What will the world’s food systems look like in 2045? That is the question at the heart of a new report by IPES-Food and the ETC Group. A Long Food Movement examines two very different futures for food systems, people and the planet.
- The first scenario paints a terrifying picture of what happens if the current agri-business model continues: control of the food system increasingly moves to data platforms, private equity firms, and e-commerce giants, while AI-controlled farming systems increasingly control production and destroy employment
- The report also thankfully presents an alternative: civil society, including trade unions, mobilizes and fights to transform the food system by shifting USD 4 trillion from the industrial chain to agroecology and cutting 75% of food systems’ GHG emissions, thereby protecting livelihoods and the environment
However, the report concludes that this would require “new levels of forward planning and unprecedented collaboration across sectors, scales and strategic differences: a ‘Long Food Movement.’” While a challenge, it falls well within the IUF’s statutory commitment “to ensure that the world’s food resources be utilized so as to serve the general interest rather than private or public minority interests.”
