Agriculture at a Crossroads - Business as Usual is Not an Option!

Agriculture at a Crossroads - Business as Usual is Not an Option!
(http://www.globalagriculture.org/)

Why should 870 million people on our planet be going hungry while 1,4 billion are suffering from the ill effects of overweight and obesity? In 2011 more grain was harvested than ever before: 2.3 billion tons worldwide. Despite this record-breaking harvest, only 46% was used to feed people.The rest was used to feed livestock, fill our petrol tanks, support industrial production processes or was simply wasted. Our global food system is one of the most significant contributors to climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution and water shortages as well as preventable disease, poverty and injustice.

On behalf of the United Nations and the World Bank, in a four-year-process, more than 400 scientists summarised the state of global agriculture, its history and its future. The outcome was the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The findings are uncomfortable and alarming: providing a warning on the misleading ways of the past and showing new ways forward. This website makes the IAASTD’s findings available by topics, and offers all reports as well as updated figures, background information and news.