Governance, Pathways and the Transformation of Global Agri-Food Systems
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Presentation by Dr John Thompson, STEPS Agriculture and Food convenor, at the Resilience 2011 conference in Arizona State - http://resilience2011.org/
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- 1. Governance, Pathways and the Transformation of Global
Agri-Food Systems Dr John Thompson Research Fellow, Knowledge,
Technology and Society, Institute of Development Studies and
Co-convenor, Food and Agriculture Domain The STEPS Centre, UK
Resilience 2011 Crossing the Chasm Session 13 March 2011 Arizona
State University
- 2. Presentation
- Technological progress and innovation pathways
- Framing, narratives and pathways to food futures
- Environmental change and maize innovation pathways
- The global food crisis and governance challenges
- Reframing the debate 3Ds directionality, distribution,
diversity
- 3. Linear view of agricultural science and technology
- Notions of progress pervade debates about food and agricultural
futures
- Agricultural history is viewed as a race to advance science and
technology without stating the particular direction
- Treats innovation as homogenous:
Progress Past Future Andy Stirling, STEPS Centre/Univ of
Sussex
- 4. Open nature of technological progress Progress Science
Technology
- Governments proclaim pro-innovation and pro-sustainability
policies, without specifying which options or values are
prioritised and why
- Dissent over choice of directions is treated as
anti-technology
- Underlying view of technological progress:
- 5. The missing economics of direction Time
- But innovation in agri-food systems is vector not scalar
- Innovation pathways are characterised by the crucial property
of direction as well as magnitude
- Difficult to assert a single, uniquely objective way forward
toward an optimal food and agricultural future
- 6.
-
- Many past examples of repeated lock-in at expense of
diversity
-
- Microsoft Windows software
-
- Internal combustion engine
Deliberately or not societies close down directions of change and
transformation Pressures intensify with globalisation,
harmonisation, standardisation Time Historic branching pathways
Innovation is vector, not scalar
- 7. Future innovation pathways?
-
- Plural interests and values favour a diversity of directions or
innovation pathways:
-
- e.g., seed production: commercial industrial hybrids
-
- genetic modification / MAB
-
- public open source research
-
- participatory plant breeding
-
- farmer-led seed multiplication
Time Innovation is vector, not scalar
- 8. Framing matters
- Framing different interpretations and valuations of innovation
pathways reflect different peoples perspectives and priorities
- Competing framings/narratives are linked to particular actors,
networks and interests
- Co-produced with specific governance and innovation
strategies
- Dominant narratives vs. alternative narratives (sometimes
hidden or suppressed)
these narratives i.e. story lines drive different policy and
scientific responses
- 9. environment system dominant framing
- Drought Tolerant Maize as
Powerful institutions assert particular framings in ag policy
debates
- 10. environment system marginal framings dominant framing
- Drought Tolerant Maize as
Powerful institutions may close down alternative framings in ag
policy debates
- 11. Using maize as a window though which to assess the dynamics
of environmental, social and technical change in innovation systems
in Africa
- 12.
- Traced innovation pathways in maize and other key crops in
Kenya in response to rapid environmental, social and technical
change
- Examined ways in which different actors in different settings
understand resilience to growing uncertainty
- Assessed how their assumptions frame agricultural R&D and
food policy agendas and steer innovations and resources in
particular directions
Environmental change and maize innovation pathways
- 13. Farming System Livelihood System National Food System
Intensification High-input / Low-input Related Inputs + Practices
Input Provision Public vs Private Diversification On/Off Farm /
Commercialisation Market Access Framing Resilience at Different
Scales Seed National Food Security Strategy, Policies and
Programmes Drought Tolerant Hybrid Varieties/ Openly Pollinated
Varieties/ Local / Farmers Seed Shocks Stresses
- 14. Environmental change and maize innovation pathways
- Climate change narrative leading to concerns about growing food
insecurity in Africa
- Dominant framing Maize security = food security has huge
influence on national food policy debates
- New R&D, government policy and major donor investments in
developing Drought Tolerant / Water Efficient Maize for dryland
environments
- Pathways in and out of maize understanding the lock in to the
dominant maize pathway Why maize? and Why not alternatives?
- 15. Competing narratives
- Growing food deficits require massive boosts to agricultural
productivity modern plant breeding and genetic engineering can
deliver solutions that need to be rolled out at scale.
- Food insecurities are complex and diverse, and shaped by
particular ecological, economic, social and institutional interests
consequently they require context-specific, socio-technical
solutions in which farmer knowledge and local innovation play a
central role.
- 16. A Global Food Crisis?
- 17.
- Can future populations be fed equitably, healthily and
sustainably?
- Can we cope with future demands on water ?
- Can we provide enough energy to supply the growing population
coming out of poverty?
- Can we do this while mitigating and adapting to climate change
?
Energy Increased demand 50% by 2030 (IEA) Water Increased demand
30% by 2030 (IFPRI) Food Increased demand 50% by 2030 (FAO)
Questions to 2030/50 Drivers of change: Demand for food, water and
energy in a changing climate Climate Change
- 18. Crisis narratives and perfect storms "We head into a
perfect storm in 2030, because all of these things are operating on
the same time frame. If we don't address this, we can expect major
destabilisation, an increase in rioting and potentially significant
problems with international migration, as people move out to avoid
food and water shortages. Prof John Beddington The Guardian (18 Mar
09)
- 19. Crisis narratives and perfect storms
- 20. Does this lead to policy action?
-
- Do crisis narratives e.g. perfect storm framing help or hinder
policy action?
-
- What sort of governance arrangements are needed to respond to
these dynamic and uncertain conditions?
- 21. Agriculture: Back on the agenda Enhancing Development
Impact from Research: Building onDemand 28-31 March 2010,
Montpellier, France
- 22. Responding to the crisis
- Millennium Development Goals concentrating minds and mobilising
resources to meet specific targets
- New policy statements from major development players WDR 2008;
IAASTD; Agricultural G-20
- New initiatives High Level Task Force; AU/NEPAD = CAADP;
Rockefeller/Gates = AGRA; WFP = Hunger Hot Spots; WB = New Deal on
Global Food Policy; US Govt = Feed the Future
- Emerging global agenda addressing the global food (and
nutrition) crisis, climate change, reform of trade rules, IPRs,
global public goods (ag R&D), ecological services, new pests
and diseases
- 23. Governing food systems
- Food governance regimes are contested and in a state of
flux
- The EUs CAP is under comprehensive review with protagonists
pushing in many directions
- Parts of US Govt want liberalisation under Doha; others battle
to protect domestic constituencies
- Some CGIAR institutions want to retreat up-stream, while others
promote an Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) agenda
- The BMGF is exhibiting some loss of nerve, with senior figures
in its silver bullets approach
- 24. Global food system governance
- At the global level there are also tensions between
-
- UN High Level Task Force (HLTF) on the Global Food Security
Crisis and its Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA) , and
-
- G-8 response to the food crisis (LAquila Food Security
Initiative), pledging US$20bil over 3 years . (Only $350mil
committed so far)
-
- The former seeks to empower governments of LDCs though the FAO
Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
-
- latter assigns control mainly to donor countries and the World
Banks Global Ag & Food Security Prog (GAFSP)
- These contestations offers scope for new thinking about
governance of the global food system
- 25. Dominant narratives
- Two narratives have come to shape the dominant agricultural
policy debates:
-
- Production-Innovation Narrative
-
- Growth-Efficiency Narrative
- Both invoked crisis narratives about global (and regional)
agri-food systems
-
- 1960s = population explosion, hunger and political instability
leading to a Red Revolution
-
- 2010s = food + water + energy + climate change crisis Perfect
Storms + new revolutions??
- Both draw on different sources for scientific legitimacy and
call for mobilisation of financial, technical and institutional
resources through the international aid machinery Green
Revolutions?
- 26. Dominant narratives and policy solutions Missing the
target? Problem Solution Goal Meeting the MDGs Target 1c Reduce by
half proportion of people who suffer from hunger Low productivity
Low growth New technology and innovation Assumed Outcome Trade
reform and market liberalisation Improved food and nutritional
security for the bottom billion but it aint necessarily so
- 27.
- Scarcity often emerges as a political strategy to justify
certain policy interventions over others
- But scarcity is not a natural condition it is socially
constructed through imbalances of power
- Famines, energy shortages and water stress are failures of the
equitable allocation of resources, not just the result of
generalised shortages, global environmental change or market
inefficiencies or their convergence at critical junctures
- Addressing the needs of food insecure people requires a
fundamental shift from the language of scarcity to that of resource
allocation, access and entitlement
Challenging dominant narratives
- 28. Alternative narratives
- Critiques of the dominant narratives have led to the emergence
of a number of alternatives:
- Both seek to understand the dynamic and multi-functional nature
of agri-food systems
- Both promote local knowledge and innovation , which support
diverse forms of co-inquiry and co-management
- They are necessarily interdisciplinary and synthetic
- Stress the democratisation of ag R&D
- 29.
- Directionality of pathways towards specific sustainability
objectives
- Distribution more equitable distribution of benefits, costs and
risks associated with innovation
- Diversity in order to build robust and resilient
socio-technical systems, mitigate technological lock-in and cater
for seemingly irreconcilable perspectives on value and
sustainability
- 30. Direction, distribution, diversity
- Questions about the future of food and agricultural systems are
often restricted to: yes or no?; how much?; how fast?; who
leads?
- More searching questions are often neglected: which way?; what
alternatives?; who says?; who benefits? and why?
- There are many possible pathways each looks preferable to
different actors and interests
- Only by nurturing diversities of pathways in agri-food systems
can we confidently reduce vulnerability, empower the least
advantaged and promote sustainable food futures
- 31. Conclusions
- Avoid generalised diagnoses and unilinear technocratic
prescriptions to complex food systems problems
- Question the dominant (and alternative) narratives that frame
food policy problems and responses
- Address the 3Ds directionality, distribution and diversity in
food and ag policy
- Promote and nurture a new global politics of science,
technology and innovation
- Foster multiple pathways to sustainable food and agriculture
futures negotiate trade-offs and identify synergies
- 32. Thank You