Small-scale food producers and grassroots organizations have issued a stark warning to global policymakers: achieving food sovereignty is impossible without dismantling financial systems that prioritize profit over people.
During a United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) dialogue, advocates emphasized that debt burdens, corporate-driven agriculture, and lack of accountability are strangling efforts to ensure equitable access to nutritious food.
The Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSIPM), a coalition representing marginalized food producers, argued that current financial structures perpetuate dependency on volatile global markets while sidelining local food systems. Small-scale farmers, fisherfolk, and pastoralists, who supply up to 70% of the world’s food,face systemic barriers including land dispossession, restricted credit access, and exclusion from policy-making spaces. “We’re trapped in a cycle where countries prioritize debt repayment over public health and agriculture,” said Morgan Ody, General Coordinator of La Vía Campesina. She criticized international financial institutions for pushing export-focused models that leave nations reliant on food imports, exacerbating vulnerability to crises like climate shocks and inflation.
In 2023, over 3.3 billion people lived in countries where debt interest payments surpassed health and education budgets. Ibrahima Coulibaly, President of the Pan-African Farmers’ Organization, highlighted Africa’s stark disparities: only 6% of farmers access formal credit, while governments routinely miss commitments to allocate 10% of national budgets to agriculture. “Public funds should create guarantee funds for small producers, not fuel corrupt fertilizer schemes,” he asserted, condemning public-private partnerships that sideline farmers’ autonomy.
The call for reform extends beyond funding. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri stressed the need for participatory national food plans rooted in transparency. “Governments must map revenue flows and involve communities in budget decisions to hold power brokers accountable,” he said. Shiney Varghese of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy added, “Financing must serve food-producing communities, not corporations.”
A zine published by CSIPM, Trade, Debt and Financialisation: What It Has to Do With the Food on Your Plate, illustrates these systemic ties through case studies: Kenyan youth battling food inflation, Pakistani wheat farmers crushed by import policies, and Egyptian families dependent on bread subsidies. The publication frames these struggles as part of a broader fight against the commodification of food. “Every financial decision widens or closes the inequality gap,” it states, underscoring grassroots resistance to extractive economic models.
The CFS dialogue, the first of two planned for 2025, serves as a rare UN platform where those most affected by hunger shape global policy debates. Advocates urged the committee to leverage its mandate by pressuring multilateral forums including COP climate talks and the 2025 Financing for Development Conference to center small-scale producers in financing strategies.
As the world grapples with overlapping climate, debt, and hunger crises, the dialogue underscores a growing consensus: transforming food systems requires democratizing finance. This means redirecting investments toward agroecology, land reform, and fair taxation while curtailing corporate influence. For millions of food producers, the stakes transcend policy it’s a battle for survival. “Solutions exist,” Coulibaly insisted. “What’s missing is political will.”
The CSIPM’s push arrives amid heightened scrutiny of global financial architecture, with developing nations increasingly vocal about the need to cancel crippling debts and prioritize domestic food security. Their message challenges a status quo that treats food as a commodity rather than a right a reckoning that could redefine how the world funds sustainability, equity, and resilience in an era of crisis.
