Food, Faith and Power Ruth Valerio

The Issues Ownership of food in hands of a few multinationals Diet and health Animal welfare High energy and resource use Use of pesticides, chemicals and impact on health Climate change Dietary changes amongst Chinese and Indian expanding middle-class Speculation in commodity futures Agrofuels GMOs IMF and World Bank Structural Adjustment Programmes Food waste Land grabs

The role of smallholder farmers There are around 525 million farms worldwide – 85% are 2 hectares or less Smallholder farmers produce over 70% of the world’s food Half of the world’s hungry are farmers Most small farmers buy more food than they sell, so don’t gain from high food prices on average, small farms in developing countries generate per cent of total rural income, including both farm and non-farm activities. Some 30 million smallholders produce most of the world’s coffee and cocoa

The role of women 60 – 80% of food in most developing countries is grown and/or processed by women Women are the main producers of the world’s staple crops (rice, wheat and maize) Staple crops provide 90% of the food consumed by the rural poor in Africa Women own 2% of the world’s land

The challenge of climate change Scientists virtually unanimously predicting a 4 degree warmer world by the end of the Century without serious policy change (World Bank report, Turn down the heat) 2012 drought in the United States impacted about 80 percent of agricultural land, making it the most severe drought since the 1950 There is a rapidly rising risk of crop yield reductions as the world warms Impact of sea level rise on important low-lying delta areas (eg. Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam)

Corporate Power Seven companies control 85% of tea production through their factories and estates. Smallholder tea growers are likely to receive less than 3% of the retail value of tea, and often less than 1% Five companies (Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte, Noboa and Fyffes) control around 75% of world banana trade. Of banana retail price, only 1-3% returns to the workers on large plantations and just 5-10% goes to small-scale producers. The ABCD group (ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus): 75-90% of global grain trade.

Our food trends Over 60% of women and men in the UK are overweight or obese On average, we eat way below the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day People of all incomes are eating ever greater quantities of junk, fast and processed food: sales of ready-meals are expected to grow by 35% between 2012 and 2016 We throw away more food than packaging in the UK every year We eat more than our recommended daily allowances of protein, saturated fat, salt and sugar. Around 500,000 people in the UK are reliant on food aid

Theological reflections Food is good - Gen. 1:26-31 Food is gift – Ex. 16: Food brings us into one body – 1 Cor. 11:20-34

Virtuous eating Humility Frugality Generosity Justice Hope and patience Love

‘There is, then, a politics of food that, like any politics, involves our freedom. We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free’ (Wendell Berry)

Ruth Valerio