Watch it back - Future of Food Webinar

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On our Futureof Food webinar last week, we heard from Wayne Frankham of the Irish Seed Savers Association, Sinéad Moran of Foodture, and Fergal Anderson of Talamh Beo on the practical work that these organisations are doing around food and food justice issues in Ireland and abroad.

Globally, there are many injustices in our food system. Corporate control of seeds is an issue that has affected many farmers across the world and has resulted in devastating impacts in the Global South. A third of the food produced globally is wasted. In the Global North, a large part of this is thrown out by consumers. In the Global South, it’s largely because of a lack of infrastructure to transport food from farms to market efficiently. And in 2020, we still have hunger in the world. This already dire situation is aggravated by COVID-19 quarantines, as people who survive in the informal economy can no longer work and are facing hunger and economic recession. The World Food Programme predicts that the number of people facing hunger in 2020 will double.

Industrial agriculture is a huge driver of climate change. Since the “Green Revolution” of the 50s and 60s, agriculture has increased in scale and become more industrial in the Global North. Along with this, agricultural workers are increasingly from migrant communities - with little work options and difficult circumstances in their own countries, people migrate to work on farms in Western Europe and the United States, where they face exploitative and often unhealthy conditions. This unjust dynamic became more visible in Ireland recently under the Covid-19 shutdown.

Given these injustices - and others - in the dominant global food production and consumption structure, it is imperative that we organise at a grassroots level to produce food locally and connect food growers to consumers. We hosted this webinar to highlight the work that organisations are doing on the ground in Ireland.