[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”30″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”178″,”style”:”width: 310px; height: 178px; margin: 10px; float: right;”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”310″}}]]As the intergovernmental Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) meets this week in New York to discuss food security, nutrition, sustainable agriculture, desertification and land degradation, the Campaign on People’s Goals for Sustainable Development calls the OWG's attention to the alarming impacts of neoliberal policies on agriculture and on peoples’ food sovereignty.

 

The neoliberal framework which emphasizes the reduction of social rights in favor of market liberalization and corporate freedoms led to an increasingly industrialized and globalized agri-food production system. This has resulted in a few multi-national corporations’ controlling food production and different supply chains. With trade liberalization and withdrawal of various forms of agricultural support, the majority of small-scale farmers find themselves being squeezed between high-input costs and low prices for their produce in the developing countries.

 

The People’s Goals Campaign believes that new global development goals should aim to stop privatization and expropriation of peoples’ land, forests, waters and farmland by multinational corporations. 

 

The full statement with the CPG recommendations can be found here.