Quand « nourrir l'humanité » met la sécurité alimentaire en danger

The author contends that the 'feed the world' slogan used by industrial agriculture masks a system that exacerbates poverty and environmental degradation. The text argues that industrial farming fails the FAO's four criteria for food security—availability, accessibility, resilience, and quality—by promoting monocultures, seed concentration, and market speculation. It highlights how European agricultural subsidies and exports can destroy local rural economies in developing nations. As an alternative, the document promotes agroecology and peasant farming, which emphasize endogenous development, crop diversity, and ecological interaction to achieve genuine food sovereignty.

• Industrial agriculture fails to meet the FAO's four conditions for food security: availability, accessibility, resilience, and quality. While it may address volume, it creates dependencies and undermines the other three criteria.
• The industrial model contributes significantly to climate change and environmental decay, which in turn reduces long-term food production capacity. It is estimated to contribute between 18% and 30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
• Agricultural specialization and industrialization in South America, driven by demand from the EU, USA, and Canada, have displaced rural workers and increased hunger. For example, despite being a top exporter to the EU, Brazil has 12 million people suffering from hunger according to the FAO.
• European agricultural subsidies enable 'food dumping,' where wheat is sold at a loss in developing countries, preventing the growth of local production and making populations vulnerable to market fluctuations.
• The concentration of the seed market among a few multinationals reduces crop diversity and increases vulnerability to pests. In the EU, five multinationals hold 95% of the vegetable seed market.
• The 'Green Revolution' model of monoculture has led to nutritional deficiencies, such as Vitamin A deficiency, by replacing diverse traditional farming systems with a few staple crops like rice, wheat, and maize.
• Agroecology and peasant farming are presented as superior alternatives because they rely on endogenous resources, crop association, and ecological interactions, which improve yields and resilience in non-temperate climates.

APA

Leroux, J. C. J. (2017). Quand « nourrir l'humanité » met la sécurité alimentaire en danger. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/quand-nourrir-lhumanite-met-la-securite-alimentaire-en-danger/

Chicago

Leroux, Jacques Caplat, Juliette. Quand « nourrir l'humanité » met la sécurité alimentaire en danger. Green European Journal, 2017. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/quand-nourrir-lhumanite-met-la-securite-alimentaire-en-danger/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Leroux |first1=Jacques Caplat, Juliette |title=Quand « nourrir l'humanité » met la sécurité alimentaire en danger |publisher=Green European Journal |date=1 April 2017 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/quand-nourrir-lhumanite-met-la-securite-alimentaire-en-danger/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{leroux2017quand, author = {Leroux, Jacques Caplat, Juliette}, title = {{Quand « nourrir l'humanité » met la sécurité alimentaire en danger}}, publisher = {Green European Journal}, year = {2017}, month = apr, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/quand-nourrir-lhumanite-met-la-securite-alimentaire-en-danger/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }