Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, Aug. 23, 2019 BQ
By Ruth Richardson
Ruth Richardson is
Executive Director, Global
Alliance for the Future of
Food.
TORONTO, Canada, Aug.
16, 2019 (IPS) — The special
report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) on climate
and land, launched last
week, makes it clear that
without drastic changes in
land use, agriculture and
human diets, we will fall significantly
short of targets to
hold global temperature rise
below 1.5°C.
Agriculture and food systems
are identified as they
key drivers of land degradation
and desertification,
with carbon emissions and
extractive activities affecting
75 per cent of the
Earth’s land surface. Now,
as forests, food, and farming
become the next frontier
in the climate emergency,
there is an urgent need
to accelerate creative and
effective solutions.
It is against this backdrop
that a new report “Beacons
of Hope: Accelerating Transformations
to Sustainable
Food Systems” showcases
21 initiatives from across
the world that are already
working in diverse ways to
achieve sustainable, equitable
and secure food systems.
Each Beacons of Hope is
disrupting the status quo
and regenerating landscapes,
enhancing livelihoods,
restoring people’s
health and wellbeing, reconnecting
with Indigenous
and cultural knowledge, and
more, in order to achieve a
resilient food future.
There is an opportunity
to learn from these initiatives,
as well as apply those
learnings to facilitate and
accelerate more food systems
transformations.
The report makes the
case for why we must pinpoint
the drivers of change
and seize the opportunities
they bring. Climate change
is called out as the predominant
overriding challenge
facing Beacons of Hope and
is identified as a key driver
of change across food systems.
An awareness of the
health impacts of current
food systems and the desire
to improve community
health and well-being also
emerged as important drivers
of change across many
Beacons of Hope. As well,
migration and immigration
— the movement of people
from rural to urban areas,
as well as across borders
— was found to significantly
impact agriculture and
health outcomes.
Yet, though food systems
are vulnerable and complex,
this report makes clear that
they can be transformed
to provide the people- and
nature-based climate solutions
we urgently need to
address a multitude of issues
— from climate emergency,
urbanization, and the need
for healthier and more sustainable
diets.
In particular, the report
details that we need to
accelerate agroecological
approaches as a way
to achieve transformation
with many Beacons of Hope
putting agroecological principles
at the core of their
work and their vision of the
future.
Take for example how
the Climate Resilient Zero
Budget Natural Farming
(ZBNF) initiative in Andhra
Pradesh, India, promotes
food resilience through
traditional, chemical-free
farming and agroecological
processes and plans to scale
from 180,000 farmers today
to a massive 6 million by
2024.
At the same time, the
Agroecology Case Studies
(from the Oakland Institute)
present evidence that agroecology
can provide better
yields, pest management,
soil fertility, increased biodiversity,
and increased
farmer incomes compared
to conventional farming.
Both these Beacons of
Hope challenge the dominant
narrative around food
production that pressures
national governments to
privilege industrialized
agriculture and foreign
investment over local natural
resource management
through agroecology.
They also demonstrate
that knowledge transfer
and skills training, through
farmer-to-farmer mentoring,
is fundamental to not
only building the capacity
of farmers and communities
over time, but to also challenge
top-down approaches
to reform and/or singlefocused
interventions that
can cause unintended consequences.
As forests, food, and farming
become the next frontier
in the climate emergency,
there is an urgent need
to accelerate creative and
effective solutions.
By Alexander Mitchell,
Schneps Media
Nine NYPD officers have
taken their own lives this year,
six cops in Philadelphia were
shot last week while protecting
their city, and the nation seems
to continue to slip into a dark
divide between police and civilians
that needs mending.
But the much-needed way
out of this darkness starts with
a respect for the authorities.
Make no mistake, there have
been times when police have
acted inappropriately and this
is not intended to undermine
those situations. This editorial
is to remind us all that the
good of many always outshines
the darkness of few.
Just imagine this: you’re an
officer out on patrol and a call
comes through the radio for
domestic abuse. You then rush
into that home to see a screaming
child attempting to defend
their helpless mother from an
abusive aggressor, but fortunately
you’re in time before
anything too severe happens.
After almost suffering a broken
jaw along with cuts from
the knife that the sick minded
individual was wielding, you’re
able to subdue them with no
harm to both the mother and
child, just as backup arrives.
You decide to head downstairs
and step outside as soon
as you see that your colleagues
are in control of the scene. You
just want a second to clear your
head from the horrible trauma
that unfurled before continuing
your patrol; after all, you’re
only an hour into your shift.
So, you step outside, and
suddenly you’re drenched
head to toe from a bucket of
water while you see almost a
dozen people laughing while
recording your humiliation on
their cell phones. They don’t
know what you had just been
through and almost just as sad,
they don’t seem to care.
We can’t imagine a day at
work going like that, but in a
department of roughly 35,000,
far too many NYPD officers
have seen something similar to
that hypothetical scenario —
and especially this summer.
The officers that remain
nameless are the ones that do
their jobs heroically, swiftly
and fairly. They are New York’s
Finest.
It’s now more than ever that
there’s a civic duty of all New
Yorkers let alone Americans to
remind police that they are
welcome in our communities.
It’s on us to show that we
respect law enforcement and
their families for the sacrifices
made so we have safer streets
to walk.
Elected officials from all over
the five boroughs have called
for the due respect that should
be given to police, it is our obligation
to carry that out.
No matter what, there will
come a time when you are in
need of the police. However,
now is a time that the police
are in need of us. Even just saying,
“Stay safe officer” to a cop
leaving a deli can go further
than you could imagine.
Letting the NYPD know that
their work isn’t in vain could
end up saving a life, perhaps
even yours, someday.
OP-EDS
As forests, food,
and farming
become the next
frontier in the
climate emergency,
there is an urgent
need to accelerate
creative and
effective solutions.
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Forests, food & farming next
frontier in climate emergency
Respect the city’s
finest
/schnepsmedia.com