Food systems, biodiversity loss, climate, and people are inextricably linked. Growing demands on land and water for food production, along with industry and economic development, are exceeding planetary boundaries. Despite the many complexities of global food systems, food and agriculture represent our greatest opportunity to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and have the potential to be a significant part of solutions for climate, nature, and people.
What is the UN Food Systems Summit and why is it important to WWF?
The first ever UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), scheduled to take place in September 2021, provides a key opportunity to accelerate and scale food systems transformations and deliver progress across all Sustainable Development Goals. This includes halting and reversing biodiversity loss, keeping global warming within 1.5oC, and feeding the world healthy and sustainable diets.
The Summit helps advance and accelerate the delivery of WWF-US’s Freshwater and Food work. WWF works both as a convenor for the Summit and as an active partner in the process.
What we must see at the UN Food System Summit and beyond:
- Raised awareness and elevated public discussion on food systems transformation, leading to food systems firmly on the nature and climate agenda
- The agriculture sector in the narrative as part of the solution for both nature and climate
- Decision makers from government and private sectors trigger actions that set us on a path to reducing the impact of food systems on biodiversity and climate and boost nature-positive production systems at scale to globally meet the fundamental human right to healthy and nutritious food.
- A ‘whole-of-society’ approach that drives broad participation, particularly of the vulnerable and under-represented.
Food systems transformation requires broad participation from Heads of State and other constituency members such as food producers, civil society organizations, private sector companies and financers. WWF will work with stakeholders to implement specific actions in key areas:
- Conservation of Critical Landscapes – stopping deforestation and conversion of natural habitats and degradation of freshwater for agriculture and aquaculture production, in priority landscapes. including neglected ecosystems like grasslands and savannahs.
- Regenerative & Resilient Systems – shifting food production and agriculture to regenerative practices, reducing the GHG and water footprint of agriculture and reducing food loss and waste from farm to fork.
- Thriving People & Communities – achieving increased food and water security, improved nutrition, climate resilience and thriving livelihoods from sustainable agriculture and scaling up financial support for small-scale farmers and fishers, including women and other vulnerable groups.
- Innovation and Influence – Ensuring food systems are placed firmly on the nature and climate agenda, integrated into economic recovery and development pathways and into trade legislation and regulation.
