GROWing Local Food: a contribution to Sustainable Development Goal 2
SGD2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Global Goal 2 — aka Sustainable Development Goal 2 — is all about reducing hunger, increasing access to nutritional food and increasing food security. One important tool to do this across the world is to build much more sustainable agricultural systems.
However we in GROW Observatory argue that this approach is only part of the solution. Enabling more people to grow their own food in their own growing space increases their access to nutritional food and provides high food security to them and their families.
One wonders why this approach is not in the tools being used and reported upon in the SDG analysis (May 2017)?
The role of food security
The risks to the world of not tackling food security are clear and have been described by many, including, for example, the World Economic Forum:
It is not an exaggeration to say that without food security, people die of hunger or succumb to malnutrition. Political instability rises and the likelihood of warfare increases. Food security is about ensuring that people have access to sufficient safe and nutritious food. It is affected by a range of factors including rising fuel prices, which increase the cost of large-scale agricultural production and increase the transport costs of food to market, the availability and use of fertilisers, population growth and changing tastes as well as the impact of climate change. Ultimately food security depends on the vulnerability of supply lines. The longer these are, the higher the risks to food security.
Shorter food supply lines from higher levels of food production at local level increases food security. Producing food as locally as possible extends the range and number of sources of food, thereby increasing food security because people become less dependent on a single source of food. Enabling and encouraging people to grow food at home and in their community offers the ultimate form of food security especially where this is supported by increased levels of understanding on sustainable growing techniques suitable for the local environment. Feeding ourselves increases our own access to nutritional food and protects our access to that food. Not only does this approach reduce food miles, it increases food security, provides value to local monetary and non monetary systems and keeps people active.
A report in the Guardian in 2013 estimated that around 15% of the world’s population depends on food produced elsewhere. By 2050, that percentage is expected to rise to 50%. Without a change in approach, and with the ongoing decline in farmland production, resulting from unsustainable soil and land stewardship techniques and the impact of changing climates, this percentage could continue to increase.
In Australia the concept of urban food production has been put into practice in Sydney by Michael Mobbs. This is a demonstration of how small local communities can start to address the challenge of SDG two: GROW aims to provide the tools to enable communities across Europe to start to make the same difference.
Besides being able to grow food, a key strategy is to enable communities to use and sell surpluses. This is the thinking behind Local Food Networks, the subject of the CPRE report (2012) about enabling and providing infrastructure for local food networks so local communities can buy, sell, produce and supply local food.
At GROW, we believe that in enabling people to conserve their soil and grow food locally, a significant step is taken towards addressing hunger (SDG2) and poverty (SDG1) at the same time.
The steps to addressing SDG 1 and 2
1. Give people the confidence to grow: GROW runs a series of free online courses that take people through finding out about and understanding their soil, identifying ways to conserve and build their soil and identifying growing techniques and crops suitable for their locality and soil type.
2. Link people together so they can inspire and learn from each other: GROW is supporting 9 growing networks across Europe in our GROW Places. These networks enable people to learn together, enjoy activities together and exchange advice and information.
3. Link communities with growers: a key element of success will be in GROW enabling communities to exchange strategies for dealing with crop gluts. Building an online forum where communities can exchange tips on using and preserving crops will build local food sustainability and security. On the ground, GROW Places will link growers together with Local Food Networks where they exist to enable produce exchange to take place in local communities.
Get involved in GROW by joining our Changing Climate missions if you live in a GROW Place or in the Living Soils Mission, wherever you live (see the living soil’s experiments here). You can join us in working towards a better solution to the issues we face in ending hunger, for SDG 2.
