Building sustainable food systems together: FAO at the Farm to Fork conference

World Food Day was celebrated by the European Commission in Brussels with the organization of the second annual Farm to Fork Conference. The World Food Day video, the slogan encompassing the four betters, as well as the visual and digital assets were used on the conference’s website, as well as shared with the audience. Social media activity was intense and World Food Day was also highlighted at a dedicated virtual stand of the conference exhibit.

Organized around the theme of ‘Building sustainable food systems together’, the two-day event brought together stakeholders from across the entire value chain, as well as public authorities and international and civil society organizations, who joined the debate on how to effect a transition to fairer, healthier and more environmentally-friendly agrifood systems.

European Commission’s Executive Vice-President FransTimmermans, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides and Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski opened the discussions, making a clear pledge to redouble efforts towards the much-needed shift in production and consumption patterns, in order to ensure sustainable and resilient agrifood systems and deliver tangible results under the European Commission’s Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy. Game-changing solutions were mentioned during the two-day discussions such ashe EU Code of Conduct for Responsible Business and Marketing Practices, the EU Mission on Soils, and a number of other EU initiatives that come under the F2F strategy.

FAO representatives intervened in several sessions. In the session on ‘Research and innovation’, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels Raschad Al-Khafaji underscored the complexity of the challenges and the need for a holistic approach in transforming agri-food systems. He added that joint efforts to promote research and innovation, digitalization and new technologies will be crucial to advancing the transition to sustainable agri-food systems. Jamie Morrison, FAO Director of Food Systems and Food Safety Division, joined the panel on ‘Challenges and opportunities of a global transition to sustainable food systems’. He stressed that the transition would require not only improved efficiency for agri-food systems, but also reduced pressure on natural resources and the promotion of decent work across food chains. FAO Senior Technical Officer Christine Fuell attended the session on ‘Reducing pesticides’ use and risk’, where she highlighted the normative and technical work of FAO to reduce the risk of pesticides.

More information about the conference can be found here.