Join the virtual 3rd Global Conference of the Sustainable Food Systems Programme to discuss how to achieve food systems transformation through inclusive multi-stakeholder collaboration. The conference will be a major milestone in the preparation of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, strengthening cohesion among major initiatives and leading actors in the area of food systems and recommending widely supported actions and mechanisms to promote sustainable food systems.
Current food systems are unsustainable. Although yields per hectare have increased significantly in many parts of the world in the last few decades, over 680 million people go to bed hungry every day. Habitats, including soils, are increasingly degraded, causing an unprecedented decline in biodiversity, compromising our ability to produce food, and increasing the risk of new diseases with pandemic potential.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the food value chain account for up to 37% of the GHG emissions worldwide, and still, approximately one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted. Complex and often non-transparent supply chains hinder accountability, which can lead to exploitation and fraud.
People in many parts of the world are shifting to high-calorie, low-nutrient unhealthy diets, a major risk for human health: non-communicable diseases like diabetes and obesity are on the rise. The transformation to more sustainable food systems will require profound changes in how we produce, process, retail, consume, and dispose of food. It will also require an approach that includes all voices in the decision-making process and recognizes the interconnection, trade-offs, and synergies across outcomes related to food security, nutrition, and environmental, social, and economic sustainability.