A report published today written by food security and nutrition experts proposes that input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots must be consigned to the past in order to put global food systems onto a sustainable footing. Prof Melissa Leach, former STEPS Director and now Director of the Institute of Development Studies, was a member of the panel who commented on the report and helped to shape it.
The report argues for diversifying agriculture and reorienting it around ecological practices, whether the starting point is highly-industrialized agriculture or subsistence farming in the world’s poorest countries.
The report is published by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), led by Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food.