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ECOSOC tackles food security

By Sydney Liu, Shanghai American School Pudong

ECOSOC FOODThe World Food Summit defines food security as “the situation when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Though there have been steps taken to secure steady food supplies for rural areas, much work remains to be done. Here at THIMUN, ECOSOC continues to debate the issue of how to achieve food security worldwide through sustainable agricultural production.

A resolution submitted by Nigeria attempted to solve the issue of food insecurity through increasing the efficiency of agricultural production and the distribution of food supplies. The resolution encouraged the promotion of education, training, and resource support of women. The delegate of Nigeria also emphasized the importance of creating major financial incentives for women through promoting wage equality and providing both pre- and post-natal care in attempts to encourage women to stay within the agricultural workforce. In addition, the resolution called for ensuring that children acquire adequate nutrition for growth and development. Nigeria stated that because of the lack of government support in rural areas, food security has not been achieved in rural farming communities and smallholder farms. As a solution, the resolution emphasized the importance of implementing and promoting agroforestry in rural regions. In addition, the resolution proposed reducing and monitoring food wastage while improving upon policies governing land use and tenure rights. Nigeria’s resolution provides region-specific solutions as opposed to previous unsuccessful resolutions.

Providing informative and clarifying points of information and suggesting numerous constructive amendments to improve the resolution, delegates debated, intent on finding the best possible solution and to achieve the most effective ways of enhancing food security. Amendments brought attention to several issues that were not addressed in the resolution, such as deforestation and pesticide use, and greatly improved the resolution as a whole. The clauses pertaining to women’s rights were heavily discussed for relevance and their effectiveness in improving agricultural sustainability. Delegates arguing against the resolution repeatedly emphasized the necessity for more focus on the distribution of food supplies and the irrelevance of increasing agricultural production. The argument was that there is an ample supply of produced food, but the main issue is the lack of proper and even distribution. As the debate time on the resolution drew to a close, enthusiastic delegates raised numerous motions to extend it to discuss the many aspects of agricultural sustainability included in this resolution. With 21 voting against and 24 voting for, ECOSOC took a large step forward on the issue of food security and agricultural sustainability.

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