First Farm to Fork Conference: Achieving sustainable food systems

The first in what will be an annual gathering of European stakeholders interested in helping to shape the EU’s path towards sustainable food systems took place on 15-16 October as part of the World Food Day activities in Brussels.  The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) jointly organized the event in which FAO had an active participation with FAO’s Chief Economist Máximo Torero Cullen and FAO Brussels Director Rodrigo de Lapuerta.

At the opening of the conference, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides emphasized the importance of combating non-communicable diseases such as obesity with healthy diets. Meanwhile, while Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski focused on the greening of food systems with the echo-schemes payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the importance of reducing long-distance transport, out of concern both for animal welfare and the environmental impact. The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the United Nations Food Systems Summit, Agnes Kalibata, spoke on the importance of securing improved food supply for those who suffer from hunger.

FAO Chief-Economist Máximo Torero took part in one of the sessions after presenting the worrying global hunger and malnutrition trends. He talked about FAO’s key role in the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit. He noted, also, the need for an enabling environment that eases the integration of different policy drivers for the transformation of food systems and which provides the background for targeted legislation. At the same time, he informed the participants that we are not starting from scratch. Mr Torero presented the wide number of global guidelines already agreed upon and negotiated, such as the CFS Principles for Responsible Investments in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI) and the Voluntary Guidelines for Land Tenure (VGGT). He pointed out that these are examples of ongoing initiatives which are based on longstanding collaboration with governments, the private sector and civil society, which global actors can capitalize upon to drive forward legislation that accelerates our path towards food systems transformation.

Part of the two-day celebrations was also the event “FOOD2030: Transforming Food Systems through Research and Innovation” hosted by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation’s FOOD2030 team, and the German EU Presidency. The discussion focused on food system transformation through research and innovation.

FAO Brussels Director de Lapuerta emphasized the key role of research and innovation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. “The appointment of FAO’s first-ever Chief Scientist, Ms Ismahane Elouafi, will further strengthen FAO’s commitment to research and innovation as a key instrument of a future without hunger,” de Lapuerta said.