Food may be the solution to some of our most pressing environmental and social challenges. But right now, our food and agriculture systems are broken in multiple ways.
At least 2 billion people lack regular access to safe and nutritious food, while one-third of all food produced globally is either lost or wasted—and if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. Food and agriculture alone is responsible for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and is the primary driver of biodiversity loss. And this year, record-high food prices have triggered a global crisis driving millions more into extreme poverty.
But food may be our biggest solution—if it can get the attention it deserves. In the past, food has not been center stage at major negotiations around climate, deforestation, or other pressing problems.
However, that’s changing. At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November, the world has an opportunity to implement solutions that can be a win-win-win—for the environment, for solving hunger, and for promoting more sustainable economies.
For the first time ever, there will be at least two food systems pavilions at COP27 in Egypt. The Clim-Eat and ProVeg Food and Agriculture Pavilions—among others in the works—are taking food systems issues to the main stage. Due in part to critical work from civil society groups like the Global Action Platform on Sustainable Consumption and Diets, food now has a big presence at COP.
These food systems pavilions unite dozens of leading international food organizations spanning the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, from farmers and youth to policymakers and scientists. With a diversity of expertise and perspectives, these co-hosts and partners have committed to working collaboratively to tackle trade-offs, showcase solutions, and overcome barriers.
But as much as we need new thinking and debate on global food systems, we also need better doing. Lofty commitments mean nothing if they can’t drive real, tangible change in the way we produce, trade, transport, and consume food.
The Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad recently announced this year’s COP slogan: “Together For Implementation.” Decisionmakers on the global stage have a chance to understand the complexities of restoring and nourishing diets. They can see—and taste—new possibilities and come face-to-face with the ground-breaking innovations and ancient traditions that can drive positive change.
I have tremendous hope about COP27. My work allows me to see change happening all over the world—in cities, fields, kitchens, laboratories, and conference rooms. COP27 can show decisionmakers that farming can be the solution—from agroecology helping to promote gender equality in Malawi, to technologies reducing postharvest food loss and waste in the United States, to seaweed farms mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change in India.
Aleph Farms, a cultivated meat company, will be at COP27 to discuss how they are growing slaughter-free meat by taking cells from real cows and replicating them outside of the animal. InFarm will showcase its growing global network of urban farms, alongside NGOs working on the frontline to support farmers and small-scale producers including the Environmental Defense Fund, World Farmers’ Organisation, and One Acre Fund. And The Rockefeller Foundation will be featuring their new film “Food 2050,” which highlights innovative, optimistic visionaries across the globe that are healing people and planet through food.
There is no pathway to reaching our 1.5°C target without transforming the way we produce, distribute, and consume food and use our land. Accelerating innovations and nature-based solutions alongside inclusive decisionmaking can create food and land use systems that sustain and support food producers, communities, and the planet.
According to the Food and Land Use Coalition, a co-host of the Pavilion, transforming food systems could save US$5.7 trillion a year in damage to people and the planet by 2030, meanwhile generating $4.5 trillion annually in new economic opportunities—more than 15 times the annual US$350 billion of investment needed to implement the transformation. We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to create equitable, sustainable, and healthy food systems to combat climate change and biodiversity loss while enhancing the health and livelihoods of both people and the planet.
Food system transformation is achievable, but it requires committed engagement, conversation, and ultimately, cooperation across the planet. And there is no time to waste. We must make these critical transitions now. I don’t want a world on fire for my stepkids in 2050.