Danone CEO: ‘We have broken the cycle of life’

Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber at United Nations Climate Summit

’Listen to this inner voice in each of us that whispers that life is sacred’

AWARE News Network

The following is the statement to the United Nations Climate Summit by Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber (watch on video 2:32:37 to 2:36:20)

“The food system that we have built over the last century is a dead end for the future. 

“In essence we thought that our science could change the cycle of life and its rules. We thought that we could engineer the life that we needed and kill the rest in the fields. 

“The resulting mono-cropping consequences are standing right in front of us now. We depend for two thirds of our food on this planet on only 9 plants today and 40 per cent of our lands are already degraded. 

Missing link

“In a nutshell, we have broken the cycle of life. And the missing link is the biodiversity in our fields. 

“So today we are launching the One Planet Business for Biodiversity, which is a coalition of, to start with, 20 of the largest food and other agri-based companies in the world that commit to put nature-based solutions at the heart of our strategies, our processes, our supplies.

“We are going to focus on three priorities on which we will come back to you when the conference of parties will happen next year

“The first is that we will shift our practices towards regionality of agriculture, to restore soil health, to create a future for our farmers.

“The second, using the thousands of brands we have in our portfolio, we will create a demand for a variety of crops, of species of traditional seeds that are forgotten today and that are dying.

“And the third is we will answer the need for an urgent change in the way we address deforestation and we protect wildlife and wild biodiversity.

“The total sales of this coalition today is about $500 billion, 100 countries where we operate. It looks big but its not. It’s only a start, we need many more partners. and in particular we need your support that’s why I’m here today.

Agricultural subsidies

“We need your support to shift agricultural subsidies from killing life into supporting biodiversity.

“We need your support to make sure that we can find a pricing mechanism for the incredible, invaluable externalities that  nature is providing us all and farmers every day in the world.

“And finally we need your help to curb finance and make sure that finally they support this agenda. 

“I know it’s not going to be easy. 

“When it comes to nature and climate, it takes leadership, and courageous leadership. I would really like to beg you to listen to our youth. They are demanding this regenerative culture in the streets and beyond.

“I would like to invite you also listen to this inner voice in each of us that whispers that life is sacred. 

“This is where we find our energy every day in the fields, in the factories, on the markets, to turn this huge tide, because we’ve been killing life and we now need to restore it day by day, one by one.