PHM-Exch> WHO Global Forum: Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) (5)

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Alison Katz <katz.alison at gmail.com>



Just one addition re junk food TNCs. I think we should be careful *NOT to
focus only on junk food TNCs* rather than *the entire agro industrial TNC
giants.*

Why? Principally because it is the control of the food chain, from A to Z -
which advances inexorably every day. Land rights for farmers are paramount
for food sovereignty (and food sovereignty is paramount for Health for All).



We must not play the game of the establishment on *food security which is
NOT the same thing as food sovereignty*. Donors, FAO, WHO, WFP etc, talk
about food security, because through assuring that food will be delivered in
crises, the foundations are laid (through dumping and destruction of local
production capacity) for further takeover of the agricultural sector by the
Northern nations’ TNCs.  Further takeover, further impoverishment, further
rural out-migration to the mega-slums, etc.



*Local food production for food sovereignty* must be our aim if the world’s
people are to feed themselves with *decent nutritious food, in reliable
supplies*. That is real emancipatory development.  The rich countries
prevented the development of an industrial base in poor countries and are
now also destroying the agricultural base.



It is not just junk food, it is food that is produced industrially (with
unsafe and polluting products, producing a cancer epidemic which is
massively profitable for the medical equipment and pharma industry)  by huge
companies, taking over all remaining agricultural land in the world and
destroying rural communities and their self sufficiency.



Small farmers will be an extinct species soon. People too, if we don’t stop
the poisoning of our planet.
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