Food Systems Impact Gallery Background Articles

1944 - Hunger Winter

In the 1944 - 1945 winter, 20.000 to 30.000 Dutch people died from hunger and cold. The famine was caused by a German blockade of food and fuel shipments to the West of the Netherlands, a railway strike by Dutch railway personnel and the limited supply of coal. Some 4.5 million were affected and survived thanks to soup kitchens. 

The famine was alleviated first by "Swedish bread" flour shipped in from Sweden to Dutch harbours, and subsequently by the airlift of food by British, Canadian and United States Air Forces. Although the humanitarian missions mitigated the emergency, the famine persisted and ended only with the liberation of the Netherlands by the Allies in May 1945. 

During the Second World War, a total of 19 to 25 million people died globally from war-related hunger. Most hunger-related casualties were in China (7-8 million), Soviet Union (5-10 million), Dutch East Indies (2-4 million) and India (2-3 million).

1945 - Mansholt modernises Dutch agricultural sector

Sicco Mansholt started in 1945 as the first post-war minister of Agriculture in the Netherlands. To improve farmers’ income, he modernised Dutch agriculture with economies of scale and mechanisation. His vision for agriculture was deeply influenced by ensuring Europe’s food security and economic development in the post-World War II era. 

After his role as Minister of Agriculture, Mansholt served as European Commissioner for Agriculture and was President of the European Commission. Many small farmers in Europe saw Mansholt’s vision as a threat to their livelihoods, fearing they would be forced out of business. There were protests, especially in countries like France and Italy, where small-scale farming was still the norm. 

Inspired by the report Limits to Growth of the Club of Rome, Mansholt took a more critical stance on agricultural modernization in his later life, highlighting the negative side-effects of modern agriculture on the environment.

1948 - First acknowledgement of the right to food

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This milestone document acknowledged the right to food as a broader set of economic and social rights. The document was drafted by a UN Committee led by Eleanor Roosevelt. It was accepted by the General Assembly during its third session on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. 

The key acknowledgement of the right to food is found in Article 25(1) of the UDHR, which states: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.” 

This article recognizes that food is a fundamental component of the right to an adequate standard of living. By including food within this article, the UDHR acknowledges that food security is essential to human dignity and well-being.

1950 - Start creation of Flevoland

From 1950 onwards, efforts commenced to create Flevoland, using polders to reclaim land from the former Zuiderzee. This created 97,000 hectares of new land for agriculture. Flevoland was part of The Zuiderzee Works, the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. 

The creation of Flevoland was paid for partly by the funds from the Marshall Plan. After the completion of the polders, farmers played a pioneering role in cultivating the newly drained land. The Dutch government selected experienced farmers to settle in Flevoland. These pioneer farmers, often with a background in agriculture from other parts of the country, were chosen based on strict criteria like farming experience, adaptability, and willingness to live in a new, isolated area. 

Today, Flevoland is known for its fertile soil and high agricultural output. Farmers there grow a wide variety of crops, including potatoes, sugar beets, grains, and vegetables.

1959-1961 - Great Chinese Famine

In the period 1959-1961, between 15 and 55 million people died from hunger, partly due to the results of the Great Leap Forward Policy, launched by Mao Zedong in 1958. The policy aimed to rapidly industrialise China and collectivise its agriculture. Part of the Great Leap Forward Policy was the Four Evils campaign, in which (among others) large amounts of sparrows were eliminated because of their consumption of grain, resulting in locust plagues and failed harvests. 

The Great Chinese Famine is regarded as the deadliest famine in human history. During the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in early 1962, Liu Shaoqi, then President of China, formally attributed 30% of the famine to natural disasters and 70% to man-made errors. After the famine, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gradually introduced market mechanisms and allowed for greater local autonomy in farming. Over time, these changes helped stabilise food production.

1962 - Introduction of the common agricultural policy

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aimed to stabilise food markets, ensure a fair standard of living for farmers, and secure food supplies at reasonable prices. The CAP is a combination of income support to farmers, market measures to compensate for market disruptions and rural development programmes to support the needs and challenges of rural areas. 

Since its introduction in 1962, this system of agricultural subsidies has undergone a series of reforms, adding more emphasis on environmental sustainability, rural development and innovation. Despite these reforms, the CAP continues to be criticised for its unequal distribution of subsidies, environmental inefficacy, market distortions, bureaucratic complexity, and resistance to deeper reform. As the EU attempts to align the CAP with broader sustainability and climate goals, addressing these issues will be critical to making the policy fit for future challenges in agriculture and rural development.

1964 - Norman Borlaug leads the new CGIAR Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre

Norman Borlaug played a key role in the Green Revolution, introducing new technologies to improve yields, such as the use of new varieties, chemical inputs, irrigation and mechanisation. Studies show that the Green Revolution contributed to reductions in poverty, averted hunger, raised incomes and declines in infant mortality. 

As an American agronomist, he led multiple global and regional initiatives that contributed to the use of these new technologies to improve yields that later became known as the Green Revolution. One of these initiatives was the CGIAR International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico. Currently, CGIAR has expanded its network to include 15 research centres that focus on a wide range of agricultural research areas. 

Over time, the CGIAR centres have expanded their research beyond simple crop improvement to tackle broader systemic issues in agriculture. Since 2019, the CGIAR institutes are on a path towards integration under the common banner ‘One CGIAR’.

1972 - Limits to Growth report published by Club of Rome

This report used computer simulation to show that if growth trends in population, food production and resource depletion would continue, the limits to growth would be reached within one hundred years. The report's authors are Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William Behrens, representing a team of 17 researchers. 

The study used the World3 computer model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the Earth and human systems. Commissioned by the Club of Rome, the study saw its findings first presented at international gatherings in the summer of 1971. 

The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 as a group of science, policy and business leaders to critically discuss pressing global issues. Although it faced severe criticism and scrutiny upon its release, the report influenced environmental reforms for decades. The Limits to Growth report went on to sell 30 million copies, making it the best-selling environmental book in history.

1974 - Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger

The Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition was adopted on 16 November 1974, by governments who attended the 1974 World Food Conference. Within this Declaration, it is recognised that it is the common purpose of all nations to work together towards eliminating hunger and malnutrition. 

The Declaration reads: Every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties. Fifty years after the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger, the world has made significant strides in increasing food production, reducing poverty, and improving nutrition. 

However, despite these achievements, hunger and malnutrition remain major global challenges. Conflict, climate change, economic inequality, and recent crises like the COVID-19 pandemic have reversed some of the progress made and exposed the fragility of global food systems.

1986 - Founding of Slow Food

Slow Food was founded in opposition to the rise of fast food and industrial food production, with the aim to preserve traditional and regional cuisine, promoting local small businesses and sustainable food. The founding of Slow Food was a direct response to a widespread national protest in Italy when the first McDonalds opened its doors next to the Spanish Steps in Rome.

The Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) was founded in the Netherlands in 2009 as part of the global Slow Food Movement. It emerged as a youth-driven initiative, aimed at involving the younger generation in discussions and actions related to sustainable food systems, food sovereignty, and the future of agriculture.

10 years later, the Ghana Food Movement (GFM) was founded as a non-profit organisation. They work towards a resilient local food system by connecting actors across value chains, facilitating capacity building for youth and women and raising awareness of the potential of indigenous ingredients and local food solutions. The GFM is currently building THE KITCHEN, an all-round food education hub in Accra. Opening in October 2024. A place for creative food experiences with local and indigenous ingredients at the centre stage!

1988 - First Fairtrade coffee in Dutch Shops

Nico Roozen and Frans van der Hoff, together with development organisation Solidaridad, founded Max Havelaar in 1988 intending to improve the lives of Mexican coffee farmers and workers by providing a minimum, fair price. The name is derived from the book Max Havelaar (1860) by Multatuli, which exposes the injustice of the exploitation of farmers and workers on the coffee plantations in the Dutch East Indies, from which the Dutch state profited. 

The first fairly traded coffee originated from the UCIRI cooperative in Mexico and was imported by Dutch company Van Weely, roasted by Neuteboom, before being sold directly to Wereldwinkel shops and, for the first time, to mainstream retailers across the Netherlands. 

Max Havelaar, now called Fairtrade Nederland, is the Dutch member of Fairtrade International, which unites 23 Fairtrade certification producers and labelling initiatives across Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

1993 - Establishment of La Via Campesina

This international movement of small-scale producers, agricultural workers and indigenous communities was founded in 1993 in Mons, Belgium. La Via Campesina carries out campaigns to defend farmer's right to seeds, to stop violence against women, for agrarian reform, and generally for the recognition of the rights of peasants. 

The movement was founded in response to the approval of WTO's Agreement on Agriculture, which reduced tariff protections for small farmers. It consists of 182 organisations in 81 countries and promotes family farm-based sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty. 

The term "food sovereignty" was first coined in 1996 by members of La Via Campesina and later adopted by several international organisations, including the World Bank and the United Nations. Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution.

1995 - Reviving agriculture after the end of the Bosnian War

The armed conflict in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina lasted until 1995 and left large pieces of agricultural land abandoned. Additionally, the land was littered with landmines, making it dangerous for farming. The revival of agriculture in Bosnia after the war was a complex and long-term process that required significant international aid, the clearing of landmines and efforts to rebuild rural infrastructure and markets. 

Moreover, the recovery of the agricultural sector, dominated by smallholder farmers, was hampered by its damaged rural infrastructure. The country has more than 500,000 smallholder-owned farms and about a third of the population is in some way engaged in agriculture. Agriculture remains one of the most important sectors of the country and a major contributor to food and nutrition security. However, inadequate investment, low yields and low access to affordable credit further constrain farmers’ ability to expand their businesses.

1998 - Founding of the Naandi Foundation

The Naandi Foundation supports agricultural fertility centres just outside the centre of New Delhi, with the goal of supporting regenerative agriculture in India. Talking about India also means talking about feeding 18% of the world’s population with only 4% of the world’s water supply and 2.4% of the world’s land surface. The green revolution enabled the country to achieve great progress in domestic food production and export orientation. In the process, much of India’s centuries-old farming knowledge and farming culture disappeared. 

The Naandi Foundation's approach to regenerative farming combines ancient farming knowledge with new techniques. The pictures of the farming families on display are made by the initiative Resilience Food Stories. This is a platform for stories all over the world about farmers and growers that show producing food in collaboration with nature. The stories shared by Ruud Sies and Hanneke van Hintum serve the purpose of inspiring an audience of new ways of farming, while simultaneously telling tales from centuries-old farming practices.

2004 - Teun van de Keuken to court

Teun van de Keuken, presenter of the tv-programme Keuringsdienst van Waarden, reports himself as complicit in child slavery in the cocoa sector. Proclaiming himself to be a ‘chocolate criminal’, he argued that anyone who accepted the situation of child slavery in cocoa production and benefited from the sale or consumption of chocolate produced under these conditions is guilty. 

The court case that followed drew global attention to this dark side of cocoa production. In the end, Teun van de Keuken was not prosecuted for eating chocolate that contributed to child slavery. Instead, Van de Keuken founded a sustainable chocolate company under the name 'Tony’s Chocolonely' aimed at eradicating child slavery among its suppliers. 

Recently, the company expanded its business to other countries as well, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. Currently, Tony’s Chocolonely bars are for sale in 22 different countries across the globe.

2007-2008 - World Food Price crises

The sudden increase in world food prices in 2007 and the first half of 2008 created a global crisis, causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both low- and high-income countries. The initial causes of the late 2006 price spikes included droughts in grain-producing nations and rising oil prices. Oil price increases also caused general escalations in the costs of fertilisers, food transportation, and industrial agriculture. 

The high food prices led to popular protests and riots in North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco), Asia (Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan) and West Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal). The 2007-2008 world food price crisis was a pivotal moment that exposed the fragility of the global food system. 

The crisis prompted increased international attention to food security, leading to efforts to strengthen agricultural production and improve food systems. However, many challenges remain in ensuring that global food systems are more resilient and equitable in the face of future shocks.

2010 - Founding of the Black Urban Growers

Founded in 2010 in New York, this organisation aims to nurture Black agrarian leadership in the United States. Moreover, Black Urban Growers challenges the deep-rooted inequities in the food system and advocates for a model that prioritises food justice, land sovereignty and sustainable agricultural practices. 

During its yearly conferences, it brings together black farmers to work towards more equitable and sustainable food systems. With its activities, Black Urban Growers creates a community of over 600 black growers across the country. Its 2024 conference is held in early November in Houston, Texas, under the title ‘Southern Roots: Soil and Soul—Forging Urban and Rural Sovereignty.‘ 

The program also joined forces with the Bronx Green-Up and works with more than 200 green spaces and manages 14 farm hubs that distribute fresh produce to the community at affordable prices.

2015 - COP21 Climate Conference in Paris

While world leaders agreed on additional steps for climate change mitigation and adaptation, different countries shared their intention and willingness to work on linking agriculture and climate change. The Paris Agreement opened new windows of opportunity for food security and climate to be jointly addressed by the global community. The issue of food security was explicitly mentioned in relation to climate change and the importance of safeguarding it and ending hunger is mentioned in the preamble of the agreement. 

The Paris Agreement pays specific attention to the need to address the vulnerabilities of the food system to climate change. Article 2.1 of the Agreement proposes actions for increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, in a manner that does not threaten food production. During the conference, the topics of soil health and the potential of regenerative agriculture received a lot of attention.

2019 - Simon N. Groot wins the World Food Prize

Dutch agronomist and founder of seed company East West Seed received the award for his role in increasing farmer incomes in Asia, Africa and Latin America through improved vegetable seeds. Simon N. Groot, a sixth-generation seedsman, founded East-West Seed in 1982 in the Philippines with the idea that a good vegetable seed could change the lives of the poor. 

Having observed the many challenges facing poverty-stricken smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, Groot set out to establish the first market-oriented vegetable seeds breeding company with smallholders as the main client base. Simon N. Groot received the prize for benefiting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets. 

The World Food Prize is an annual international award, established in 1986 by Norman Borlaug, that honours individuals or organisations for their significant contributions to improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

2021 - United Nations Food Systems Summit

The UN Food System Summit, held in September 2021, brought together a multitude of food system stakeholders to commit to a shared agenda around food system transformation, laid down in different action areas and national pathways. The Summit was preceded by a multi-stakeholder process of national, regional and thematic dialogues on food system transformation. 

The Summit led to a range of new initiatives such as the Food is Never Waste Initiative, Healthy Diets Initiative and the Decent Work and Living Wage Initiative. The UN Food Systems Summit 2021 sparked enthusiasm and commitment for transforming food systems, but several challenges persist. Key issues include ensuring the implementation of the summit's commitments, addressing inequalities in food systems, and adapting to climate change impacts on agriculture and food security. Additionally, fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders is essential for achieving lasting change.