Speech prepared for delivery via video at the UN Food Systems Summit 2021
We are here today because both the way we farm and what we put on our dinner plates matter. Food systems contribute to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. And yet we all have to eat. Many are going hungry, while others throw food away. And the triple planetary crisis is accelerating and making life harder for smallholder farmers across the world. The crisis is affecting food security and prices. The crisis is wiping out entire crops and livelihoods in some places.
But we are also gathered here because we know that a well-functioning food system can improve health. A well-functioning food system can end the unacceptable levels of hunger we are witnessing. A well-functioning food system can protect the environment and bring nature back to life. And a well-functioning food system can provide livelihoods for all.
The good news is that however daunting the challenge appears, we have some levers that can help us shift gears towards a sustainable food system that works for everyone.
Lever one. Continue to strengthen action around the Rio Conventions. On climate. On desertification. On biodiversity. Food must be on everyone’s plates. This is particularly important as we negotiate the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Sustainable management of wild species. Resilience of biodiversity in agriculture and forestry. Sustainable production practices and supply chains. And the elimination of unsustainable consumption choices. All these targets add up to more sustainable food systems because we are securing the very foundations of these systems – that is - the natural world.
Lever two. Repurpose agricultural support. As new research by UNEP and partners highlights, every year governments spend hundreds of billions of dollars in supporting practices that make our food systems unsustainable. It does not have to be this way. Repurposing agricultural support – including through policy reforms, investment in R&D and improved social protection – can make food systems sustainable, efficient, and equitable.
Lever three. Address head on the ever-increasing demand for cheaper food in wealthy countries. Decades of intensive agriculture whether through monocropping or factory farming, has moved farming further away from nature’s regenerative systems and is amplifying the environmental and health crisis. Difficult conversations with a range of actors across the food chain need to examine why we, in wealthy countries, are constantly demanding cheaper food when the impacts on farmers, human and planetary health are so evident.
These are just some of the solutions at hand. As the UN Secretary-General has said, “food is hope”. We at the United Nations Environment Programme are committed to joining up with other UN agencies – as one UN – in supporting countries as they arrive at and implement ambitious commitments to transform our relationship with food – for people and for the planet.
Thank you.
Executive Director
