Last Tuesday, June 21, at swissnex Boston was all about sustainable agriculture, food and the food system. Together with the Zurich-based Biovision Foundation a roundtable and a public expert panel took place. Both events were very well attended – with about 15 people at the roundtable and about 70 people drawn to the panel. At the center of it all was that – as one participant put it – “our food system is a failure and we need to find out why it is a failure”. Amongst the speakers were Prof. Eric Chivian, the founder and director of the Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. He asked why organic is not considered a viable option when talking about the future of our food system. Based on studies and an overwhelming amount of data, he deconstructed four major myths about organic such as “organic can’t feed the world” and the myth that there are no significant health or environmental impacts from conventional or GM-based agriculture. The bottom line was very clear: a shift in our production and consumption systems is not only necessary but urgent. Also calling for such a paradigm shift was Dr. Hans Herren, president of Biovision Foundation and Millennium Institute and a fierce advocate of the 2009 International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Based on the results of this unique multi-stakeholder report commissioned by the World Bank and 6 UN agencies and the experience of Biovision Foundation in its pilot projects in East Africa, Herren made it unequivocal that “business as usual is not an option” and more importantly, that the solutions and the knowledge are already out there, they just need to be implemented. Contradicting a public impression, Herren demonstrated, based on UNEP’s recent Green Economy report, that a “green” agriculture would actually deliver better results when looking at crop yields, deforestation and jobs. He also provided several exemplary ways forward calling for more publicly funded and independent research, stronger support for agroecology and organic methods, and support for small-scale farmers. Apart from Prof. Chivian and Dr. Herren, Coca-Cola’s Senior Manager of Sustainable Agriculture Ernesto Brovelli and IFOAM’s Katherine DiMatteo took part in the panel discussion, which was moderated by author and journalist Samuel Fromartz. While all of the panelists agreed on the need for a paradigm shift in agriculture there were very different “ways ahead”. The agronomist Ernesto Brovelli provided insights into Coca-Cola’s work to make the production of sugar and orange juice more sustainable. To be able to hear the perspective of a major company, including the challenges that it contends with, in addition to the opinions of academia and civil society, made the panel discussion robust and especially thought provoking.

While the discussions on what exactly is wrong with our food system will definitely go on, these two events proved effective in getting experts from different fields together and connecting them with a broader public. What remains is a clear call for the reformation or revolution of the world’s food system.

 swissnex Boston was happy to host this special event on sustainable agriculture and would like to thank once more the Biovision Foundation, the panelists, the moderator and last but not least the interested audience for the active participation and its commitment!