Hunger is not natural
Right to Food campaign
2008/2010 Campaign
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Right to food campaign
Why a campaign about the Right to Food?
 It is necessary to take in consideration the food market when we talk
about Fair Trade
 the commodities have been among the first Fair Trade products
(cocoa, coffee, sugar, tea, bananas)
 The food market is more and more linked to the industrial farming
model and to the speculation of the financial markets
 In 2003, agriculture employed 2,3 billion people (FAOSTAT, 2004)
 As a paradox, even if food prices increase, the food producers
represent the majority of the 927 million people that are
undernourished.
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Right to food campaign
“Unnatural” causes of the present food crisis

Present agricultural and food industry is business-oriented and damages
natural resources – resulting in bad food quality

If food becomes a commodity, it will be subject to all possible market failures
– among else, social injustice and bad environmental impact

The present food crisis has deep roots and causes originating back in time:
1. Unsustainable agricultural politics
2. Unfair trade regulation
3. Agricultural benefits distorting the market situation
4. Systemic marginalization of small producers
5. Long-term lack of agricultural investments in the Global South
6. Indifference to the preservation of existing ecosystems
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Right to food campaign
Costs in food production
 In the past 50 years, food production has more than doubled to respond to
increased demand on part of the market
This has resulted in:
1. Damage for 60% of the existing ecosystems
2. Genetic diversity progressively decreases: as of now, four vegetal
species (wheat, corn, rice, and potato) provide for more than 90% of the
necessary calories for human nourishment; simultaneously, about 12 animal
species provide for 90% of the globally consumed animal proteins.
3. 75% of agricultural biodiversity has been lost: traditional knowledge and
local farming techniques have disappeared in favor of a market-oriented
agriculture
 The most vulnerable farmers are prey to market oscillations, political
instability, and climate change.
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Right to food campaign
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Right to food campaign
Undernourishment 1990
Territory size shows the proportion of
all undernourished people worldwide,
that live there. www.worldmapper.org
Right to food campaign
Undernourishment is not being able to meet the minimum level of dietary
energy consumption - that required to be able to undertake daily tasks.
This is measured against a minimum weight, which varies by height, age
and gender.
In 1990, 840 million people, or 16% of the world population were
undernourished. The largest counts of undernourished people are
found in India and China. The highest percentage of undernourished
people was in Mozambique, where 69% of the population did not have
enough to eat.
Almost a quarter of all territories recorded no undernourishment in
1990. The regions of Japan, Eastern Europe and Western Europe are
barely visible on the map.
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Right to food campaign
Undernourishment 2000
Territory size shows the proportion of all
undernourished people worldwide, that live
there. www.worldmapper.org
Right to food campaign
Over the ten year period from 1990 to 2000, the number of people
in the world that lived on an inadequate amount of food increased
from 840 million to 858 million. Due to the population increases over
this period, the percentage of the population that is undernourished
simultaneously decreased from 16% to 14%.
Of all the people living in Central Africa, over 60% are
undernourished. The Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest
levels of undernourishment: 3 in every 4 people there are
undernourished.
Reducing the proportion of undernourished peoples is an aim of
Millennium Development Goal 1.
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Right to food campaign
Why?!
Someone says..
Environmental factors (trend to lower the sense of
responsibility of politicians)
Demographic factors (we are more, we eat more!)
but in reality there's no global food scarcity, there's a
problem of access to food
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Right to food campaign

We think is more likely related to:
City centered policies
Agricultural export oriented policies
Trade liberalization
Speculation
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Right to food campaign
Who profits most in the food chain
 Producers of chemical fertilizers (Cargill’s Mosaic, Sinochem, Potash
Corp): some of them have doubled their profits in 2007.
 Sellers of products for agriculture (Cargill, ADM, Conagra, etc.), that
have made 5.200 Euros (+50% on 2006)
 Merchants of seed (Monsanto, +44%, DuPont, +19% Syngenta,
+28%)
Being in the position for exercising a direct control on the increasingly
complex systems of the global market, these multinational
corporations are able to make enormous profits out of food scarcity.
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Right to food campaign
Those who are subjected to the highest level of
pressure in the present situation
 Small owners, landless workers, and farmers located in
marginal areas of the world, often ecologically vulnerable :
1. They produce for foreign markets (cocoa, coffee, bananas, etc)
and buy food for their own consumption on the market – products
that are often manufactured in wealthy countries. Far from being a
profit, the increase in prices is to them a dramatic event.
2. They have no political support and cannot compete with industrial,
public-funded agriculture.
3. In order to survive, they are forced to leave the countryside and
migrate to the towns.
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Fair Trade has something to say
Fair trade has a lot to say about all this, because the reasons for
struggling against global poverty and injustice are part of its
very DNA:
Inform about the roots and causes of hunger, reflecting on the
processes that have brought to this dramatic food crisis
Promote a fair trade choice as a concrete instrument for struggling
against global and international trade inequalities
Provide people with an opportunity to enact such a change through
daily gestures oriented by responsible lifestyles – choices that might
relocate the consumer and her/his power to inform the market at the
very heart of the trade scenery.
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Stop the market of hunger
For a fair food market
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Right to food campaign
Equal opportunity access to market means
 To pay a fair price to producers, above market standards
 To fully develop the local / national market beside exporting
 Make land, water, and means of production available to small producers
 Guarantee food sovereignty
 Regulate trade and agricultural production for a sustainable development
 Limit the dumping of food products
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Right to food campaign
Equal opportunity access to market does
not mean
 To block international trade and exchange; quite the other way, it means
to promote politics and practices sustaining the right to food access for
everyone, as well as an ecological, healthy, and safe food production
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Right to food campaign
Objectives
 Make public opinion aware of the
necessity for universal food access
 Promote Fair Trade as a valid solution
 Promote individual participation
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1. INFORM
The Right to Food campaign focuses on:
 The globalization of the food market
 Traditional industrial chains versus short chains in the Global North
and South
 The raw material market (coffee, cocoa, bananas, etc.)
 Prices and dumping politics
 The situation of rural women
 Food and intercultural education
 GMO and the protection of biodiversity/ free access to seed
 Food production vs. production for alternative energy sources
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2. VALORIZE
We have very positive Fair Trade projects as
examples
 Navdanya, India (Rice)
 Elements, India (Coffee, Cajou, Vanilla)
 Parc, Palestine (Cous Cous, Almonds, Dates)
 Coopeagri, Costa Rica (Bio sugar)
 Uciri, Mexico (Coffee)
 Podie, Sri lanka (Spices)
 Wupperthal & Heiveld, South Africa (Rooibos)
 Chankuap Foundation, Ecuador (essential oils)
 Saterè Mawe, Amazzonia (guarana)
 MCCH – Food Sovereignty Project
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3. INVOLVEMENT
I support the right to food
1. Choose Fair Trade
2. Choose organic
3. Choose local food
4. Protect biodiversity
5. Moderate meat consumption
6. Avoid waste
7. No GMO, yes BIO
8. Sustain ethical finance
9. Save energy and choose alternative energy (not biofuel!)
10. Use water responsibly
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Right to food
The campaign addresses
Fair Trade volunteers
Consumers
Schools
Institutions and Administrations
Media
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Right to food
The Right to food campaign is promoted by the following
European organizations, within the framework of the
Enlarging Fair project
• Ctm altromercato, Italy
• Pangea-Niente Troppo, Italy
• KKG - Koperattiva Kummerc Gust, Malta
• Society for Fair Trade, Czech Republic
• FAIRTRADE Slovakia
• Umanotera, Slovenia
• Védegylet Egyesület - Protect the Future Society, Hungary
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