The UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the central and most inclusive intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder platform for food security and nutrition, yesterday adopted the Principles on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI). UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the endorsement, praising the principles as a “new point of reference for all, providing guidance to governments, investors, businesses, farmers, local communities, intergovernmental organisations and civil society organisations.” Non-governmental organisation, however, doubt that the principles will live up to their objective of promoting responsible investment in agriculture and food systems that contribute to food security and nutrition. According to Oxfam, they are too weak, vague and in a number of areas actually worse than the standards that already exist. “Unscrupulous investors could find ways to use the principles to cover irresponsible deals”, Oxfam spokesperson Thierry Kesteloot said. He criticises that the principles put trade interests before human rights. The CFS civil society mechanism shares this concern, stating that human rights are undermined by repeated references that seek to subordinate human rights to trade agreements and rules. Moreover, the term ‘smallholders’ used in the document leaves out the millions of people who are landless but deeply involved in agricultural investment. Civil society also highlights the document’s failure to acknowledge that different production systems have different environmental impacts, allowing business as usual for agricultural practices that damage people and the planet.“While it claims to promote agroecology, it also supports ‘sustainable intensification’, which is a euphemism for chemical intensive agriculture,” said Gilbert Sape of the Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific. The civil society mechanism warned the principles “will not help small-scale food producers and workers overcome the economic, environmental and political constraints that hamper their capacities, and they will not assist people who are struggling to defend their land, seeds and territories.” The principles have been developed over the past two years by a wide range of stakeholders; the final adoption was the responsibility of the CFS Member States.