percentage terms, the undernourished population in Latin America and the Caribbean fell from 13 to 10% from 1992 to 2003. Nonetheless, the region continues to have a population of 54 million people who are undernourished, with stark regional differences. For example, in Mesoamerica undernourishment increased from 22 to 25% during that same period. This number of undernourished inhabitants means vulnerability to disease, the impossibility of having a normal educational performance and therefore the inability to participate efficiently and productively in development processes.

10. In LAC, food dependency has been exacerbated as a result of neoliberal globalization. The importation of subsidized food products has dismantled local production systems, creating dependence on food produced in other countries. The situation is aggravated as the poorest, especially rural, inhabitants whose main source of income is agriculture, have to face the progressive difficulty of the decreasing purchasing power for acquiring food, whether locally produced or imported. This has resulted in the loss of food sovereignty, especially in the most vulnerable sectors of the region.

11. The performance of agricultural systems is mixed in terms of production and sustainability, as well as environmental impacts. The traditional/indigenous system is characterized by diversity with variable levels of production (from high to very low). The conventional system has high levels of production and competitiveness in external markets, yet under current conditions is not sustainable or efficient in terms of energy use. The agroecological system has high productivity and sustainability and a market niche for certified organic products, yet has been limited by
the lack of governmental-institutional support and there is a debate as to whether it can satisfy the world demand for food.

12. The development of agriculture over the last 50 years in LAC has caused critical environmental impacts. Among the impacts, mention should be made first of the deforestation of vast areas high in biodiversity, especially in the tropical forests of Central America and the Amazon. In addition, the use of agrochemicals and soil erosion caused by farming have had a major negative impact on terrestrial, aquatic and marine biodiversity. More diversified agricultural systems can mitigate these impacts up to a point, providing habitats and also connectivity between fragments of natural habitats.

13. In LAC, emigration is on the increase as is the vulnerability of the rural population. This is due to the substitution of a large part of the agricultural labor force by machinery and technologies, provoking a reduction in the number of farms due to the concentration of landholdings; the loss of land tenure by peasants and indigenous communities; rural violence; and population increase.

14. In LAC, cultural diversity, local/traditional knowledge and agrobiodiversity are being lost. Specifically, local or traditional customs and knowledge are hardly taken

into account in the vertical model of technological development prevailing in the region. The predominant technologies, which are displacing local or traditional knowledge and wisdom, are generally selected with scant participation of the peasant and indigenous communities. This process of cultural and technological erosion has been casting aside an ancestral rural cultural heritage, with local content, adapted to its surroundings, yielding to external, more uniform knowledge and cultures.

15. The health of rural communities in LAC has been detrimentally affected by problems of acute and chronic intoxications in the countryside due to the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. For example, in Central America, the Plagsalud program of PAHO/WHO estimated 400,000 acute intoxications per year; underregistration is estimated at 98%. The problems of intoxication are worse in rural areas because no occupational health programs have been put in place for farmers, nor are there health services specifically geared to treating intoxications due to exposure to pesticides, causing several chronic diseases that reduce the capacity to generate income. Children, the elderly, the infirm and the malnourished are the most vulnerable, compromising the right to life and human dignity.

16. The population of women who are poor, wage earners and heads of household is growing as a proportion of the total population living in poverty in rural areas. Although there are particularities in different subregions of Latin America and the Caribbean, in general, as the participation of men in agriculture diminishes, the role of womenincreases. Male migration is one of the main reasons for the increase of the female population in the rural economy. The expansion of non-traditional export crops, wars, violence and forced displacement are other causes of the so-called “feminization of agriculture.”

17. Transgenic crops have been progressively adopted in LAC, with impacts perceived by some as negative and by others as positive, in relation to the goals of sustainability, poverty reduction and equity. Transgenic crops are used in commercial production, especially of cotton, soybean, maize and canola. The social and environmental repercussions are differentiated for each of these crops and by countries of the region. The technology has been adopted quickly by the producers of the conventional/ productivist system, increasing profitability, but in some regions it has also accentuated the above-mentioned social and environmental deterioration. Biosafety policies are recommended that impede the consumption and cultivation of transgenic organisms in countries that are the centers of origin of those crops, so as to avoid contamination and preserve genetic diversity. In regions that are not centers of origin, regulatory arrangements should be guided by the precautionary principle. The possibility of genetic contamination in some species has been demonstrated and it should be an essential part of biosafety policies, which should also take into account transgenic edible crops used for the production of non-edible nutraceuticals, biopharmaceuticals,
or industrial products.