06 June 2016
Development, family farming, food sovereignty and the rights of peoples: We hear lots of talk about these issues, but who is down in the trenches fighting for them?
On Monday May 23, the University of Gastronomic Sciences hosted an important conference on rural development and the role of youth in actively helping people in developing countries, highly topical subjects that form an essential part of a gastronome’s education.
The guest of honor, invited by Carlo Petrini, was Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized United Nations agency working on a range of projects to combat hunger and poverty in the world’s most disadvantaged areas and to support an agriculture that can feed the people living in these areas.
IFAD was founded in 1977 and has been working with Slow Food since 2009. Their collaboration is aimed primarily at developing small-scale agriculture and supporting small-scale food producers. Naturally, IFAD will be participating in the next Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, in September this year.
The theme of social responsibility, and individual responsibility most of all, was quick to emerge. Nwanze urged the audience not to be discouraged by the immensity of the world’s problems, which can easily seem impossible to overcome, but to “dream big and think small” and to fight social injustices every day in any way we can.
He explained that IFAD currently has 226 projects running in 98 countries, many of them focused on small-scale farmers. IFAD works with them so that they can grow more, eat more and improve their food security and nutrition. “We encourage them to be stewards of the environment -- treating the land and water with respect so that it can provide for future generations. And we advocate for equitable business relationships with small-scale farmers because too often it is the farmers who are exploited and who benefit least from their labour,” he said.
The crucial point of the approach followed by President Nwanze, along with the rest of his organization, is to empower rural people – not to provide charity or handouts. The real strength of IFAD’s approach is that it works to create the conditions for rural people to lead their own development.
Nwanze emphasized the vital significance of women within the equilibriums of a rural economy, saying: “When you invest in a man, you invest in an individual, but when you invest in a woman, you invest in a community.” Gender equality and the sharing economy were key, he said.
His words were full of hope, and aimed primarily at young people, the guardians of humanity’s destiny, who can draw on all the advantages of digital technology.
Nwanze is not looking for a radical return to an idyllic, imaginary past. He was critical of the idealization of rural life, saying, “the return to the land is certainly a praiseworthy idea, but it is not enough. We need to act actively and locally. Remember that even the farmer with the smallest plot of land wants to do business.”
He responded to a question from the audience about land grabbing with a critical tone: “It’s nobody’s fault but our own. If someone enters someone’s else house, it means that they have been allowed in. Many African countries are not aware of the immense wealth they have under their feet.”
IFAD is not just about agriculture, but works on all the phases of food production.
Helping communities and populations in difficulty is a social duty, a duty that Nwanze has been embracing all his life and which nobody should forget.
The president left us with many ideas for further reflection, especially about problems and solutions that cannot be resolved by individuals but can only be tackled through cohesion and the perseverance of a whole community, which day by day must invent and apply small but effective solutions to improve the lives of these people.
At the end, Nwanze reminded us of how a happy life can be accessible to everyone, and how every action starts from the desire of the individual. “Life is like a river, it never stops and we can all draw from it, but to drink from the precious source it is necessary for everyone to reach the river using their own legs. Nobody else can do it in their place.”
Dreaming big, thinking small: We won’t forget.
