Kailash Satyarthi has been rescuing children from slavery and trafficking for the past four decades. He fears the pandemic, which is wreaking havoc on the Indian economy, is pushing millions of people into poverty, with families forced to put their children to work to make ends meet.
“The biggest threat is that millions of children may fall back into slavery, trafficking, child labour, child marriage,” Satyarthi, told Reuters news agency.
He and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, were jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”.
The United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, estimates there are 152 million children – 64 million girls and 88 million boys – in child labour globally, accounting for almost one in ten of all children.
While rates of child labour have declined over the last few years, about 10.1 million children are still in some form of slavery in India.
Across India, child labourers can be found in a variety of industries such as brick kilns, carpet-weaving, garment-making, domestic service, food and refreshment services (such as tea and food stalls), agriculture, fisheries and mining.
“Once children fall into that trap they can be pulled into prostitution and can be trafficked easily … this is another danger which governments have to address now,” Satyarthi said. He believes sexual abuse of children is also on the rise due to the pandemic.
The Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement), which Satyarthi founded in 1980, has so far rescued more than 90,000 children from slavery, including bonded labourers, and helped in their successful reintegration, rehabilitation and education.
Earlier this month, his organisation backed by police, rescued dozens of girls during a raid on a shrimp processing unit in western India.
Child marriage
UNICEF estimates at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world, accounting for a third of the global total. Nearly 16 per cent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
While the prevalence of girls getting married before age 18 has declined from 47 per cent to 27 per cent between 2005-2006 and 2015-2016, UNICEF considers it is still too high.
According to government estimates, more than 10 million workers engaged in the informal and unprotected labour market, lost their jobs during the prolonged lockdown from the end of March to early June, pushing them deeper into poverty.
With more mouths to feed and the inability to make ends meet, pressure is building on families to give off their girls in marriage.
Childline, a children’s helpline, told BBC there is a 17 per cent increase in distress calls related to early marriage of girls in June and July this year compared to 2019.
Supporting poorest families
According to Satyarthi, the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the deep inequalities faced by the poorest families, who are the least equipped to protect themselves in times of global crisis.
“However, despite unprecedented government spending to protect national interests and the global economy,” he warned, “little has been allocated to protect the 1 in 5 children who live on $2 per day or less.” Without urgent action now, he said, “we risk losing an entire generation”.
If the world gave the most marginalised children and their families their fair share, which translates to 20 per cent of the COVID-19 response for the poorest 20 per cent of humanity, he said, the results would be transformative.
In a recent statement, Laureates and Leaders for Children, which Satyarthi founded in 2016, warned that COVID-19 could turn the clock back a decade or more on progress made on the issues of child labour, education, and health for hundreds of millions of children.
“I cannot be satisfied even if one single child is enslaved,” Satyarthi told Reuters. “It means there is something wrong in our policy, in our economy, in our society. We have to ensure that not a single child is left out,” he added.
ACT Alliance is one of a dozen global and regional religious organizations that released an advocacy statement on the situation of migrants and refugees in Europe that defines their calling as Christians to “welcome the stranger,” and urges the creation of a world in which “we become human together.”
“Solidarity should be the guiding principle governing migration and particularly refugee reception,” the statement says. “We expect the EU to reject the discourse and politics of fear and deterrence, and to adopt a principled stance and compassionate practice based on the fundamental values on which the EU is founded.”
The organisations have issued the statement in advance of the EU Commission’s presentation of its new Migration Pact on 23 September.
“Our organizations represent churches throughout Europe and globally as well as church-based agencies particularly concerned with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers,” the statement reads. “As Christian organizations, we are deeply committed to the inviolable dignity of the human person created in the image of God, as well as to the concepts of the common good, of global solidarity and of the promotion of a society that welcomes strangers, cares for those fleeing danger, and protects the vulnerable.”
The statement refers to the recent fire at the Moria camp, which left 13,000 migrants without a home.
“The events of the night of 8 September 2020 in the Moria camp and during the following days have once again exposed the fundamentally broken state of European migration and asylum policy and the suffering it has created,” the statement says, pointing to “the desperation of people seeking protection who have often been forced to live for years in inhumane conditions, the anger and frustration of locals who feel that Europe has left them alone with the challenge of reception and care, the current response has addressed the symptoms of a greater problem but not the actual cause, and a reaction by the EU which expresses sympathy but shows a profound lack of responsibility and no real commitment to helping those in need of protection as well as the Greek state and the local population hosting them.”
COVID-19 has exacerbated already inhumane living conditions for migrants, the statement notes. “COVID-19 and its consequences have in many places rendered the already difficult situation in these countries and for the displaced populations they host even more precarious: be it due to inadequate hygiene in these facilities or the dramatic cuts of food rations and other assistance available to them,” the statement reads. “Widespread restrictions on internal and cross-border movement in the wake of the pandemic have further reduced people’s access to protection. In addition, the economic survival of many people on the move, as well as their hosts, has been imperiled by lockdowns and related measures, which have hit those employed in the informal sector particularly hard, and have had a disproportionate effect on women and their livelihoods.”
The religious organizations commit themselves to “advocating for a more dignified approach to the reception, protection, and care of people on the move.” It states that “churches and church-based agencies have been and will be proactive in offering a compassionate welcome, and promoting social integration and a just and peaceful living together, in Greece and the whole of Europe and beyond.”
The statement also addresses the public discourse in which “migrants and refugees are often the focus for hate speech in social media, as well as distorted and dehumanizing portrayals in the media” and calls for media to “respect the human dignity of migrants and refugees, ensure balanced coverage of their stories, engage with migrants and refugees and enable them to tell their own stories, and to avoid stereotypical, negative expressions, as well as victimization and oversimplification.”
“We also share the conviction that the core values of the European Union regarding human dignity and respect for human rights must be reflected in its day-to-day politics,” the statement says.
The statement is co-signed by the ACT Alliance, the Anglican Communion, the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe, the Conference of European Churches, the Evangelical Church of Greece, the Integration Center for Migrant Workers — Ecumenical Refugee Program, Non Profit Organisation of the Church of Greece, the Lutheran World Federation, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the European Region of the World Association of Christian Communication, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (European Region), the World Council of Churches and the World Methodist Council.
Alliances in the Middle East are changing but the EU has been little engaged with the new diplomatic shifts and risks becoming irrelevant in the region, writes Jonathan Spyer.
Jonathan Spyer is the director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
The signing of agreements for “full normalization” of diplomatic, economic and all relations’ between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House this week largely formalizes an existing reality.
These countries share common perspectives and common interests on the key strategic issues facing the Middle East region. Behind the scenes, they have been cooperating for quite a while.
The relevant files in this regard are: the challenge represented by the regional ambitions of Iran, (Israel’s chief security concern), Turkish regional expansion – bearing the banner of Sunni political Islam in its Muslim Brotherhood iteration (the particular focus for the Emiratis), and the implications for these of an emergent lighter US footprint in the Mid-East, alongside the growing influence of the Chinese in the region.
The camp of states aligned on these issues is not limited to Jerusalem, Manama and Abu Dhabi. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco share similar concerns. The emergent strategic picture in the Middle East is one of competition between this pro-western alliance, whom America are looking to strengthen and build, and the rival blocs of Iran and Turkey, with their allies and clients.
Ten years after the outbreak of the Arab Spring, large swathes of the Arabic speaking world are fragmented and partially governed. Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are today geographical spaces, rather than states in the full sense of the word.
The presence of Iranian and Turkish proxies can be seen throughout all these nations. Across these collapsed spaces, in the Mediterranean, and in the Gulf, the competition between the rival alliances will be engaged.
In the capitals of Europe, there is as yet only limited understanding of this new and emergent picture. As a result, European countries are increasingly irrelevant or invisible in the diplomacy of the Middle East.
The still dominant perspectives in Europe belong largely to the era now fading: the supposed centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Mid-East stability, the desire to return to the Iran nuclear agreement, a more general preference for formal and multi-lateral agreements, while the region favours the tacit, the pragmatic and the bilateral.
As a result, European countries have played no part in the emergence and crystallization of the tacit alliance of pro-western countries of which Israel and the UAE form a part. This alliance has emerged through bilateral connections, but with the quiet encouragement and tutelage of the US.
Similarly, the US policy of maximum pressure on Iran, strongly supported by pro-western regional states, is opposed by key European countries. They favour a return to the JCPOA. In so doing, again, Europe will advance not its interests, but rather its irrelevance.
On the issue of Turkish aggression in the Eastern Mediterranean, France and Greece are playing a vital role. No united European stance has been forthcoming, however. Italy, one of the EU’s other leading powers sits on the opposite side to France, remaining aligned with Turkey.
The fear of President Erdogan’s use of Syrian migrants as a tool of intimidation apparently remains.
Today, the UAE is aligned with Egypt and General Khalifa Haftar in Libya, against the Turkish and MB-backed Feyaz Sarraj government in Tripoli. The UAE, backed by Saudi Arabia, is seeking to create a network of alliances to challenge and turn back Turkish ambitions in the east Mediterranean.
Israel’s relations with Turkey formally remain, but are in the deep freeze, with no sign of improvement on the horizon (though trade remains brisk). Ankara is currently domiciling an active Hamas office in Istanbul. It was recently revealed that the Turks have begun to offer citizenship to Hamas operatives resident in Turkey.
As the contest with the Turks in the eastern Mediterranean heats up, the Emiratis perceive Israel as a natural partner in that arena, too. In response to a Turkish dispatch of a survey ship accompanied by warships to the disputed area on August 10, Israel issued a clear statement of support for Greece, for the first time.
The statement, issued by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, asserted that “Israel is following closely as tension rises in the eastern Mediterranean. Israel expresses its full support and solidarity with Greece.” Prime Minister Netanyahu later reaffirmed this position.
So the emergent alliance to contain Turkey in the east Mediterranean includes Egypt, the UAE, Israel, Greece, France and Cyprus. There ought to be a united European response to this key challenge, taking place on Europe’s very doorstep. Such a response has yet to emerge.
The East Mediterranean situation is characterized by US absence. Indeed, underlying the whole strategic picture in the region is the reality of US drawdown.
US weariness with the Mid-East, urgent internal questions, emergent energy independence and the growing challenge of China are all leading to a focus away from the Mid-East. This is bringing US allies closer along bilateral lines.
There is a place here for European influence, and for a major European role. But it is dependent on Europe acquainting itself with the emergent, profoundly changed the strategic realities of the region. This has not yet happened. It should happen soon.
(Photo: The John Bradburne Memorial Society.)John Bradburne cared for people living with leprosy in then-Rhodesia, refusing to leave them as a civil war raged.
September, the long-awaited birth of spring in southern Africa, invokes in me the memory of John Bradburne.
He died as spring arrived in September 1979 not far from his adopted home in Mutemwa in what was then Rhodesia.
Mutemwa means, “You are cut off,” in the local Shona language.
It is well named. Wedged in the bush between two giant granite hills, it is far from the tourist haunts.
Even if they knew of the place, few tourists would venture there for Mutemwa is the home of Zimbabwe’s oldest leper colony.
Today there are less than 100 lepers left in the settlement that once housed over 1,000 sick, desperate and lonely souls.
“Cut off” is exactly what the colonial authorities planned when Mutemwa was chosen to house these most discarded and isolated of all human beings.
Here, among the lepers, that John Bradburne, a wandering English pilgrim, settled, and as the story of his life and the strange events surrounding his death spread, more and more people started visiting Mutemwa, a site of pilgrimage.
So much so that each September, around the anniversary of Bradburne’s death, upward of 30,000 pilgrims descend on this isolated spot.
And, almost every year, 6,000 miles (9,656 kilometers) away, a special commemorative service is held for Bradburne in London‘s Westminster Cathedral.
Since his death, several people have claimed miraculous healings after praying to him, the BBC reported one year ago in a piece titled “Why Briton John Bradburne could become Zimbabwe’s first Catholic saint.”
The miracles satisfy one condition for sainthood in the Catholic Church. It is also said that at his funeral, held in Harare, a speck of unexplained blood appeared below his coffin.
SON OF ANGLICAN CLEREGYMAN
John Randal Bradburne was born in Cumbria, the son of a high Anglican clergyman.
Educated at Greshams, A Church of England foundation school, and commissioned into the Indian Army in 1941, he had a solid war record, serving first with the Ghurkhas in Malaya and then with the Chindits in Burma.
When hostilities ended, Bradburne converted to Catholicism and gave up secular life to become a pilgrim, attaching himself to various monastic orders in Britain, Europe, and the Holy Land before traveling to what was then Rhodesia as a missionary helper in the early Sixties.
Jesuit missionaries had been active in Rhodesia from the late 19th century. They introduced him to Mutemwa, where lepers from many southern African countries and various African tribes lived in appalling conditions of sickness, poverty, and isolation.
From the moment Bradburne first saw the leper colony in 1969, it was clear his search was over.
The restless English pilgrim had finally found his apostolate.
Mutemwa became home, and the lepers became his family. He lived among them, attending to their medical, material, and spiritual needs, all the while battling officialdom for a better deal for his severely disabled and marginalized charges.
IMPROVMENT IN LEPER COLONY
Under Bradburne’s care and with the support of a number of local farmers conditions improved at the leper settlement.
By the late Seventies, however, war had come to Rhodesia. The Mutoko district, with its thick bush, rugged hills, and hidden caves, had become a hot spot for guerrilla activity counter-insurgency operations by the Rhodesian security forces.
In November 1966, the white minority-led government of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia had illegally declared itself an independent nation, saying it was part of a struggle against international communism.
That act led to international sanctions against the country and the intensification of a war started by black nationalists two years earlier.
War crept ever closer to the mission. On the night of February 6, 1977, three Jesuit priests and four Dominican nuns were shot dead by guerrillas at St. Paul’s Mission, Musami, some 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Mutemwa.
Dunstan Myerscough, a Jesuit priest and the sole survivor of the Musami massacre, recalls the moment he faced the killers: “The full realization that we were going to die came to me,” he wrote afterward.
“There was some discussion among the guerrillas. The three facing us raised their rifles; the rest of the party seemed to run away in haste. I was looking at the center one, and I saw his gun belch fire. I turned away from him and fell to the ground.
“There was a continuous burst for a few seconds after which more running feet receded. All then went dead quiet. I turned around, and there was no one to be seen. I got up and went to each of the seven in turn. Being assured that they were all dead, I went to the office to phone…”
Today the bodies of the ‘Musami Seven’ lie alongside those of other murdered missionaries in ‘Martyrs’ Row’ at the Jesuit mission cemetery at Chishawasha outside Harare.
NO-GO AREA
By mid-1979, the Mutoko district had become a no-go area and the war had made it impossible to be a neutral observer.
In July that year Luisa Guidotti, an Italian doctor who regularly visited the leper colony from her base at the nearby All Souls Mission, was shot and killed by Rhodesian security forces at a roadblock near the mission.
She was traveling in a marked ambulance when the killing occurred. Some commentators believe she was ambushed as Guidotti had previously had a brush with the Rhodesian authorities and been arrested under suspicion of aiding a wounded guerrilla, a claim that was later found to be groundless.
But the security forces were suspicious of rural missionary communities and their role during the war. Guidotti may well have paid the ultimate price of that suspicion.
In the light of Dr. Guidotti’s death and the deteriorating security situation in the area, Bradburne’s friends urged him to leave Mutemwa. He refused, insisting he stay on with his family, the lepers.
Bradburne’s biographer Fr. John Dove writes: “A good number of the lepers were diseased foreigners; others were from different tribes.
They were unwelcome to some of the local tribesmen who herded their cattle on the leper fields, stole firewood, broke the fences, pinched mangoes. It was alleged that leper rations and gift clothing went astray. John was the shepherd who did all he could to keep the wolves at bay from his battered flock.”
There is a certain inevitability to the Bradburne story. Like some Greek tragedy being played out in the African bush, the end was always clear.
BRADBURNE ABDUCTED
On the night of Sunday, September 2, 1979, a group of boys who acted as the guerrillas’ eyes and ears in the area – abducted Bradburne from his hut, tied his hands behind his back, and marched him off into the night.
In Dove’s account, the day before his abduction Bradburne came down off Mount Chigona, which overlooks the leper settlement and which he often climbed to pray and gather his thoughts. He reported seeing an apparition persuading him to stay on at Mutemwa.
Dove continues that Bradburne developed an “inexplicable, perhaps mystical, thirst ” on the evening of his abduction. He ran to the water tap near the clinic. The water was turned off. He hurried back to the lepers, asking them for water — they had none. The Christ-like thirst eased as it came. This was the last time they saw him.
The two old lepers in the guest hut next to John’s say that he retired there. Then in the night, they heard voices at John’s door speaking in English. They say John opened the door, and conversation ensued. There was a noise of departure, and then all was silent. They were too afraid to leave their hut before the dawn”.
Following his abduction, Bradburne was taken to a cave some six miles (10 kilometers) northeast of Mutemwa.
Here the abductors, now numbering around 40, mocked and taunted him before taking him to a nearby village. He was bound and left in an empty hut where he stayed throughout Monday, September 3.
That night Bradburne was marched to a local guerrilla commander’s hiding place in a cave in the nearby Inyanga Mountains. The party arrived with Bradburne the following morning.
There he was accused of being an informer, but the commander said he knew of Bradburne and his work with the lepers. He offered the Englishman the option of leaving Mutemwa and going to Mozambique.
Bradburne refused, saying the lepers needed him. That night the commander issued instructions for his release, but Bradburne’s refusal to leave the area had sealed his fate.
BACK TO THE LEPER COLONY
He began the journey back to the leper colony accompanied by a group of local villagers. He did not make it home. Along the way, he was made to kneel in a ditch beside the main road leading back to Mutemwa.
There he was shot in the back with an AK47. A guerrilla security officer who believed the Englishman had seen too much and was a security risk made the killing.
Bradburne’s body was removed from the culvert and laid on the side of the main Nyamapanda road. Villagers who witnessed the killing reported strange occurrences after the shooting.
They reported hearing unrecognizable singing and claimed that a large bird had hovered over Bradburne’s body. There was also the testimony of a shaft of light split into three when it touched the body.
John Dove comments: “The phenomena described were beyond the invention of people of a vastly different religious culture… the symbolism of the phenomena had no meaning to the group… This was all beyond their comprehension. They only experienced fear and bewilderment.”
Despite threats from the guerrilla security officer that their village would be burnt if they did not dispose of the body, the villagers were so frightened by the phenomena they had witnessed that they defied his order.
BODY LEFT ON ROAD
Rather than dispose of the body as instructed, they left it on the shoulder of the road where it was found on Wednesday morning, September 5 by Fr. David Gibbs, who had heard via the bush telephone that a ‘mukiwa’ (a white man) had been killed.
Having heard of the abduction, Gibbs concluded that it could only be Bradburne.
It was not only the reported phenomena surrounding Bradburne’s death that led to speculation that this was a blessed soul.
At Bradburne’s funeral in Salisbury Cathedral, three drops of blood were seen on the floor below the coffin.
The undertaker was so concerned about the incident that he had the body checked before clerical witnesses after the burial service. There was no sign of blood inside or outside the coffin, and Bradburne’s wounds were dry.
Numerous sources verified this incident.
John Dove writes that soon after Bradburne’s death, two Bateleur eagles landed on the grass outside the room at Silveria House, the Jesuit novitiate outside Harare where Bradburne lived for a period before moving to Mutemwa.
‘MESSENGERS OF GOD’
The eagles remained on the ground for three-quarters of an hour. Bateleurs are incredibly shy raptors and rarely alight on the ground. Among the local Shona people, eagles are believed to be messengers of God.
Each September month, local and foreign pilgrims are to found on the granite slopes of Mount Chigona, which soars high above Mutemwa leper station like an African Ayers Rock.
Most nights will see them sleeping out on the mountain below the infinite expanse of the African sky. They come to pray and seek spiritual favors from the Englishman who cared for the lepers who still live in the shadow of what has come to be called the ‘Holy Place’ – Bradburne’s Mountain.
Kerry Swift has worked as a journalist, corporate publisher, and academic. He worked on South Africa’s Drum magazine in the late 1970s, taught journalism at Rhodes University, and later ran a journalism training school for a nation-wide newspaper group training black journalists during the apartheid era. He lives in Johannesburg.
(Photo: The John Bradburne Memorial Society.)John Bradburne lived in this tin-roofed hut and was often close to starvation.
Roughly 64 per cent of the global population lives in a nation that has either committed to, or is eligible to join, the coronavirus Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, which enables participating Governments to spread the risk and costs of vaccine development and provide their populations with early access to vaccines.
Working together through the COVAX Facility “is not charity, it’s in every country’s best interest. We sink or we swim together”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Speaking at a press briefing with the international vaccine alliance GAVI, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the WHO chief said that commitment agreements have been secured and the COVAX Facility would begin signing contracts with vaccine manufacturers and developers.
The overarching goal of the COVAX Facility is to ensure that all countries have access to vaccines at the same time, and that priority is given to those most at risk, according to the WHO chief.
“The COVAX Facility will help to bring the pandemic under control, “save lives, accelerate the economic recovery and ensure that the race for vaccines is a shared endeavour, not a contest that only the rich can win”, he upheld. “Vaccine nationalism will only perpetuate the disease and prolong the global recovery”.
More commitment needed
So far, $3 billion have been invested in the ACT Accelerator – only a tenth of the required $35 for scale-up and impact.
Tedros stressed that $5 billion is needed “immediately to maintain momentum and stay on track for our ambitious timelines”.
“Our challenge now is to take the tremendous promise of the ACT Accelerator and COVAX to scale”, he said, adding, “we are at a critical point and we need a significant increase in countries’ political and financial commitment”.
The WHO chief cited estimates suggesting that once an effective vaccine has been distributed, and international travel and trade is fully restored, “the economic gains will far outweigh” the $38 billion investment required for the Accelerator.
“This isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do”, he spelled out.
COVAX realized
“COVAX is now in business”, said Gavi CEO Seth Berkley. “Governments from every continent have chosen to work together, not only to secure vaccines for their own populations, but also to help ensure that vaccines are available to the most vulnerable everywhere”.
“With the commitments we’re announcing today for the COVAX Facility, as well as the historic partnership we are forging with industry, we now stand a far better chance of ending the acute phase of this pandemic, once safe, effective vaccines become available”.
‘Great leap’ forward
Meanwhile, CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett called the international community’s coming together to tackle the pandemic “a landmark moment in the history of public health”.
“The global spread of COVID-19 means that it is only through equitable and simultaneous access to new lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines that we can hope to end this pandemic,” he said. “Countries coming together in this way shows a unity of purpose and resolve to end the acute phase of this pandemic. Today, we have taken a great leap towards that goal, for the benefit of all”.
In this special edition of Futuris, we look at one of the missions that the European Union is launching to find solutions to the main challenges of our time, which include adaptation to climate change, protection of land and seas and the fight against cancer
There are five parts to the Horizon Europe programme, which will begin in 2021.
“Issues like the fight against cancer, climate change, smart cities and the health of soils, oceans and seawater were chosen because their impact on European citizens is huge.
“It’s because we need to act together to see concrete results.
“And this is what we see in the recommendations of our reports; for example, the cancer project proposes to save three million lives by 2030; less than 10% of the world’s population lives on our continent, but 25% of diagnosed cases are in Europe. We have to act.”
The Commissioner believes there are several key elements for the success of the missions:
“First, a mission must be owned by the citizens. They must recognise themselves in it and then, through their participation in the process, see results.
“That’s why I am pleased that we have been able to set up this process from the beginning.
“This new framework, a process of co-creation, can be a real game changer for future decisions.
“Because after all, a project (like this) aims to affirm benefits for Europe, the benefits of the action that is undertaken at European level in people’s lives, in each region, in each member state, in the different communities.”
The Soil Health and Food part of the framework has set a target of restoring 70% of agricultural land by 2030.
Cees Veerman, the Head of the Project, says further degradation of the soil must be arrested – then reversed:
“This is to stop the sealing of the soil, to stop the pollution of the soil, make the soil more healthy.
“By increasing the level of carbon in the soil, which is, of course, another measure to prevent the further degradation of climate.
“Also, the storage of water so that biodiversity, agriculture, food production, forestry and also people living in the cities can all contribute to (putting) soil in a better condition.”
An example of this approach is the Best4Soil Project, an approach to soil management that combines nature and science.
The project recognises that soils are essential for all life-sustaining processes on the planet. More than 95% of our food comes from land-related production, and for that reason, keeping soil healthy is paramount.
However, between 60-70% of European soils are currently unhealthy in terms of the presence of organic matter and minerals that are needed to form nutrients for plants and micro-organisms, according to data provided by Soil Health and Food Mission Board and Joint Research Centre.
The unhealthy condition is the result of a series of inappropriate land practices including intensive farming, excess irrigation, pollution by chemicals and pesticides. Soils are also paying the price of climate change, erosion and sea level rises.
Depending on the type of soil, nature can take up to a thousand years to produce a 1 cm layer of fertile ground; but it only takes a few years of bad practices to lose it.
Best4Soil’s Project Co-ordinator Harm Brinks says the damaging methodologies have to be minimised – and then phased out completely:
“The challenge for agriculture is to feed the world and the growing population and, as we see in many part of the world, soil quality is going down due to heavy machinery and due to intensive production systems.”
One site making progress as part of the Best4Soil Project is the Grand Farm in Absdorf, Austria, run by entrepreneur and farmer Alfred Grand.
In the context of the paradigm shift in agriculture that Best4Soil wants to bring about, Alfred Grand says his farm is an example of a positive partnership between nature and science:
“If we combine these two approaches, the solution-oriented approach and the problem-oriented approach, then we will achieve a sustainable solution much faster.
“We want to work together with science to test and evaluate new solutions, new systems and then show them to our professional colleagues – and to society.”
“There are different methods that can be used as a farmer, including the application of compost, the sowing of winter cover crops or intermediate cover crops and crop rotation.
“Immediately after we have harvested a crop, we try to sow a cover crop.”
Alfred Grand explains that cover crops allow the nutrients in the soil to be protected and conserved in a much more effective way than merely allowing land to lie fallow:
“The more diverse it is, the more life brought into the soil with the compost, the healthier my soils are. And the less pesticides I have to use, for example.”
“It’s very important that we try to adapt the soil management to a sustainable soil management.”
Alfred says vermicompost and cover crops are two preventive practices to increase the quality of the soil:
“The large amount of micro-organisms play an important role in soil health. The greater the number, the greater the diversity of species, the more stable the soil is, the fewer diseases and the fewer problems I have with the soil”
Another type of natural fertiliser widely trialled at the Grand Farm is thermophilic compost, a mix of organic matter with carbon and nitrogen content.
Researchers have to regularly analyse samples of this compost in order to check its quality – as well as the components released into the soil and the atmosphere – and avoid any contamination.
The compost formation process is activated by bacteria and fungi; it can produce temperatures of as much as 60-70 °C, which is enough to kill the organisms that can cause plant diseases.
“It’s very important that we conserve our energy and resources.
“Biomass is a source of energy – particularly nitrogen – and we have to make sure that we save as much of it as possible.”
The Grand Garden section of the Grand Farm is a small scale example of this nature-based approach. The aim is to produce healthy food with a high variety on a small area of about a hectare and then to sell it locally. Cultivation and harvesting are mostly done by hand, with no heavy machinery used. The model for the Grand Garden is based on the work of Canadian organic farmer Jean Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener.
Livia Klenkhart, Head of Production at the Grand Garden, says it’s working extremely well:
“Our method of vegetable production has many advantages with economic, ecological and social dimensions.
For me personally, the most important thing is that jobs are created, that we have direct contact with the consumer, that we also provide education; and that we promote and rebuild the soil and the environment.”
When managed sustainably, soils are key to the balance of our ecosystems. By acting as a sponge, to store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, soils can also mitigate the effects of climate change.
In the latest episode of the Health in Europe podcast, WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge discusses the formation of the European Programme of Work (EPW) 2020–2025, “United Action for Better Health in Europe”, and how it will improve health in the WHO European Region over the coming years. Dr Kluge also explains how the EPW’s development was impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how citizens can get involved to help make the EPW a reality.
The EPW is linked to the 3 core priorities of WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work: to ensure that more people have access to universal health coverage, enjoy improved health and well-being, and are better protected from health emergencies. Supporting these 3 priorities are 4 flagship areas: behavioural and cultural insights, mental health, immunization, and digital health.
Listen to the latest episode of Health in Europe by clicking the link below.
What is the role of local communities in fostering human security and resilience?
COMECE and its partners invite you to participate in the webinar “Fostering human security and resilience in the future EU-Africa partnership – The role of local communities” on Thursday 15 October 2020 at 11h00 CEST. The event is organised as a faith-based contribution to a future fair and people-centered partnership between the EU and the African Union.
Policy-makers, Church representatives and stakeholders from the EU and different African countries will engage in a discussion on Africa that goes beyond State resilience and security. Speakers will present some of the many local initiatives undertaken in various fields and policy areas, illustrating ways in which local actors are playing a key role in building resilience and human security.
Given the relevance of EU-Africa cooperation in these areas, the webinar aims at shedding light to the importance of supporting and promoting the role of local and faith actors and communities as important contributors to these objectives.
The concept of efficiency and productivity in farming is often associated with poor animal welfare and sustainability, but that is not necessarily the case and more work must be done to change this perception, stakeholders highlighted at a recent event on animal welfare.
On the backdrop of an increased focus on animal welfare in the EU, the event, organised by animal medicines association AnimalHealthEurope, took a closer look at the future of the livestock sector as the EU forms its game-plan for delivering on the EU Green Deal ambitions.
Animal welfare is set to take centre stage in policy making priorities over the coming months, being a major focus of the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F), and a key theme of the German EU presidency.
But stakeholders were quick to emphasise that there is not one sole example of a sustainable farming system.
“I don’t think we should follow this black and white debate—smaller means greener and more sustainable,” stressed Norbert Lins, chair of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee.
“It depends on the method, it depends on the use of technologies, and all these things are more important than the question of how large or how small is the farm.”
Livestock sustainability consultant Jude Capper also warned against oversimplifying the discussion.
Drawing from her experience working on farms of all shapes and sizes, Capper said that there is often an idealism about livestock farming which doesn’t always reflect the best interests of the animals, but holds a strong influence on our approach going forward.
“We often see that there is a real or a perceived dichotomy between efficiency, productivity, and animal health, and welfare. We’ve really got to work harder to bridge that gap to understand animal behaviour, animal welfare, animal health, productivity, and see where we can improve all of these metrics concurrently,” she said.
“Efficiency has become this dirty word – on the one hand, we have this storybook image of organic, green farms, and on the other hand, we have efficiency as being bad and evil and poor welfare, but we’ve got to help people understand that this is not necessarily the case,” Capper told EURACTIV after the event.
She added that there is a “large body of research” that demonstrates that improving both productivity and efficiency can also improve sustainably both from the environmental and economic perspective.
A communication gap between citizens and farmers in the modern livestock sector is increasingly widening and the general sentiment is shifting from an overall good opinion of those who keep feeding the world toward a negative view on farmers’ role in today’s society.
Risk of pigeon-holing
Stakeholders also warned against pigeon-holing agricultural systems, especially in the context of the drive for organic production, arguing instead for a more comprehensive view of sustainability which encourages farmers to share best practices that ensure the healthiest animals.
The F2F strategy stipulates a target for 25% of EU farmland to be farmed organically by 2030.
But organic production may not always be the answer when it comes to animal health, according to Dr Martin Scholten of Wageningen University.
“What I’m missing in the Farm to Fork Strategy is that it is one-size-fits-all. Whereas what we need is to understand that Europe has different landscapes, has different societies, has different opportunities to produce food,” he said.
Likewise, quoting Germany agriculture minister Julia Klöckner, Julie Vermooten from AnimalhealthEurope emphasised that “organic farming is not the holy grail and conventional farming is not the devil,” adding that both types carry their share of problems.
“Organic farming must become more efficient, that is for sure, and conventional farming must become more sustainable,” she said, stressing that the EU should offer its support to all farming approaches, be they conventional, organic, or agroecological.
Instead, the objective must be to “secure a sustained supply of affordable and safe food to meet growing demand”.
Organic farmer and chair of the organics Europe farmers interest group, Kurt Sannen, added that, from the perspective of an organic farmer, he was not a fan of a polarised debate which pits organic agriculture against conventional.
“My farm has an organic label, but I am more than just an organic farmer. Like my other colleagues, we all have good things and bad things, and we all can become more sustainable and do more good practice on the farm”.
“It’s not because I am organic that I am the best farmer—no, it’s just a label; no less, no more,” he said.
“I really firmly believe that there is no one size fits all system, solution, or indeed even practices either now or in the future—except that really, throughout the globe, every livestock farm has to be absolutely the best, everything that they do now, and everything that they do in future,” Capper added.
“We’ve got to help people separate out a label from a farm from anything to do with actually how productive, efficient and animal health- and welfare-friendly a farm might be”.
