NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

“the [neo-liberal] expansion of [food] trade also has resulted in the luxury tastes of the richest parts of the world being allowed to compete against the satisfaction of the basic needs of the poor.” (Olivier de Schutter, the Special Reporteur to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the Right to Food, at par. 22 of his final report (The Transformative Potential of the Right to Food, United Nations Human Rights Council, 25^th Session, Agenda item 3, A/HRC/25/57, New York, 24 January, 2014).

Take a map of the region where you were born and a define a rural area with a population of about 50.000 inhabitants on it. Throughout this course the area will be called «your project area » or «your chosen area ». The area should practical and homogeneous. It may include a larger village and surrounding territories and hamlets. You should know the area and its inhabitants well. Although the principals of integrated development apply equally well to urban areas as to rural areas, the choice of rural areas is preferred. One of the main objectives of integrated development projects is to halt migration towards urban slums in large cities.

Suppose a local economy could be formed in your chosen area.

Look at the following slide :

04. Financial leakage : food and water industries.

1. Food dependence.

Note the following aspects :

1. Research.

Which foods are grown in your chosen area ?

Who consume them ?

Which foods are imported into the area ?

Where are they imported from?

Which form do they have when they are imported?

2. Imposed production standards.

2. Research.

Note which production standards are applicable to the foods produced in your project area.

Consider, for example :

Standards applicable to raising animals.

Standards applicable to storage and sale of milk products.

Standards for the slaughter of animals and storage and sale of meat.

Standards for the use of water (such as irrigation), of land (such as fertilisers), of the air (such as CO2 and methane emissions and smoke).

3. Food conservation.

3. Research.

Make a note of :

Systems for food conservation used in your project area.

Systems for the conservation of foods imported into your chosen area.

Other food conservation systems known to you.

4. Freezing and packaging of foods.

4. Research.

Take note of some technical aspects (including necessary equipment, energy, and transport facilities) related to :

The process of freezing foods ;

Processes for packaging foods.

5. Monoculture and imported foods.

5. Opinion.

On the human rights aspects of monocultures, see Suárez S., Emanueli M, Monocultures and human rights, Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN), Heidelberg, and Habitat International Coalition Regional Office Latin America, Mexico City, June 2009.

For your chosen area make a note of :

The percentage of locally produced foods consumed locally.

The percentage of foods imported into your chosen area which are consumed there.

Why is it necessary to import foods into the project area?

What is a monoculture ?

Are there any monocultures in the project area? If so, for which products ?

6. Drinking water dependence.

6. Research.

Make a note of :

Does the project area have clean drinking water?

Who is the water for ?

How is the clean drinking water distributed ?