GROW is Oxfam's new campaign for better ways to ... - Oxfam Blogs

GROW is Oxfam’s new campaign for better ways to grow, share, and livetogether. A campaign for the billions of us who eat food and over a billion menand women who grow it, to share solutions for a more hopeful future in whicheveryone always has enough to eat.Soon there will be nine billion of us on the planet. We are all in this together. Oursocieties must grow to meet our needs. But more of the same is not the answer.Some of the ways we grow today are increasing inequality and using up ournatural resources – the fertile land, stable climate and fresh water on which weall rely.Already almost a billion of us go to bed hungry every night, not because thereisn’t enough, but because of deep imbalances in opportunity and control ofresources. Now half a century of slow progress is being reversed. An age of crisis,extreme weather, rising prices, and failing production threatens to push manymore back into hunger.This is a turning point. A system organized by vested interests is failing the restof us. To meet humankind’s needs and take the pressure off the planet, we needto grow more fairly and sustainably, and to choose cooperation over division.A powerful few, including some politicians and business elites, argue the answeris more of the same. More industrial agriculture, controlled by a few bigcorporations, using yet more resources. Land grabs by corporate interests thatdispossess men and women living in poverty. More of the same false solutionsthat benefit the few most. But more of the same is no longer enough.Instead, we can share a wealth of solutions that are fit for the future and benefitus all. Solutions like the sustainable rice system spreading through Asia, helpingsmall farmers to produce more with less. The Zero Hunger campaign which wesaw increase equity and cut hunger by a third in Brazil. A wealth of innovationsin green growth around the world.The plan for the GROW campaign is to share solutions for the many, not justthe few. To expose the threats we face, limit the power of vested interests, andhelp grow movements for a better future. To make practical positive changes inhow we produce, consume, share and manage food and other resources. We willcampaign for three big shifts in how we grow, share, and live together on theplanet:1. Growing betterWe can and must invest in a new agriculture, so that over a billion small-scalefood producers around the planet, many of them women, are no longer starvedof the land and resources they need to sustainably grow enough for themselvesand others.

2. Sharing betterWe can and must transform how we govern the food system – managing marketsto prevent food crises, stopping corporate abuses of power, reforming flawedpolicies at global and national level, and empowering families and communitiesto respond to shocks and disasters.3. Living betterWe can and must build a new prosperity, with better ways to do business,organize our economies and live our lives – an ecological future rich in sharedresources, safe from the risks of a changing climate, more equal and wellbalanced,valuing what really matters for human progress and futuregenerations.To achieve these shifts, GROW has to be Oxfam’s biggest campaign ever.Movements for a better future are already growing all around the planet. We willjoin hands with them. We will target governments, well-known and powerfulcompanies, and global forums like the G20 summit. We will name and shamethose who are failing, support those who are building a new vision, and createmore space for leaders to be bold.We will work with others to involve many millions more in the growing publicconversation about food, better ways of living, and the future of our planet –empowering people, sharing knowledge, and taking action.Together, we will press governments for urgent action to prevent crises, reformpolicies, preserve scarce resources, and ensure equal rights. We will demandresponsibility from companies, and expose the multinational interests grabbingprecious land or profiting from volatility. We will advocate for policies thatempower over a billion men and women who grow food and the billions more ofus who eat it. We will help to build a safer, fairer and more hopeful future.But practical positive change starts with each one of us. Every time we choosefood that’s produced fairly and sustainably, every time we harvest what we’vesown, every time we cut our environmental footprint, and every time we pressgovernments and companies to change their ways, we’re helping to make goodthings grow.Share solutions for food, life and the planet. Join the movement. Let’s growa better way.LOGO EMBARGOED UNTIL 01.06.2011 – DOCUMENT FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY