This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from
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Leaders and
officials from governments and nongovernmental groups recently met in Brazil for
the Rio+20 Conference. The full name was the United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development. It marked the twentieth anniversary of the Earth
Summit, the UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de
Janeiro. It also came ten years after the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg. The Rio+20 website described it as a chance to
"shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental
protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want." The UN
Food and Agriculture Organization prepared a report for the conference called
"Towards the Future We Want." It says hunger reduction and sustainable
development are highly connected. It calls for better governance of agriculture
and food systems. Food systems use thirty percent of the world's energy. Crops
and farm animals use seventy percent of the water. Yet food losses and waste are
high. The FAO says they add up to more than one billion tons each year, or
almost one-third of all the food produced in the world.The FAO says nearly one
out of every seven people in the world is a victim of undernourishment.
Seventy-five percent of all poor people live in rural areas. Most support
themselves through agriculture and relative activities. The agency has estimated
that food production needs to increase at least sixty percent by twenty-fifty to
feed an expected population of nine billion.The new report calls for doing "more
with less" -- improving diets while reducing the effects of agriculture on the
environment. Farmers operate five hundred million small farms in developing
countries. The report says they need clear rights to resources like land and
water. FAO nutritionist Florence Egal says production growth helps not only
farmers but also others in related industries. She says people who have no
access to land or labor can generate income and add to local economic
development through food processing and other activities. She says it would make
sense in terms of job creation and in terms of job protection. For VOA Special
English, I'm Alex Villarreal. You can learn English with more news about
agriculture and development at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on
Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. (Adapted from a radio program
broadcast 12Jun2012)
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