如何消除食品安全的威胁?（模拟联合国大会英文演讲稿）

如何消除食品安全的威胁?（模拟联合国大会英文演讲稿）

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Food security under threat: global response needed
Climate change and commodity speculation are among the main factors threatening food security inside and outside the EU, according to a European Parliament resolution adopted on Thursday. MEPs call for urgent measures to combat food price manipulation and ensure that food production is maintained in the EU.
Droughts, floods, fires and storms, on a greater scale than in the past, are reducing agricultural capacity all over the world, says the resolution. Soil and water management must be improved to prevent loss of farmland, and the Commission should monitor national climate change mitigation measures, believe MEPs.
Tackling speculation
MEPs criticise speculation in food commodities, agricultural raw materials and energy markets, all of which puts food security at risk. The G20 is urged to work for the convergence of market regulations by involving countries that are not part of the G20 in the fight against food price manipulation.
Parliament asks the Commission to consider giving the new European Security and Markets Authority more power to prevent abuses in commodity markets. Dealing in food commodities should be limited to investors who have a genuine link with agricultural markets, MEPs believe.
In addition, MEPs call on national governments not to impose curbs on exports, as these "provoke greater uncertainty in the markets and disrupt world markets, and therefore have the potential to drive prices up further at global level".
Helping EU farmers
To guarantee food security in the EU, a strong Common Agricultural Policy is needed, says the resolution. Declining farm incomes, caused by higher production costs to meet health, environmental and animal welfare standards, need to be urgently addressed to ensure there are farmers in the EU in the future. Market intervention tools, such as intervention and strategic stocks, must be part of the policy, says Parliament.
Support for farmers in developing countries
Since agriculture is a key economic sector in the developing world, MEPs call for a larger proportion of the financial aid for this sector to be used to support more effective and sustainable farming practices. They add that land ownership should be promoted to reduce poverty and increase food security.
The resolution was approved by show of hands.
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New threat to global food security as phosphate supplies become increasingly scarce
A new report from the Soil Association reveals that supplies of phosphate rock are running out faster than previously thought and that declining supplies and higher prices of phosphate are a new threat to global food security. ‘A rock and a hard place: Peak phosphorus and the threat to our food security’ highlights the urgent need for farming to become less reliant on phosphate rock-based fertiliser. [1]
Intensive agriculture is totally dependent on phosphate for the fertility needed to grow crops and grass. Worldwide 158 million tonnes of phosphate rock is mined every year, but the supply is finite. Recent analysis suggests that we may hit ‘peak’ phosphate as early as 2033, after which supplies will become increasingly scarce and more expensive. [2]
This critical issue is missing from the global policy agenda - we are completely unprepared to deal with the shortages in phosphorus inputs, the drop in production and the hike in food prices that will follow. Without fertilisation from phosphorus it has been estimated that wheat yields could more then halve in coming decades, falling from nine tonnes a hectare to four tonnes a hectare. The current price of phosphate rock is approximately twice that of 2006. When demand for phosphate fertiliser outstripped supply in 2007/08, the price of rock phosphate rose 800%.
In Europe we are dependent on imports of rock phosphate, having no deposits of our own, but the geographical concentration of reserves adds further uncertainty to the future security of our sources. In 2009, 158 million metric tonnes of phosphate
rock was mined worldwide. 67% of this resource was mined in just three countries - China (35%), the USA (17%) and Morocco and Western Sahara (15%). China has now restricted, and the USA has stopped, exports of phosphate. [3]
Author of the report, Dr. Isobel Tomlinson, said:
"A radical rethink of how we farm, what we eat and how we deal with human excreta, so that adequate phosphorus levels can be maintained without reliance on mined phosphate, is crucial for ensuring our future food supplies."
‘A rock and a hard place’ sets out the actions needed to close the loop on the phosphorus cycle. These include:
Changing how we farm
Different farming systems vary enormously in their reliance on mined phosphate. Organic farms are more resilient to the coming phosphorus rock ‘shock’, as it can only be used as a supplement to nutrient recycling (including crop rotations, green manures, and composting), and not as a replacement. Organic crops generally have a lower fertiliser requirement than non-organic crops, with a greater capacity to scavenge for nutrients through denser and deeper root systems.
Changing what we eat
Eating less meat can reduce the demand for mined phosphate. This is because vegetable-based production is more efficient in its use of phosphorus then livestock production. Although different types of meat have different levels of mined phosphate demand depending on the farming system used to produce them. Meat from livestock grazed on grassland that has not been fertilised with artificial fertilisers, will perform much better than meat from livestock grazed on fields that have been, or livestock fed on grain grown using artificial fertilisers.
Changing how we deal with human exreta
The report recommends a radical change in the way we treat human exreta and the need to abandon our current ‘flush-and-forget’ toilet systems in favour of Ecological Sanitation. The report also calls for a change to EU organic regulations to allow the use of human sewage – rich in ‘natural’ phosphate - on agricultural land to ensure phosphate levels are maintained. Globally only 10% of human waste is returned to agricultural soils. Urine alone contains more than 50% of the phosphorus excreted by humans.