MIDDLE EAST - The Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) examined challenges to food sovereignty across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) during a regional webinar on October 19, bringing together researchers and experts to discuss agricultural policies, farmers’ rights, and the future of regional food systems.
Titled Cultivating Sovereignty: Struggles for Food Justice in the Middle East and North Africa, the webinar presented findings from a regional research dossier published by ARI on October 14. The publication includes 10 studies covering Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Palestine, Iraq, and Jordan.
Developed through a research initiative launched in 2023, the dossier explores the political, economic, and environmental factors affecting agricultural production and examines barriers to achieving food sovereignty across the region.
Food Systems and Climate Change
Discussions highlighted the region’s dependence on food imports, rising food insecurity, and the environmental consequences of global food systems.
One presentation noted that food production, processing, transportation, distribution, and waste account for approximately 26% to 34% of global greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting the relationship between food systems and climate change.
Participants also discussed food sovereignty as a concept extending beyond access to sufficient food. It encompasses farmers’ rights, control over agricultural resources, local seed systems, and communities’ participation in decisions affecting food production.
Land Rights and Agricultural Policies
In Jordan, discussions focused on agricultural land rights and the potential impact of mining expansion in the Jordan Valley. Concerns included land expropriation, the displacement of farming communities, and the lack of comprehensive assessments of the long-term economic, social, and environmental costs of major development projects.
The presentation also highlighted civil society efforts to address these concerns through engagement with farmers, parliamentarians, political parties, and environmental experts.
According to the speaker, advocacy efforts contributed to securing an environmental impact assessment for the proposed mining expansion. Legal action and alternative research efforts remain ongoing.
Research Focuses on Lebanon
The dossier includes three areas of research related to Lebanon: land ownership and agricultural labor, the influence of international donors on agricultural policy, and the effects of conflict on agricultural production and farmers’ livelihoods, particularly in southern Lebanon.
These topics reflect the broader challenges facing agricultural communities, including access to land, the conditions shaping agricultural work, and the effects of external policy decisions and conflict on local food production.
Strengthening Local Food Systems
The webinar formed part of ARI’s broader efforts to examine structural challenges affecting agriculture across MENA and explore policy approaches to strengthen local food systems.
By bringing together research from six countries, the dossier seeks to contribute to discussions on food justice, agricultural governance, and the protection of farming communities, while examining how greater local control over food production can support food sovereignty across the region.
