Our Green Week: Food systems in crisis – Overcoming neo-colonial dependencies
Channel: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Date: 18/01/2023

Language: English

Panel discussion in cooperation with Bread for the World and TMG Research

The (media) presentation of the chronic global food crisis, which has dramatically worsened since the Corona pandemic, is often very simplistic. In the wake of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine, the focus too often narrows to the global grain trade. Various agribusiness voices have revived the narrative that Germany and Europe must feed the world.

On the other hand, there is criticism that the political responses, such as those formulated by the G7 countries to the fertilizer and food price crisis, did not show any reversal of the trend away from neo-colonial dependencies and an almost blind trust in markets. As a result, policy makers are neglecting the structural causes of the food crisis, according to critics.

All this raises the questions: What is the real impact of the current food crisis on countries in the global South? What is needed to end the food crisis and effectively prevent future crises? Which actors should set the tone in shaping policy responses? And what good examples from the global South can we learn from?

Impulse: Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (invited)

Panel discussion

- Dr. Ophelia Nick, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL)
- MinDir Dirk Meyer, Head of Division, Global Health; Employment; Transformation of the Economy; Digitalization; Food Security, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
- Dorah Marema, Head of Municipal Sustainability at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
- Sefu Sanni, World March of Women, Kenya and member of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism (CSIPM)

Facilitator:  Lena Luig, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung