From Biomedical to Politico-economic Crisis: food systems and reconstruction post Covid-19
Two articles from the Journal of Peasant Studies, on the consequences of C-19 on the farming communities of the South, are very disturbing, profoundly questioning all that we have been sold over many years.
“From biomedical to politico-economic crisis: the food system in times of Covid-19” (Jan Douwe van der Ploeg
The Covid-19 disease is quickly developing into a deep, global and enduring politico-economic crisis that involves a rapid disarticulation of the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food. The badly balanced world market and the high degree of financialisation of both primary agricultural production and food chains are decisive factors in this. The crisis highlights that the real economy is far too dependent on the financial economy. Financial capital operates as a paralysing force. In this situation food sovereignty, peasant agriculture, territorial markets and agro-ecology emerge as indispensable ingredients for a recovery.
“Agro-ecology and the reconstruction of a post-COVID-19 agriculture“. (Miguel A. Altieri & Clara I. Nicholls.
The COVID-19 crisis has created a moment where existing calls for agro-ecology acquire new relevance. Agro-ecology provides a path to reconstruct a post-COVID-19 agriculture, one that is able to avoid widespread disruptions of food supplies in the future by territorializing food production and consumption. There are five main areas in which agro-ecology can point the way to a new post-COVID-19 agriculture: overcoming the pesticide treadmill, enriching nature’s matrix, revitalizing small farms, creating alternative animal production systems and enhancing urban agriculture.
[Kindly sent by member Benny D.]
Benny also raised concern over the news item about the AFAP Africa fertilisers map (August 16th, 2020). As he says ‘The whole operation is geared towards chemical fertilisers and seem to offer no choice of organic fertilisers. By publishing the reference, we might appear, as the TAA, to have a position that some people might not agree with. Should we not publish it with a note of warning?” We shall insert a caveat that ‘News Items do not necessarily reflect official TAAI policy’. Web Manager.
