In Agriculture, Business as usual is not an option. Interview with Hans Herren.

 

Photo: The AgriCultures Network@Flickr

I met Dr. Hans Herren at Rio+20, to talk about IAASTD and the way forward. The 1995 World Food Prize Laureate was clear: “It will take more than just words to change the system”. According to Herren, food consumption is the key towards an effective transformation of food production, distribution and consumption.

How? By pricing food according to its true cost and value, and by informing consumers of what is in the food they eat through correct labeling. Ending subsidies to commodity crops, and incorporating the environmental, social and public health costs of industrial food production into the price tag of food items, as well as labeling GMOs are the name of the game!