PROMOTING HUMAN PROSPERITY – Dr Kris Rampersad inputs into the Virtual Forum on Food Security & Culture in Preparations for Summit of the Americas by Organisation on American States.
Food Security and Culture are vital dimensions to Human Prosperity and Sustainable Development, equity and equality for Latin America and the Caribbean inputs into Summit of the Americas
Dr Kris Rampersad on Food Security for Human Prosperity
PROMOTING HUMAN PROSPERITY
Excerpts from Report of the Virtual Forum of Summit of the Americas
The Summits of the Americas Secretariat launched the Summits Virtual Platform n preparation for the Fifth Summit of the Americas to promote the participation of different social
actors in the Summits Process by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
The results of the fora are presented for the consideration of the National Secretariat, National Coordinators and Permanent Missions during the negotiation of the text of the Declaration to be undertaken in the framework of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) meetings.
Dr Kris Rampersad’s contributions
On Food Security for Human Prosperity
The need to establish concrete actions to address the
challenge of ensuring food supplies for all citizens in the region was stressed. Participants also presented
a concern regarding a high dependency on relatively few sources of food and the lack of control on
production, which may impact human health, particularly due to the consumption of foods with high
levels of chemicals, preservatives and genetically altered foods.
Dr Kris Rampersad’s input:
It would be useful if we can look at this from our regional home-grown perspective rather than from and with all the imported approaches that we are being spoon-fed and adopting wholesale – with evident disastrous effect…(The reasons why are we in the current crisis!!!)
Brazil’s is a great model to follow – combining as it does political will with mechanisms to support home
grown methods and technologies…Will post more on this before end of the week.
Response by Lina Maria Marmolejo
Dear Kris,
Thanks a lot for your comment!
Food security is indeed, recognized as a really important topic in the declaration. As you mentioned it is
relevant to start thinking locally about our food and develop strategies reflecting our own social and
environmental realities. Looking forward to read about the Brazil’s case!
On Culture for Human Prosperity
The need to find mechanisms to preserve the cultural legacies, languages and traditions of indigenous peoples. In addition, the necessity of designing policies that encourage multicultural interaction and that promote respect towards the native customs of each culture was emphasized.
In the same token, there was a degree of urgency placed on the promotion of research and the creation of dialogue whereby solutions may be found to address the challenges faced by a multicultural region such as Latin America and the Caribbean. Particularly, a mention was made of the advisability of defining
strategies to reduce the negative impact of globalization on local cultural identities.
Dr Kris Rampersad on Culture
Culture – (paragraph 29)
“…. When will we wake up to our own realities and confidence in the strengths that our cultural realities offer us? It
would be heartening to see policy directions in all aspects of the Summit designed on these cultural strengths ratherthan force-feed our way into alien concepts and beliefs”.
Kris Rampersad, Trinidad y Tobago, Network of NGOS of T&T for Advancement of Women
Final_Report_Human_Prosperity.pdf (application/pdf Object) – Summary eport
Full Report: Human Prosperity in the Americas: https://www.summit-americas.org/vp/101408%20_Virtual_Consultation%20_ALL.pdf