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United Nations press release
UNITED NATIONS
Press Release
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UN Special Rapporteur: "Brazil is a leading
country on the right to food, tremendous
opportunities to do even better"
16 October 2009
BRASILIA - The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Professor
Olivier De Schutter, is currently in Brazil for a country mission on
the progressive realization of the right to food. Addressing
journalists in Brasilia, he summarized his first conclusions.
"My visit in Brazil is one of the most inspiring I had. Brazil has
made so much progress since 2002, yet at the same time deep challenges
remain, and persistent pockets of poverty and hunger are unacceptable.
Brazil sits on enormous opportunities to accelerate change for the
better, if the country commits to reinforce the policies that not only
boost food production, but improve the situation of the most
vulnerable groups, including small farmers and the landless."
The Special Rapporteur met with more than one hundred persons during
his mission, including Ministers Celso Amorim, Patrus Ananías, and
Guilherme Cassel; the Presidents of both Houses of Congress Mr Jose
Sarney and Mr Michel Temer, as well as representatives of all food
security institutions, in particular CONSEA and CAISAN, and most civil
society organizations.
"Any candidate for the next presidential elections should commit to
three objectives: strengthen social programmes; accelerate the support
to family farming; allocate public resources to productive sustainable
agricultural modes of production; and tackle land concentration
through agrarian reform", added De Schutter, knowing his report will
be published in an election year. He detailed three core objectives.
"First, the Fome Zero programmes should be enshrined into laws, with
adequate earmarked budget, so that they cannot easily be reversed,
creating a permanent dynamic of progress and development" said the
Prof De Schutter, who attended an international seminar on claim
mechanisms. "Claim mechanisms for those who are denied access to such
programmes must be improved. Citizens have rights, the State has
obligations, and fulfilling these obligations actually creates a very
positive effect for a broad socio-economic development."
Second, the Special Rapporteur observed that family farming is
absolutely vital to Brazil's economy. According to data received,
family farming accounts for 70% of food production in Brazil, and it
creates more jobs and more value per hectare. "This is what countries
need in a time of crisis. The recent law organizing the procurement of
a minimum of 30% of school feeding (PNAE) from assentamentos and
family farming is actually one of the best levers the Brazilian
government has at its disposal to realize the right to food for all",
added the Professor teaching at the University of Louvain in Belgium
and Columbia University, USA. "The world is watching this programme,
it can't fail".
"Third, Brazil should consider stepping at full speed into the best
sustainable farming approaches in order to become a holistic and
long-term source of inspiration for the world. Indeed, there is a huge
untapped potential in innovative agroecological practices, such as
agroforestry, and they could be scaled up.", said the UN expert, who
called for a nation-wide participatory assessment of the respective
merits of family farming, agroecology and export-led agriculture,
including monocultures and agrofuels. Prof De Schutter added that
"genuine participation with family farming organizations and social
movements will be vital to ensure the potential of agroecology
materializes".
Prof De Schutter thanks the Brazilian government for the support in
organizing the mission. He hopes to return to Brazil next year to
discuss the implementation of his final recommendations, after his
full report will be published.
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