Resetting the Food System
Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork: Setting the Stage for the 2021 U.N. Food Systems Summit Confirmation
Recently, I virtually attended a really cool event hosted by Barilla Foundation and Food Tank. I’ll copy the event description from the Barilla website:
RESETTING THE FUTURE OF FOOD IS POSSIBLE
“In a rapidly changing world, food systems face substantial challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic acting as a multiplier of food and nutrition insecurity. Over the next 20 years, food systems will need to nourish 10 billion people while preserving and nurturing natural resources and protecting biodiversity, for present and future generations. Globally, 2 billion people are malnourished. More than 700 million adults are obese and while at least 690 million suffer from hunger-a statistic that will no doubt increase as a result of the pandemic. And some one-third of the global harvest is lost or waste. Biodiversity is declining, water and land are increasingly degraded, climate change pose adverse impacts on agricultural production and livelihoods.
We must act now to address the impending global food emergency and avoid the worst impacts of the pandemic, while seizing upon the opportunity of resetting food systems.
Resetting the future of food is possible and with this aim, on December 1st, during an international online dialogue, the Barilla Foundation and Food Tank - the leading US think tank for food - presented concrete solutions to rethink our food systems from farm to fork.
"Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork" highlighted the critical role of farmers in feeding the world and managing natural resources, food business in progressing towards the 2030 Agenda, and chefs in re-designing food experiences. The prospects of technology and innovation, the role of food as prevention and the most recent policy developments, including the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, was also discussed. These discussions has helped set the stage for 2021 United Nations Food System Summit.
The future of food is in our hands.
Let's make the future grow!”
Picture above from https://unsplash.com/@raphaelfyi?utm_source=squarespace&medium=referral
The event was inspiring to say the least, and I left with some really concepts to chew on, action items to implement in my everyday life, and new values to adapt. Simply put, I walked away with a new mindset.
Here are some of my notes I took, based on some of the panels I watched:
Farmers Feed the World
Moderator: Laura Reiley - Journalist, The Washington Post
Jannes Maes
President, European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA)
Edie Mukiibi
Vice President, Slow Food International
Leah Penniman
Co-Founder, Soul Fire Farm
“They are giants but we are millions”- Mukiibi
The panelists of this session made it clear that our farmers at the center of justice and reimagining the future of food.
Land reparations and property rights must be apart of the conversation especially for farmers of color.
Jannes Maes reminded us that our youth must have access to fair development tools to keep the industry inclusive and diverse.
Cocoa photo by me, Ghana
Post COVID-19: Looking at the Future of Food Experiences
Moderator: Julia Moskin - Journalist, The New York Times
Dan Barber
Executive Chef and Co-owner, Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Massimo Bottura
Chef and Owner, Osteria Francescana
Bobby Chinn
Chef; Television presenter; Restaurateur
Tanya Holland
Chef and Owner, Brown Sugar Kitchen
Danny Meyer
Founder and CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group
During this session panelists discussed the role of chefs. Our food systems will become more thoughtful and fruitful when chefs start to act as bridge builders and use their restaurants as catalysts for conversations that address race, gender equality, fair wages, and more.
picture above by me: caramelizing pears for a galette!
The New Food Economy
Moderator: Fiona Harvey - Journalist, The Guardian
Chris Barrett
Professor and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Food Policy, Cornell University
Sara Bleich
Professor, Public Health Policy, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jeffrey Sachs
Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University; Director, U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN)
Elly Schlein
Vice President, Emilia Romagna Region
During this session I learned the value in moving beyond information/education to promote healthy environments and well-being. We need structural changes that make individual choices easier, convenient, affordable, and natural to make. A paradigm shift if you will. We must treat food systems as though they are central to our well-being, not a subset or luxury.
It was cool to see someone that I read from in my Econ classes come to life. Jeffery Sachs laid out some important ideas worth sharing- our goals must be and are inherently intersectional and universal and that we must strengthen the political will from the bottom up. It won’t work the other way around. The leverage starts with everyday people on the ground.
Circular Economy! We need good policies to incentivize and enforce new patterns in production + distribution and we must reimagine the role of how we use technology.
Food policy, climate policy, education policy- these don’t exist in silos and often we might find that solutions in one area could lead to solutions in another.
We need to normalize paying attention to what happens after commodities after they leave the farm: energy, trade, consumers. If not we risk having major retailers and manufacturers completely dictating our values, which may not always be the best or most ethical.
picture by me, peppermint mocha & sticky bun from Liberty Cafe in Asheville, NC
Food and the Intersection of Technology
Moderator: Chloe Sorvino - Journalist, Forbes
Barney Debnam
WW Agribusiness Solutions Director, Microsoft
Emily Ma
Food Systems Lead, X (The moonshot factory)
Andrea Renda
Senior Fellow, CEPS; Professor of Digital innovation, College of Europe, Brussels; Member of the High Level Expert Group on AI, European Commission
Didier Toubia
Co-Founder and CEO, Aleph Farms
Ma opened the conversation by citing a McKinsey report highlighting the future of different sectors’ relationship with technology and digitization. The agricultural industry falls behind. Tech is not a silver bullet, but when used correctly could build resiliency within the industry and could transform the lives of people who need it and want it the most. This session also touched on the need for technology to be culturally appropriate, participatory, and accessible.
picture by me, iced tea and biscuit from Dobra in Asheville, NC.
Food is Medicine
Moderator: Lucy Biggers - Journalist, NowThis
Kyle Cherek
Vice President, Communications, Dohmen Company Foundation
Sandro Demaio
Founder, Sandro Demaio Foundation
Mark Hyman
Physician; Director, Center for Functional Medicine, Cleveland Clinic; Author
Peggy Liu
Chairperson, Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE)
Filomena Maggino
Advisor of the Italian Prime Minister; Coordinator of the Steering Committee “Benessere Italia”
Walter Ricciardi
Scientific Adviser to Italy's Minister of Health; Member, European Advisory Committee on Health Research, World Health Organization (WHO)
Food is Medicine
Food is our Social Net
What we eat and how we eat is tied to our mental and physical health
Food is interconnected
picture by me, goods harvested at the Southside Community Center, Asheville, NC
The Takeaways
Agnes Kalibata
Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit
Danielle Nierenberg
Founder and President, Food Tank; Member Advisory Board, Barilla Foundation
Gerry Salole
Trustee, Impact Trust (UK, RSA); Member of the Advisory Board, Barilla Foundation
Máximo Torero
Chief Economist, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
David Beasley
Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP - Nobel Peace Prize 2020)
Satya Tripathi
UN Assistant Secretary-General, Head of the New York Office, UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Normal left us vulnerable, lets not go back there.
“How high must we jump? As high as we must.”- Agnes Kalibata
The present is critical.
Our food systems are going to change with each one of us.
We must have a shared vision.
picture by me, what cutting boards are looking like recently