World Summit, Free Pass? Yes, please.

Back in the second to last week of October, I accompanied my buddy Juan Fernando after class to Plaza Mayor, where Medellin's Convention Center is located. He was picking up his pass to enter the II WORLD SUMMIT FOR REGIONS ON FOOD SECURITY 2012, seeing that he is a professor of nutrition at my university here, that made pretty good sense. Me being the curious and innocent bystander, playfully asked the staff member preparing the passes if any free passes to the public remained, knowing full well that they were surely all gone. However, thanks to my foreign accent I was allotted a second chance because after hearing me speak she asked, "Where are you from?" To which I replied, "USA." Apparently there were a decent amount of passes left  for foreign visitors, so I seized the opportunity and obtained a pass to the summit. The next day Juan met me at the front door of the convention center and we were........Innnnn.

It was a pretty nice set-up, the great large banners with eye-popping statistics about advancements in food security of late, flags everywhere, "important" people walking about- it felt like I was at the UN. Therefore, I suppose it would be wise to define what this summit was about. Here is the technical description given by the members:
- To identify the challenges of food security in the context of a world where social, economical and environmental changes take place.
- To propose structural and programmatic actions from the point of view of Regions and to identify mechanisms of interregional and international cooperation that contribute to the fight against food insecurity.

However, I came away with a few simple conclusions. First, that food security is a right of every human being. I mean food and water, they both go hand-in-hand and to deny someone those two things directly or indirectly is something that needs to be addressed. Second, the present world model of growing and consuming food isn't sustainable. On a macro level, there is way too much mono-production of crops and we are losing genetic diversity in them, along with the matter of food price speculation. Another factor is we need to change consumption patterns back to a more traditional manner- the French speakers had a lot of good advice and evidence on how to achieve that, go figure ;)- which basically means supporting more farmer markets, eating organic products, and simply taking more pride in what we cook and eat: the practical approach. Long story short, in my opinion, the central governments and world dialogues aren't producing results. So this conference arrives to show that, listen, we don't need central governments telling us how and what to do; they don't have the omnipresence to know exactly the needs of the regions that make up their country. Local and regional authorities need to step-up, they are the ones with the power to make significant and long lasting change. However, they must be held accountable for their actions by individuals and groups that make up civil society. It is much easier for us to hold accountable those officials that reside closer to home than those that hide in some far off capital city.

The Frenchmen presenting with a Colombia Farmer

The amount of international cooperation taking place between local governments of France, Colombia, and among many others showcased in this summit, to me shows that there are some great advancements being made in food security. Hopefully this trend of individuals taking responsibility to change their community and share it with others around the world carries over for the rest of this century, if not....well I think we all have a good idea of what will happen.