March, 10 2014, 02:44pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth International Food Sovereignty Program Co-coordinator
Tel: +598 99 13 85 59 (Uruguay) or email martin.drago@redes.org.uy
Bold U.N. Right to Food Report 'The Only Recipe for Hunger Eradication'
Friends of the Earth International commended a groundbreaking report presented today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, which calls for the world's food systems to be radically and democratically redesigned to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. [1]
Mr. Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, presented his final report to the UN Human Rights Council after a six-year term as Special Rapporteur.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Friends of the Earth International commended a groundbreaking report presented today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, which calls for the world's food systems to be radically and democratically redesigned to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. [1]
Mr. Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, presented his final report to the UN Human Rights Council after a six-year term as Special Rapporteur.
Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth Food Sovereignty Program Co-coordinator, said :
"This report is the only recipe for the eradication of hunger. Its recommendations are bold and simple: our current food systems must be reversed, not just reformed."
"Food democracy and the right to food start with this report and its urgent recommendations, which all governments must now turn into national policies. They must note the report's emphasis on the need to support agroecology at the national and international levels," added Martin Drago.
Mr. De Schutter warned that the current food systems "are efficient only from the point of view of maximizing agribusiness profits" and stated that the key lies in democratic decision-making, saying: "National right to food strategies should be co-designed by relevant stakeholders, in particular the groups most affected by hunger and malnutrition, and they should be supported by independent monitoring.
Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth Food Sovereignty Program Co-coordinator, said : "We applaud the invaluable contribution of Mr De Schutter towards promoting and advancing Food Sovereignty, which is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound methods. His report is a powerful endorsement of the ideas long held by the global Food Sovereignty movement."
"The report's recommendations clearly state that Food Sovereignty is needed to eradicate hunger as well as to democratise our food systems. The report also recognises Food Sovereignty as an essential condition to be fulfilled in order to fully realize the right to food," he added.
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] A press release launching the report is online at https://www.srfood.org/en/democracy-and-diversity-can-mend-broken-food-s...
The full report is online at https://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20140310_final...
Friends of the Earth International is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 74 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, FOEI campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and social issues.
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