In 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit to raise global awareness and land global commitments and actions that transform food systems to resolve not only hunger, but to reduce diet-related disease and heal the planet.
The Secretary General is calling for collective action of all citizens to radically change the way we produce, process, and consume food.
Food is a life force for our families, cultures, and our communities. But profound changes in the way food is grown, processed, distributed, consumed, and wasted over the last several decades has led to increasing threats to a future of food that is sustainable, equitable, and secure.
There is more than enough food in the world to feed the world’s population of 7.8 billion people. But, today, almost 690 million people are hungry, the food systems are failing, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse. It is increasingly clear that we must act now to address the impending global food emergency and avoid the worst impacts of the pandemic, the Secretary-General stresses in his latest Policy Brief on Food Security.
Food systems encompass all people and the entire range of actors and their interconnected activities in feeding a population: This means growing, harvesting, packing, processing, distributing, selling, storing, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food. Many sectors shape food systems, including infrastructure, transport, financial services, information, and technology. And the world in all its aspects is involved: natural resources, the environment, the economy, the preferences of people, culture, indigenous knowledge, policies, politics, trade, regulations, and beyond.
Many of the world’s current food systems are in need of transformation – for people, for the environment and climate, and for our shared future. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed dangerous deficiencies in our food systems and actively threatening the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, particularly the most vulnerable and those in fragile contexts. Even before the onset of the current crisis, the evidence for transformation had never been clearer.
Despite producing more food than ever, there are still 690 million people hungry and about 2 billion people are overweight or obese, contributing to a growing incidence of food related diseases.
Poor nutrition in a child’s life can lead to stunted growth, which impairs cognitive ability and reduces school and work performance. Worse, nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 years old are attributable to undernutrition.
People’s health is being undermined as a result of unhealthy diets often because they can’t access adequate and acceptable food at all times. But it is also affected where they work under unhealthy conditions, are exposed to contaminants in the water, soil, and air; or consume unsafe or contaminated foods. At the same time, an estimated one-third of all food produced globally is lost or goes to waste.
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Climate change is creating more challenges to food production due extreme weather conditions, such as droughts, floods, and massive fires around the world. However, our food systems are also a part of the problem:
29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are produced in the supply chain that takes food from farm to fork
35% of all food produced is wasted
They account for up to 80% of biodiversity loss, 80% of deforestation, and 70% of all freshwater use
This needs to change.
Fortunately, transforming our food systems to be more sustainable and resilient provides one of the single strongest opportunities to do just that.
Better food systems are critical in the effort to build a future with improved health, equality, and peace. Better food systems create a world with rich biodiversity and ecosystems, and people who are resilient and empowered.
To make this happen, we need new ideas, strong partnerships, and global conversations to work through the tough decisions and trade-offs we inevitably face. We need to learn from each other, particularly smallholder farmers, fishers, pastoralists, mothers, young people, indigenous peoples, chefs, market owners, and all others who are a part of food systems as producers, processors, preparers, and consumers. Everyone is part of the food system and everyone can join in taking action to create the change we need.
