By Eduardo Martinez,
The Group of Seven farm ministers on Sunday condemned Russia for its war against Ukraine and the impact the conflict has had on global food security while also agreeing to help Kyiv revive its agriculture industry by sharing knowledge on demining farmland and rebuilding infrastructure.
In a joint communique at the culmination of their two-day meeting in Miyazaki, southwestern Japan, the ministers also discussed pathways to overcoming climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic among the challenges faced by global food systems, saying an increase in efforts to make them more resilient and sustainable is urgently needed.
"We are deeply concerned about the devastating impact the war is having on food security globally, not least through price spikes in grains, fuel and fertilizers, which is disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable," the statement said.
The G-7 ministers, who represent Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union, acknowledged that conflict only exacerbated growing food instability as climate change and biodiversity loss continue to have a large-scale impact on crops, water and soil health.
According to a 2021 survey released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, agricultural expansion is responsible for almost 90 percent of global deforestation, with more than half of forests lost due to being converted into cropland and 40 percent disappearing due to livestock grazing.
The ministers also announced a separate action plan, dubbed the Miyazaki Actions, as a response to multiple complex issues global food systems face.
The plan addresses short-term challenges, such as international conflict and the coronavirus, while focusing on the longer-term objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reversing biodiversity loss.
Among the points outlined in the plan was "to diversify supply chains by exploring the ways to enhance local, regional and global food systems, making sustainable use of existing domestic agricultural resources and facilitating trade."
Over the meeting period, Japanese farm minister Tetsuro Nomura held bilateral talks with his G-7 counterparts and several participating international organizations.
Nomura made agreements with his U.S. and Canadian counterparts to conduct regular dialogue to exchange information on achieving sustainable agriculture and boosting productivity.
As for issues concerning Japan, he urged European Union Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski to remove restrictions on products such as seafood and wild mushrooms from northeastern Fukushima Prefecture, which suffered a nuclear disaster at its Fukushima Daiichi power station when it was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Talks about increasing farm production were not a major topic of discussion for the G-7, partly because the group's members include major exporters, such as the U.S., according to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
It is also feared that seeking to expand farm production will prompt countries to take protectionist moves, such as subsidizing farmers.
Japan, a resource-poor and rapidly aging country, believes that raising farm productivity is a key issue it must tackle to improve its food self-sufficiency rate, which was at 38 percent in fiscal 2021 on a calorie basis.
