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Rome Summit Takes Bold Step Toward Ecological Agriculture
Leaders endorse agroecology as one of the cutting-edge innovations we need to help small-scale farmers adapt to climate change.
October 24, 2019 (Originally published by Common Dreams)
The Climate Action Summit at the UN last month was widely considered a disappointment, failing to garner the kinds of government actions needed to address the climate crisis. Sadly, the same can be said for actions on agriculture and climate change, despite a well-publicized commitment of $790 million to “to enhance resilience of over 300 million small-scale food producers in the face of mounting climate impacts.”
That is not because the investment isn’t needed. It is, desperately. Small-scale farmers in developing countries are already bearing the brunt of climate change yet they have received little of the promised funding to help them adapt to drought, flooding, heat, and other climate changes.
These new initiatives won’t bridge that gap. Just as government actions to date are proving far too weak to address the climate emergency, these agriculture programs support familiar measures that have done little to help small-scale farmers. Some measures have left them even more vulnerable to climate change.
