ABSTRACT
In September 2015, after nearly three years of deliberation, all countries agreed to a new sustainable development agenda, the Agenda 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This created the basis for a new development agenda that would advance the protection of the environment and natural resources, while also looking at the social aspect of development.
The current reductionist food production system using pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hybrid and GMO seeds, and is based on a productivist and short-termist view. The consequences are here to see, an agriculture that is bankrupt, dependent almost everywhere on subsidies or price support, epidemics of obesity, type 2 diabetes, malnutrition, hunger and poverty, not to mention the degradation of natural resources upon which agriculture depends, plus its contribution to climate change. A totally different approach could enable agriculture to be part of the solution to all these problems.
The SDGs open the door to a systemic and holistic approach to development and we need to make full use of these characteristics for the benefit of the food systems we want. We know better and the time to act has come.
