A road to food sovereignty: from productivism to biomass refinery


(Baraka Agricoltural College, 22/01/2020 - Ruth M. and Anita D.) Yesterday we listened to a lesson by Raffaele Matacena, who talked about the development of the global food system and the current challenge to sustainability and food sovereignty. In short we can say that food system is dynamic and it has changed over the years, driven by different factors.
Three movements appeared over the years:

Productivism was driven by the principle that every country should produce what is best at and import all the rest, instead of try to produce everything. These system is found in the fact that exist few companies with a lot of power which drive the system and suffocate the small producers.

During the 1980s a new system appeared: the post productivism, based on control and regulation through the request for certification about the origin of food. During this period people developed the need to know and understand the production process and this lead to a more regulated food system especially with the exports. This movement was sustained by the neo liberalism legislation about market.

Neo productivism in the 2000s is strongly market based and private led. What happens is that Consumers control the markets with their demands and needs and the market responds with bioeconomic solutions but not with eco economic solutions. To explain these concepts we could say that an “bio economic solution” apparently respects environment and people who work with earth, but is aimed to productiveness (high production without spending much) and focused to the needs of consumers, offering biological and no sustainable products.

A topic covered by Michele Fontefrancesco on valorization opened our minds to the fact that food is much more than energy because it is linked to people. Also this taught us that consumers consider how the product make them feel, the stories behind the product among other things and not solely about the company and the price.

Slow food Kenya has adopted a more biorefinery method which is sustainable. The introduction of 10,000 gardens which teaches the farmers on soil fertility magagement and intergrated pest management. A topic covered by Elphas Masanga revealed a sad truth that farmers in Kenya: they are subjected to inferior seeds to benefits few individuals. Hence losing much of the indeginious seeds. Seeds savers has come in to help the farmers preserve seeds.

After today lesson we need to rethink the whole system and begin to do things in a more sustainable way. This will require change of laws which are dependent on political will. But we can begin on our small means and show the product and this will intiate change this may not happen overnight but it’s adaptable.

We feel like sharing with you some links to  short movies that we have been watching and have been particularly inspiring, linked to the activity of Slow Food worldwide:
Palestine
Mexico

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