FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP ENSURE ACCESS TO FOOD FOR ALL?

SPEAKER PANEL MEMBER

HOWARD PETCH

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

INTRODUCTION

Born and bred (during the war) on North Yorkshire Farm—Youngest of 4 Boys

Father started as tenant farmer in 1921 (overdraft of £300)

Left school aged 16, worked 5 years in family business

College, VSO, offered a job lecturing in agriculture 1969

Career (40 years) in Further and Higher Education (land based subjects) including 12 years as principal Bishop Burton College

Profound interest in food and farming locally and in a global context—consider myself member of farming community; Vice Chair FCN

Brought up in a Christian family—made renewed commitment to Christ 32 years ago following family trauma

Climbed Kilimanjaro for Compassion UK March 2012

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

OBSERVATIONS

‘Live as if you are going to die tomorrow and farm as if you are going to farm forever’ (first heard from father)

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. (Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels)

‘that as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter day and night will never cease’ (Genesis 8)

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give and it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

FROM FIELD TO PLATE

GROWTH AND PRODUCTION--Farmers & Growers—Many—Limited power

PROCESSING & DISTRIBUTION--Processors & Retailers-Few--Powerful

PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION—Consumers—Power? Rights? Obligations?

CORPORATE---PERSONAL

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

SO WHERE ARE WE NOW?

As a consequence of the amazing increase in food production over the last half century there is available 17% more calories per person per day (across the globe) than were available per person 30 years ago this despite there being 70% more people; Equivalent to >2700 calories per capita (World Hunger Education Service- Based on FAO data)

Enough food but almost 1 Bn seriously malnourished and many more living on < 2 dollars per day

Reasons for such disparity are complex include: poverty, bad governance, abuse of power, waste, apathy, malpractice, lack of will, ignorance, war, and climate.

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

THE CHALLENGE

Population

Food Water Energy

Climate Change

Land Availability Per capita 1950—13.5Ha:(33.3Ac) 2005—3.2Ha: (7.9Ac) 2050—1.5Ha: (3.7Ac)

In summary address the problems of today and feed more people tomorrow with less resources

It is no good trying to solve the problems of tomorrow with the same level of thinking that created them (Einstein)

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

NEED TO:

The case for urgent action in the global food system is now compelling. We are at a unique moment in history as diverse factors converge to affect the demand, production and distribution of food over the next 20-40 years” (Beddington)

Balance demand & supply sustainably with affordability: increase production, new technology, reducing waste, better governance, influence demand

Ensure stability in food supply protecting the most vulnerable from extreme volatility

Achieve global access to food & end hunger

Manage the food system within the constraints of climate change (more production less emissions)

Maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the world

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

NEED BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF:

Consumption, nutrition, health and waste

Sustainable Intensification

Agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change

Food price dynamics and market dysfunction

Governance and regionally appropriate interventions

Application and monitoring of new technologies

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION (FAO)

No one size fits all in UK let alone across the globe

‘Productive agriculture that conserves and enhances natural resources. It uses an ecosystem approach that draws on natures contribution to crop growth and applies appropriate external inputs at the right time and in the right amount to improved crop varieties’

Should be about an equitable balance between ‘sustainable’ and ‘intensification’ and as such will be a radically different food system than we have today

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

SOME TESTING ISSUES

BIO-TECHNOLOGY: THE GM DEBATE SOURCES OF ENERGY: THE USE OF LAND: BIO FUELS? INTENSIVE OR EXTENSIVE: IS BIG BAD? THE CARBON FOOTPRINT(UK Agric 7% ghg) ANIMAL WELFARE & DISEASE (TB) POWER IN THE FOOD CHAIN REGULATION OF SOIL, WATER & ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT / PRODUCTION TENSION DIET; WASTE TRADE POLICIES; FREE; FAIR: FOOD PROVENANCE;LOCAL/DEVELOPING WORLD INVESTMENT IN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH CONSUMER RIGHTS & OBLIGATIONS

FOOD MATTERS CONFERENCE

THINKING THEOLOGICALLY

To live we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skilfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness and others to want (Wendell Berry)

To eat is still something more than to maintain bodily functions. People may not understand what that ‘something more’ is but they nonetheless desire to celebrate it. They are still hungry and thirsty for sacramental life’ (Alexander Schmemann)

‘To eat is to be implicated in a vast, complex, interweaving set of life and death dramas in which we are only one character among many’ (Norman Wirzba)

‘The character and pace of much contemporary life makes it less likely that people will perceive the mystery of food or receive it as a precious gift and a sign of God’s sustaining care’ (Norman Wirzba)

Ingratitude is the sepulchre of love (Portuguese proverb)