Rome, Italy, June 26, 2020 –The 2020 edition of the World Farmers’ Organisation General Assembly takes home a huge success!
Farmers’ leaders from WFO Member Organisations across the globe have given their seal of approval for “The Farmers’ Route to Sustainable Food Systems”.
Farmers, and especially family farmers, anchor food systems and take full responsibility for their part. They play an essential role in creating jobs and economic development in rural areas. They are indispensable as managers of the environment and ecosystems. They deliver safe and nutritious food. They produce biomass and other renewable products. They help to mitigate climate change. They keep the soils healthy. They contribute to protect and restore biodiversity. They minimise waste and much more.
Farmers are also fully aware of the need to take better account of societal expectations: farmers already engage many efforts and changes, and we must be able to explain it better to citizens-consumers. However, the income that farmers generate is not always enough to allow them to earn their living: avoiding excessive concentration, and ensuring a fair share of the value across the different actors of the food chain is key to ensure livelihoods of family farmers and rural communities.
The approval of the “The Farmers’ Route to Sustainable Food Systems” represents a tremendous achievement, confirming the “farmers driven approach” adopted by 2019 WFO General Assembly with the Farmers’ Route Declaration, highlighting the key contribution of farmers to achieve a more sustainable future, inclusive, respectful of the diversity and richness of local production realities.
This policy document gives WFO a strong mandate to contribute to the 2021 Food Systems Summit design, preparation and implementation of its outcomes, to ensure that the voice of family farmers is heard and the world food producers are kept at the heart of any sustainable food systems.