food systemS summit - advocacy for a new international cooperation
The United Nations Food Systems Summit took place on September 23. The virtual event was dedicated to an urgent appeal from the United Nations to ensure the future of the world food system. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of Mauritius attended this summit via video conference. Maneesh Gobin urged for new international cooperation for resilient, fair and sustainable food systems. As part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the UN Food Systems Summit plans to introduce new measures and therefore tries to completely change the way the world produces and consumes food.
The summit was guided by five action tracks. They are as follows:
Ensure that everyone has access to safe and nutritious food
Action Track 1 will helps to eliminate hunger and all forms of malnutrition, as well as to decrease the rate of non – communicable disease, hence allowing all people to be nourished and healthy. This goal requires that all people have constant access to adequate quantities of affordable and safe foods. In order to accomplish this goal, we need to increase the access to nutritious meals. As well, making food more affordable and reducing food disparities is a must .
Transformation to more sustainable consumption habits
Action Track 2 will work to increase consumer demand for sustainably produced food, strengthen local value chains and improve nutrition. It will also encourage food resource reuse and recycling, particularly among the most vulnerable. This Action Track recognizes the need to eliminate wasteful food consumption patterns. It also realizes the need to enable a change in the diets toward more nutritious foods that require fewer resources to produce and transport.
Increase the nature-friendly production
Action Track 3 will work to reduce biodiversity loss, pollution, water use, soil degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions by improving environmental resource use in production of food, processing, and distribution. In order to achieve this goal, the Action Track will seek to develop a better understanding of the limitations confronting smallholder farmers throughout the food value chain. It will also work on improving food system governance by reshaping opportunities for reducing negative environmental effects.
Promote equitable livelihoods
Action Track 4 will aim to remove poverty by helping to promote employment. Hereby providing decent work for all people along the food value chain. It will also try to increase endurance through social protection and ensure that food systems “leave no one behind.”
Increase resistance to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress
Action Track 5 will focus on ensuring that sustainable food systems continue to function everywhere; even in areas prone to dispute or natural catastrophes. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” by Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own.
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” by Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
