
The European NGO members of Concord have been heartened by the steps towards more effective cooperation and coordination that have been taken by international institutions over the past months. Now the reform of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) provides a decisive opportunity to set the global governance of food, agriculture and nutrition on a firm basis. As we move toward the final negotiations of the reform in the coming session of the CFS in Rome on 14-17 October the position of the European Union is crucial since its stance thus far has been generally supportive of the effort to transform the CFS into a strong and authoritative global policy forum. Read more - download 177kb word document
This event is part of African smallholders in focus – a voice in EU trade policy: an EC funded consortium, dialogue-oriented, public advocacy project www.ukfg.org.uk/smallholders/