During the coronavirus pandemic, the whole world faced the issue of food sovereignty, and by closing the borders for trade in goods and labor, many countries were hit by the reality in the form of food shortages. Serbia is one of the few countries that is not dependent on imports and which during the pandemic had self-sufficiency in the production of basic foodstuffs, says for Nova.rs doc. Dr. Tatjana Brankov, professor at the Faculty of Economics in Subotica and author of the book “GM food systems and their economic impact”.
Professor Brankov states that the coronavirus pandemic has forced almost all countries in the world to reconsider their food security, and points out that Serbia is a shining example of food self-sufficiency.
According to Brankov, our country, in the period of closed borders and the lack of basic foodstuffs faced by the majority of the world’s population, had a good response from domestic agricultural production.
“Serbia has what many countries are dreaming of now, and even richer than us, and that is food sovereignty. Almost 80 percent of the world is dependent on food imports, and we are and can be completely independent in the production of basic foodstuffs and animal feed,” explains Brankov.
In her research, which she presented at the tribune on the ban on GMO products in Serbia held in Kragujevac, she explains that Vojvodina has the highest self-sufficiency in food production in Serbia, at 230 percent, while in the rest of Serbia it is 120 percent.
According to her, the numbers she reached mean that self-sufficiency in the amount of 100 percent satisfies domestic needs, and everything beyond that means that Serbia can export surplus high-quality food.
She adds that Serbia is the only country in Europe that completely independently produces soybean meal for animal feed and does not depend on imports in that area.
However, the data presented by Dr. Brankov confirm to the public that despite the good statistical quotation at the world level in the field of food self-sufficiency, Serbia still imports certain foods, and believes that the official agrarian policy should improve the conditions and position of domestic farmers.
“It is noticeable that in the last seven to 10 years, Serbia has lost self-sufficiency in the production of beef and pork. From 2011 to 2017, our imports of frozen beef and pork increased six times, and we import it from Austria, Italy and Spain. On the other hand, we have a satisfactory production and we export our highest quality meat to other countries. Also, self-sufficiency in vegetable production has dropped, so we import garlic and tomato,” said Dr. Brankov.
She states that the global pandemic has affected food trade worldwide and that, according to FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organization) estimates, the number of hungry people will increase by 130 million by the end of 2020. According to her, the pandemic has affected all four pillars of food security, which is based on the availability, access, use and stability of food.
Professor Brankov notes that it is not enough for states to have sufficient quantities of food, but that sovereignty is reflected in the availability of basic foodstuffs to all people. During the pandemic, a large number of citizens were left without income, so they do not have the opportunity to provide better quality food, so in the situation we all find ourselves in, she says, people around the world are turning to cheaper food.
“We will certainly survive without soy sauce from China, seaweed and some exotic food that we import. In this situation, it is logical to turn to local production and local food, and the general rule is that when there is a drop in income, which is expected as a consequence of a pandemic, it also means a change in food consumption patterns. If we don’t have enough money, we switch to cheaper products. In deeper poverty, where countries are dependent on imports, this is not good, because protein intake is reduced. People then switch to bread and pasta, the consumption of starchy food increases, and the indirect consequence will be additional unwanted consequences for health,” the professor states.
Tatjana Brankov emphasizes that the coronavirus pandemic, as a catalyst for increasing food security, has “awakened” many countries in the world, which are now making a turn in agricultural policy. According to her, according to the parameters of food sovereignty, Serbia has avoided the fate of many countries that depend on imports, so it raises the question of whether there will now be room in our national policy to preserve and improve domestic agriculture.
The Serbian peasant is the hero of today
“I think that every government should be proud of the Serbian peasant who survives despite everything that has befallen us and the conditions in which they survive. From the pandemic that has hit the world, we all need to understand the importance of food sovereignty, so I expect the creators of agricultural policy to start appreciating what we have and what we have, to make a turn in agricultural strategy and increase subsidies and support for local production,” says Brankov.
As a great opponent of GMO food, it advocates leaving the land we inherited from our ancestors to our descendants.
“Now is the time of the general struggle for food sovereignty, and our agrarian policy should protect the domestic market from foreign influences. All attempts of the great powers to make Serbia a colony should be cut down at the root, and this is the right moment. I think big crises are the right moments for big transformations. If the attitudes about the cultivation of GMO seeds on the territory of Serbia changed, we would become dependent on other people’s technologies and that would be suicide for domestic production. Only the state that has and chooses the methods of agricultural production is sovereign,” underlines Dr. Brankov.
She reminded that during the coronavirus pandemic, Russia was the only country that was self-sufficient in food, which, as she says, is a consequence of the reversal of the agrarian policy which, after the collapse of the USSR, was directed towards local production.
Brankov notes that in this situation we should use all the potentials of our country, and it turned out, she concludes, that Serbian agricultural production, during the peak wave of the pandemic, could meet most of the food needs of the population, which was not the case in far richer countries, Nova reports.
