Organized by the Turkish Food and Sugar Industry Workers' Union (Şeker-İş), the summit titled ‘The Future of Food is in Our Hands’ was held in Ankara yesterday. Attention was drawn to the possible food crisis in the program, which was held with high participation. Solutions to the food crisis were also presented. Making the opening speech of the summit, Şeker-İş Chairman İsa Gök pointed out that the climate crisis has been affecting more severely lately and said, “Climate change in the last 10 years has started to be more destructive. This is one of the most important factors that will trigger the food crisis in the coming years. It is among the great possibilities that the climate crisis and a possible food crisis that will arise in parallel with it will deeply trigger a new wave of migration all over the world.”
“WE SEE THE CONSEQUENCES CAUSED BY THE DECISIONS NOT TAKEN”
Pointing out that countries are struggling to be self-sufficient in the field of food, Gök said that food and agriculture should be seen as a national issue. Underlining, “Despite the difficult struggle in our country's sugar industry, we see the cause and effect of the decisions that were not taken yesterday. For this reason, we need to implement the importance of national ideas, decisions and actions without actually living it, but by learning lessons if we have lived it,” he added.
“FOOD SAFETY IS NOT FOR ONLY ONE COUNTRY”
Pointing out that food safety is a global issue, Gök emphasized that the whole world is affected by a problem in the field of food, and said, “Food security is not limited to just one country. If this problem has become a national security problem, not only Turkey, but all countries of the world need to create a sustainable strategic national food policy. Otherwise, the logic will come into play for me today and for you tomorrow.”
WE WILL OWN OUR FUTURE
Noting that people's relationship with nature has deteriorated, the Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Bilgin said that the future needs to be greened again through the soil. By Emphasizing, “Labor organizations and unions should not only defend the right of labor, but also defend the land of this country. Humanity is in great danger. We all see the results of the deterioration of the balance of man's relationship with nature. The deterioration of the relationship with nature means the deterioration of man's relationship with water, soil and air. We cannot live when our relationship with land, water and air is destroyed. We need an order that will regenerate our own future on our own soil. We will protect our future by protecting our land, nature and sugar,” he said.