Enhancing Food Sovereignty
Humanity is facing testing times with the coronavirus pandemic that is disrupting human life around the world at local, national and global levels. Its huge impact on global production will also affect the food supply chain, requiring creative solutions at all latitudes. Countries that are structurally dependent on imported food will face extraordinary challenges in feeding their populations, coping with food shortages and preventing malnutrition and famine.
In the spirit of its goal to offer a global forum that brings critical minds and concerned people together for discussion and dialogue about rescuing the future of humanity, Rescue Our Future Foundation has initiated the global project Plant for Life to maximize food sovereignty by increasing food production around the world. The immediate goal is to encourage people to plant on a small scale for the family and to support people in great need, such as the elderly. Food sovereignty is an essential part of development, understood as the self-mobilization of people’s potential, as elaborated in Quest to Rescue Our Future. It must be at the heart of governments’ strategy, while the population must play its role.
When states are overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic and governments are no longer able to guarantee basic food for all, people will have to form their own protective shield to meet the basic survival needs of themselves and their families. The purpose of Plant for Life is to avert food catastrophes by raising global awareness as an immediate response to strengthen food sovereignty under the slogan “Every family member a plant”. More specifically, it will encourage, educate and guide people, nationally and internationally, to start planting in gardens, on terraces, on balconies, indoors and in greenhouses with the support of stakeholders and experts in the field.
Raising global awareness to increase food sovereignty is one of the immediate steps to be taken. Plant for Life urgently calls upon international organizations and funds as well as countries, communities, governments, the private sector, civil society organizations and families to give high priority to a strategy to improve food sovereignty in response to the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food supply. More than just a relief initiative, Plant for Life is a critical survival strategy for a trouble world.
Plant for Life will promote environmentally friendly, organic planting, which can also take shape in an educational project from kindergarten to university level, involving teachers, students and researchers, as a community response to reconnect humanity with nature and the environment. The cross-fertilization of many wonderful initiatives and successful local food production projects that are underway will be a powerful factor to strengthen food sovereignty globally.
Rescue Our Future Foundation welcomes suggestions and practical proposals to strengthen the project Plant for Life by sharing your ideas with us at rescue@crscenter.com. Progress will be posted on the webpage of the Foundation.
It is time for humanity to come together in harmony and to take joint community action to care for all, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, starting with global, national and local action to ensure a minimum food basket.