Food & Growing

INTRODUCTION – Why is this a Global Justice Issue?

We live in a world where over 800 million people go to bed hungry yet we produce 1.5 times enough food to feed people on the planet.

There are a range of justice issues we can explore with our students:
● The commodification of food (focus on making money rather than ensuring nutritious food
and access)
● Middle-controllers and big companies making majority of profit (farmer making very little)
● Land grabs from smallholder farmers to sell to larger companies
● Mono-crops and use of pesticides and insecticides which impact health, water, soil and
biodiversity
● Climate Change and the impact on farming communities e.g. flooding low-lying land
affecting communities and crops such as in Bangladesh with rice-farming
● Ireland's farming impact on climate change (32% Emissions in Ireland from farming)
● Control of seeds and lack of food diversity – with a reliance on only a small number of crops
(12 plants provide 80% of the worlds food)
● Biofuels replacing agricultural lands
● Clearing of forest for agriculture and to grow feed for farm animals e.g. the Amazon
● Exploitation of those working on farms globally and of the natural world
● Sustainable and resilient farming systems

Actions which move towards sustainable food systems are essential. The food and seed sovereignty movement has provided a strong grass roots response and something which can be interesting to explore with students. Particularly if they wish to have a school garden as an action. Gardens can be once framed as an act of solidarity -fighting for food sovereignty and against the unfair food system.