Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
Nelson King, Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, OCTOBER 22-28, 2021
By Nora McKeon
ROME, Oct 19, 2021 (IPS)
– ‘COVID 19 has multiplied
hunger and malnutrition
challenges. We need transformative
action!’ The first
speaker at the UN Committee
on World Food Security’s
(CFS) 49th Plenary Session,
the Secretary-General of the
United Nations, turned the
spotlight on the disastrous
impacts of the pandemic that
have afflicted communities
around the world for close to
two years.
He was echoed by the presenter
of the 2021 edition of
the State of Food Security
and Nutrition in the World for
whom ‘COVID is only the tip
of the iceberg’, while keynote
speaker, Jeffry Sachs, emphasized
the multifaceted nature
of the crisis, with chronic poverty
and conflict at the center.
Delegation after delegation
took the virtual floor to
share their concerns: Kenya
speaking for the Africa Group,
Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica,
Norway, Morocco, Peru, Spain,
Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia,
Mali, Cape Verde, South Africa,
Uganda, Saint Lucia and more.
The impacts of COVID-19 on
food security and nutrition are
heavy and lasting. The vulnerable
are the most effected,
within and between countries.
Covid has deepened and exacerbated
existing structural fragilities
and injustices in our
food systems. Its causes are
multisectoral and cannot be
treated in a siloed way.
‘Multilateralism, solidarity
and cooperation are key to
the way forward’, the President
of ECOSOC added, and
‘the CFS is a unique multilateral
forum because it brings
all the actors together in the
name of the right to food’.
The text adopted at the end of
Day 1 summarized all of these
contributions, and deepened
concern by drawing attention
to the possibility of recurrent
pandemics.
With this kind of an opening
one could have expected
a standing ovation when it
was proposed, the following
day, that the CFS put together
a globally coordinated policy
response to the impacts
of COVID-19 on food security
and nutrition and a proposed
precautionary approach
towards possible future shocks
of this kind.
This proposal was a long
time in the building. For a
year and a half the CFS’s Civil
Society and Indigenous Peoples’
Mechanism (CSM) had
been documenting the experience
and proposals of its
constituencies and communities
and bringing this evidence
from the ground into
the global debate. Earlier this
year an informal ‘Group of
Committed’ governments and
other CFS participants had
come together to push for
the CFS to take determined
action. How could it fail to live
up to its mandate in the face
of the most serious threat to
global food security the world
has faced since the 2007-2008
food crisis?
Just a week before CFS49
the Group of Committed had
held a seminar where evidence
and proposals for global
policy action were presented
by national governments,
regional and local authorities,
small-scale food producers,
the urban food insecure,
along with UN agencies, the
Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Food, and the CFS’s
own High-Level Panel of
Experts.
The seminar demonstrated
that action is being taken by
different actors and authorities
at local, national and regional
levels, while UN agencies have
developed and adopted relevant
policy instruments and
programmes in their respective
sectors. What has been
missing thus far is a way of
putting the different perspectives
and initiatives together
into a multisectoral, multilaterally
coordinated approach.
Filling this gap was the proposal
that was put on the
table in CFS49.
‘We need a globally coherent
and coordinated response
to support governments’
efforts and the CFS is the
appropriate place for this to
happen,’ the Ambassador
of Mali had exhorted in his
opening address.
So what about the standing
ovation? The proposal
was supported by countries
from the Global South led
by African countries, the
most affected by injustice in
access to vaccines, dependency
on food imports, and
indebtedness, but including
also Mexico, Peru, Morocco,
the CSM and the Special Rapporteur
on the Right to Food.
‘This is the place to deal with
COVID!’ he said. ‘It is the
priority food issue today. It
wasn’t addressed by the UN
Food Systems Summit. The
CFS has the mandate and the
tools, and the other UN agencies
are highly committed to
cooperate.’
But, incredibly and unacceptably,
the proposal did not
pass. It was blocked on specious,
procedural grounds by
a steamroller coalition of big
commodity exporters who
push back on any possible limitation
that might be placed
on global trade in the name
of human rights, equity, environmental
concerns: the US,
Canada, Argentina, Brazil,
Russia. The EU, shamefully,
was silent.
The implications for inclusive
multilateralism, democracy,
the needed radical transformation
of our food systems
are severe. ‘A key barrier to
transformation is interference
from corporations,’ stated the
delegate of Mexico.
By Schneps Media
When Brooklyn Borough
President Eric Adams officially
announced his candidacy for
mayor on Nov. 19, 2020, New
York City was reeling from the
double calamity of the COVID-
19 Pandemic and a growing
number of related fiscal crises.
Now nearly a year later, the
Democrat is poised to become
New York City’s 110th mayor
— the overwhelming favorite
to win election in this heavily
Democratic city. Although
his main challenger, Republican
Curtis Sliwa, is to be commended
for his work with the Guardian
Angels, he lacks the experience
necessary for this role at
this most critical moment in
our history.
Schneps Media wholeheartedly
endorses Adams as the right
person at the right time to lead
the city to a robust recovery.
Our endorsement follows
Adams’ Democratic Primary win
in June on a moderate pro-public
safety, pro-business platform
over several far left progressives.
Adams’ experience in the
NYPD uniquely positions him
to strengthen relations with the
police force and help this city get
back on track to truly becoming
the safest big city in America.
Adams comes from a life in
service to the public. Born in
Brooklyn and raised in Queens
in a working class household,
where his mother earned a living
as a domestic worker, Adams
received degrees from the New
York City College of Technology,
John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, and Marist College.
Adams was a member of the
New York City Police Department
for 22 years, retiring at the
rank of Captain. After four terms
in the New York State Senate
representing Central Brooklyn,
Adams was elected as the 18th
Borough President of Brooklyn,
and is the first African American
man to hold that position.
As borough president, he has
exercised wisdom on a number
of zoning issues balancing the
needs of the borough with the
desires of the local community.
Just as importantly, Adams
proved a capable crisis manager
when he put a mattress
on the floor at Borough Hall
and worked night and day during
the height of the pandemic
to ensure emergency medical
responders had the equipment
necessary to do their jobs; the
city’s Medical Examiner’s Office
kept later hours; and refrigerated
trucks were put in Sunset
Park to ease up the logjam of
dead at hospitals and in funeral
homes.
Adams’ rise to the brink of
the mayorship of America’s biggest
city is an inspiration, and
not an accident. He has worked
his way to this moment, and has
the experience and tools necessary
to govern this challenging
city at this most challenging
time.
He is the right person at the
right time to lead New York
City into a new era of prosperity,
while balancing the budget and
the needs of working class New
Yorkers.
We strongly urge voters to
choose Eric Adams as their next
mayor on Nov. 2, with early voting
slated for Oct. 23-31.
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Guess who’s behind paralysis on
COVID-19 in the UN Committee
on World Food Security
Eric Adams: The one
to lead New York
United Nations Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/Pool