The seven great economies of the world have met this weekend. The G7 foreign ministers have supported the extension of the agreement for the grain export across the Black Sea while condemning Russia’s use of food as a “geopolitical instrument of coercion”.
“We will continue to condemn in the strongest terms the illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine.(…) We are deeply concerned about the devastating impact of war in global food security,” the ministers said in a statement.
The intergovernmental group has emphasized its support for the economic recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine through sharing experiences, skills and knowledge regarding the demining of agricultural land and the repair of agricultural infrastructure destroyed in the war.
Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement on July 22 after the mediation of Turkey and the United Nations to unblock the export of grain and fertilizers, a pact that was briefly interrupted by Moscow’s accusations against kyiv for alleged threats to the security of the corridor. Finally, Moscow announced its return to the agreement after citing Ukrainian “guarantees”, although kyiv denied having made any concessions.
Climate change and food industry
The G7 has also attached special importance to diversify agricultural supply chains and adopt more environmentally friendly practices to achieve resilient and sustainable systems. In a joint statement, the world’s seven largest economies condemned the impact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is having on food security, but recalled that even before that war chronic hunger affected 828 million people.
The problems experienced in the supply chains during the pandemic, the increasing costs and worse access to key materials such as fertilizers, “have made clearer than ever the importance of taking a broad perspective of ‘food systems'”, explains the statement. To achieve a more sustainable agriculture in the long term, the G7 heads consider it important to “diversify international, regional and local supply chains” to strengthen the resources and agricultural production of each country and that the impact of external factors is less for those who are more dependent on food exports.
The Group of Seven also highlighted their commitment to the ddevelopment of “fair, open, transparent tradepredictable, non-discriminatory and based on laws”, as well as greater availability of healthy diets at affordable prices. With the world’s population growth in mind, the G7 Agriculture Ministers further noted the need for reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reversing the loss of biodiversity taking into account the “high interdependence of climate change adaptation and mitigation” and agriculture.
The group advocated strengthening their commitment to comply with international treaties in climate and biodiversity, and highlighted several measures that can contribute to its recovery, such as organic agriculture, pest management without sole dependence on chemical pesticides or more efficient irrigation systems. The declaration also contemplates the importance of the innovation and investment to transform the agricultural sectorincluding through the integration of technology, to create increased job opportunities that attract labor and help revitalize aging or depopulated rural agricultural areas.
