World Conference on Green Development of the Seed Industry sidelines small-scale food producers: IPC
The World Conference on Green Development of the Seed Industry (hereinafter the “Conference”), that took place on 4-5 November 2021, is proving to be another step in the imposition of the seed industry’s agenda within the FAO.
The FAO, in contradiction with its charter, has opened a new political process orchestrated by the seed industry, where there is no real contradiction and the narrative is one-sided. This conference seems to contradict the work of the FAO itself: according to data from the 2019 State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture report, among the main drivers of global biodiversity loss are “changes in land and water use and management, pollution, overexploitation and harvesting, climate change, and population growth and urbanisation”.
Most of these causes of biodiversity loss are consequences of industrial agriculture itself; in 2021, the UNEP report “Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss” clearly identifies the current food system as the main cause of biodiversity loss. Based on these data, the celebration of this conference between the 26th UN Conference on Climate Change and the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, is a further support by the FAO to the strategies of the big seed companies that dominate the global market.
Find below the statement issued by the Working Group on Agricultural Biodiversity of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty.