Tell the World Bank to Stop Hurting Small Farmers

Dear President Obama and the World Bank,

I stand with the small-scale farmers who represent 90% of all farms worldwide, and who produce 70% of the world’s food, on less than a quarter of the world’s farmland.

I also recognize that certain types of agriculture — particularly large-scale industrial and corporate-controlled agriculture approaches — which negatively impact on the livelihoods, land rights, ecosystems, crop diversity and resilience of farming systems around the world, are also largely responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change.

I recognize the need for action to enable food and farming systems to adapt to climate change. And I believe that to reduce agriculture’s contribution to the problem, we must find ways to phase out destructive agribusiness, and incentivize agro-ecological methods that work best for the world’s small-scale farmers and the planet. We know that food productivity is key for food security and food sovereignty. But it cannot take place at the expense of farmers’ rights, or the health of the soils, water and ecosystems on which agriculture depends.

The new Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture states that it aims to be the forum to deliver the necessary thinking, exchange and action that can enable farming to deal with the impacts, and reduce its contribution to climate change. It hopes to influence the development and adoption of policies by countries, and it conducted a high-profile launch at the UN-Secretary General’s Climate Change Summit in New York in September. Governments, corporations, civil society groups and academic institutions have all been invited to join.

As two of the biggest promoters of the misguided Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture, I call on both the World Bank and the US government to withdraw their support from this Global Alliance, because what it is promoting is a false solution that will do great harm to millions of farmers around the world who are already struggling with increasing climate impacts.

A few of the many problems with the Global Alliance include:

- NO ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA: The Alliance is open to anyone who subscribes to a broad framework document, and who is willing to share information about their activities. But it gives no defined criteria for so-called “Climate Smart Agriculture.” Industrial approaches that drive deforestation, increase synthetic fertilizer use, intensify livestock production or increase the vulnerability of farmers, are welcome to the Climate Smart family, and are apparently free to use the Alliance to promote their practices as solutions to climate change. The Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture could serve as a green-washing and policy-influencing platform for the planet’s worst offenders.

- NO SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS: Companies with dire social impacts on farmers and communities, such as those promoting Genetically Modified (GM) seeds or driving land grabbing already claim that they are practicing “Climate Smart Agriculture.” GM seeds contaminate and erode seed diversity, and criminalize the seed saving practices that farmers need to adapt to climate change. I am concerned that the Alliance may be used to promote approaches that increase the dependence of farmers on external inputs that trap them in cycles of debt and poverty, and that leave them even more vulnerable to climate change.

- CARBON TRADING: In some cases, Climate Smart Agriculture projects are funded by carbon offset schemes. Farmers are already harvesting the bitter fruits and paltry returns of a failing global carbon market. Carbon offsets by definition allow major polluters to keep emitting — this is not a real solution to climate change.

- GOVERNANCE, POWER AND CORPORATE ALLIANCES: The governance structure of the Alliance is still unclear. There is a significant risk (some might say likelihood) that the unequal power relations seen elsewhere in the world are echoed in the Alliance, and the agendas of corporations and wealthy governments are given greater weight than those of civil society organizations, small-scale farmers and developing countries. In such a space it may not be possible to challenge the real causes of vulnerability, or find the real answers about how we must produce, exchange and consume our food in the face of climate change.

- UNACCOUNTABLE: The Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture states that it aims to influence policies at national level; but it makes no reference to the wealth of knowledge, expertise and carefully considered approaches such as the FAO’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS) or the recommendations of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Several frameworks developed within the CFS, internationally agreed and recognized, such as the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests are not taken into account. By ignoring these participatory spaces, the tools they develop, and their understanding of climate change, food security and farmers’ rights, the Alliance’s values and approaches could duplicate and undermine these official UN processes, and end up in an unaccountable free-for-all in service to its most powerful members.

There is an alternative, led by small-scale farmers and food producers around the world. In the words of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, we call on those interested in real solutions to the climate crisis "to join us in the struggle for food sovereignty, and for a different model of agriculture and food production that will provide a just economic well-being for small-scale farmers and their communities while producing enough healthy food to meet people's nutritional needs and guaranteed access to food for everyone. Any method of production and consumption, to be truly sustainable, must enrich and protect Mother Earth."

I denounce the Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture. If the World Bank and the US government are genuine about their stated concerns to address the relationship between climate change and agriculture, I call on them to stand with small-scale farmers and food producers around the world and support their efforts to implement agroecological methods and to achieve food sovereignty, including work to guarantee the human rights to land and water, as well as community access to and control of seeds.

Sincerely,
[Your name]