Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

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    • 29 January 2024 - SUBMISSION FROM THE FAIRR INITIATIVE 

      On behalf of the FAIRR Initiative, a $70 trillion investor network focused on ESG risks and opportunities in the global food system, we are delighted to respond to this consultation.  

      The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has in its 2023 flagship report, “The State of Food and Agriculture” (SOFA2023), produced a valuable resource towards food systems transformation. With our focus on the material costs and opportunities of food systems, FAIRR is generally in support of the report’s objectives and content and welcomes the FAO’s plans to build on this work.  

      FAIRR sees FAO’s work identifying, quantifying and working to address the hidden costs of the agrifood system as sitting alongside - and having the potential to provide valuable input into - another multi-year top tier FAO food system initiative, the three-year roadmap effort, “Achieving SDG 2 without breaching the 1.5 °C threshold: A global roadmap.”  

      The FAO roadmap initiative was launched following a statement  signed by investors representing $18 trillion and coordinated by the FAIRR Initiative, which urged the FAO to produce a roadmap for a resilient sector that can deliver global food security while striving to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. 

      FAIRR is pleased to see better recognition from the FAO of the need for food systems action to reduce the hidden costs of the agrifood system. Addressing environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies is a key step in the direction of reducing environmental harm caused across the food system as well as enable producers to take-up more sustainable practices. FAIRR members representing $7 trillion have issued an investor statement calling on G20 nations to reform harmful agricultural subsidies by 2030.  

      In its June 2023 report, “Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsides,” the World Bank provides detail on the role subsidies play in contribution to environmental degradation. It notes that “Agriculture subsidies are responsible for the loss of 2.2 million hectares of forest per year - or 14% of global deforestation.”   

      FAIRR is fully supportive of efforts by the FAO to increase accuracy on hidden cost estimates in all categories, including hidden environmental costs which the FAO itself has indicated it believes to have been significantly under-counted in SOFA 2023. Efforts to build out a fuller picture of the environmental costs is critical for FAO and other policy discussions around food systems. 

      Ultimately, the hidden costs, and benefits, of the global food system can affect investors in several ways. FAIRR’s investor members recognise the financially material risks to which the food system is exposed, from climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition, and antimicrobial resistance, as well as the material impacts the food systems activities have on the environment. 

      FAIRR is available to discuss this submission with the FAO at a later date as well as engage on other topics from the SOFA report that have not been covered in this submission. 

      Megan Waters

      US Policy Advisor