The food system is in crisis. Governments must heed Oxfam’s campaign, says Joanna Blythman

When Oxfam tells us our food system is broken, and sets up a four-year global campaign to underline this, we must realise that business as usual is not an option.

The message of Oxfam’s Grow campaign is that it’s pointless trying to prop up our food system, because it’s buckling under the pressure of climate change, rising food prices, shortage of land, water and energy sources, and benefiting a few powerful companies and interest groups at the expense of everyone else.

Something isn’t right when Cargill - one of the three companies that control 90% of the world’s grain trade - is heading for its most profitable year yet on the back of disruptions to global food supplies, while one in seven people on the planet go hungry every day. With food prices set to double in the next 20 years, this situation will only get worse - unless, that is, governments and businesses take action.

But what should be done? In November, our government, along with other G20 countries, could agree new rules to govern food markets and begin to halt the rise in global hunger. This would mean increasing transparency in commodities trading, regulating futures markets, scaling up food reserves, and putting an end to the lunacy of biofuels, which divert to cars precious crops that could feed people.

The global climate fund agreed last year needs to be up and running by December to help poor countries adapt to the increasingly tangible impacts of climate change. The UK could play a crucial role by agreeing innovative ways to raise the money, such as a financial transactions tax, or levies on international aviation and shipping fuels.

Following decades of increases, crop yields are flatlining, because intensive farming isn’t a long-term answer. Instead, Oxfam urges us to focus on the huge untapped potential of small farmers - especially women - as they represent the best opportunity to boost food production.

The Brazilian government, for instance, slashed hunger by one third between 2005 and 2009, thanks to its Zero Hunger campaign, which provided support for small-scale farmers and cash for poor mothers to purchase food. In a decade, Vietnam halved the number of its hungry citizens - a transformation kickstarted by government investment in small farmers.

It’s time to get out stuck in. There’s an awful lot to be done.