World Food Day Seminar 16th October
Governing Agriculture: what now for food security and food sovereignty after Cancun?

Thursday 16th October, 2:00 – 4:30pm (lunch from 1:00pm)
Venue: Partnership House, 157 Waterloo Road, London. Nearest underground: Waterloo

The possibilities, predictions and pitfalls that lie ahead after the failure of the WTO’s Cancun Ministerial meeting

The recent round of WTO talks in Cancun failed. The Doha development round is stalled. The needs of the poor in poor countries have been marginalized. The emergence of a third economic alliance including China, India, Brazil and South Africa kept some disputed issues off the agenda and the walkout precipitated by Kenya caused the Mexican Chair to close the meeting without an agreement.

This World Food Day, a month after the WTO meeting, and in the context of hunger amidst plenty, we pose two questions. What will be the impact on the food security and livelihoods of poor people and their communities? What is the way forward for the governance of food and agriculture post Cancun?

On World Food Day 30,000 children will die of starvation, 840 million people will still be severely undernourished and 1.5 billion people will go to bed hungry. However, enough food is available to provide at least 2 kg of food per person a day worldwide. For example, in India, where one third of the world’s hungry live, 50 million tonnes of food are rotting in government warehouses. The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food.

Governments are aware and have made many unfulfilled commitments in United Nations conferences to tackle the scourge of hunger – not least the FAO World Food Summit Plan of Action and the first Millennium Development Goal to reduce by half the proportion of hungry people by 2015. But can this goal be achieved without significant reform of global governance of food and agriculture? Is the problem, institutional, structural or political? As delegates asked at the World Food Summit, can humanity “be sufficiently wise, to save itself”?

In this context a Panel of eminent speakers will address the issues through presentations of reports and analysis of what happened in Cancun and discussing ideas about future governance of food and agriculture.

· Duncan Green, Policy Analyst, CAFOD
· Nico Verhagen, Via Campesina
· PV Satheesh, Deccan Development Society, Andhra Pradesh, India
· Michael Meacher MP, former Environment Minister
· Eva Clayton, Assistant Director General, Food and Agriculture Organisation

Chaired by Caroline Lucas, MEP