Towards the UN Food Systems Summit: More inclusive and fairer sustainable food systems

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) organized an online public hearing in the context of the EESC Thematic Study Group on Sustainable Food Systems. The session sought to contribute to the United Nations Food Systems Summit Action Track 4, on equitable livelihoods.

As part of the session’s proceedings, Petros Kokkalis, Member of the European Parliament and the European Parliamentary Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition, briefed participants on a virtual event held earlier in the month on “Achieving a sustainable food systems transformation – Reflections of Parliamentarians ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit,” as organized by FAO Brussels and hosted by the Alliance. He praised all the EU Member States who appointed, as of now, a national convenor for the UNFSS.

Martin Frick, Deputy to the Special Envoy for the UN Food Systems Summit, shared information on the process for the Summit. “The Summit has a level of inclusivity that I believe no other summit has had before. We now have 124 countries who are organizing national-level dialogues, and all of these countries have pledged to include their civil society,” Frick noted.

Paulo de Lima, representing FAO Brussels Director ad interim Rodrigo de Lapuerta, offered concluding remarks to the audience, highlighting that “we must put our food system heroes in its core, who will be most impacted by its transformation. They are producers, suppliers, consumers, and all workers towards the value chain – most of them represented at the EESC – and are legitimate participants of the Summit’s conception, and will surely be heard through this inclusive process already established.”

Other speakers at the event included EESC President Christa Schweng; Deputy Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, Annukka Ojala; UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri; and President of the EESC Thematic Study Group on Sustainable Food Systems, Andreas Thurner.