Diverse Agriculture and Food Systems: The Potential Solution to Hunger Challenges
Zero hunger and sustainable agriculture – Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) established by the United Nations (UN) – is directly related to overcoming the so-called “agri-food monotony”. Experts draw attention to the importance of the agenda and its inclusion in the Brazilian presidency of the G20.
Ricardo Abramovay, professor at the Josué de Castro Chair – dedicated to the production of knowledge about food systems – at the Faculty of Public Health (FSP) at USP, explains that it is necessary to think not only about the ends, but also about the means to be achieved. “To overcome hunger it is necessary to change the installed system. And this change has as its fundamental vector diversity and the fight for diversification of both agriculture and food”, reflects Abramovay.
Current agri-food system
The professor highlights the effect of agriculture on the environment, as, globally, it corresponds to around a third of greenhouse gas emissions and even exceeds emissions from the transport system. Furthermore, despite the existence of other factors, agricultural production represents the largest vector of biodiversity destruction in the world, through techniques that homogenize landscapes and animal husbandry.
“Large fields of soy, wheat and rice have been very important since the 1960s to increase agricultural supply and reduce hunger, but this has brought very serious consequences for the environment and people,” says Abramovay. For environments, the main impact has to do with the greater insecurity caused by increasingly frequent climate problems, which can cause crop losses. According to the UN, around 2 billion people have been affected by droughts in the last 20 years, for example.
Another aspect that has also become homogenized, according to the professor, encompasses the production of animals, especially chickens and pigs, which are subject to great risks of contamination by viruses and bacteria. “Diseases derived from viruses and bacteria are treated, on a large scale, with antibiotics. Today, resistance to these drugs has become an extremely serious global public health problem considered by the United Nations,” he highlights.
Change and Brazil
With such a homogeneous pattern problematic, as it no longer matches the demands of the 21st century, such as the fight against the climate crisis, Ricardo Abramovay considers a necessary change of model in which Brazil would occupy a prominent place. “The agri-food production regime is based on not only productive monotony, but food monotony as well, and change must permeate both areas globally”, declares the professor.
Regarding diet, the specialist explains that there is a change in the diet profile, which was previously based on calories. In the current scenario, the demands that must be prioritized are nutritional quality, sustainability of production, climate resilience and impacts on the fight for equity against inequalities.
“Brazil can play a very important role in this change. The Amazon is the region in the world with the greatest biodiversity, with an extraordinary potential for offering new products that can counterbalance this current monotony”, points out Abramovay. Furthermore, the professor highlights Embrapa in the field of research, which can also contribute greatly to the advancement of the area in the country. The decentralization of the food system, until now concentrated in a few companies, together with local knowledge and knowledge highlighted, is the first step towards transforming this monotony.