Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

No surgieron ni se detectaron áreas de divergencia. Como se observa arriba, hubo muchas similitudes y complementariedad en los conceptos y recomendaciones elaboradas por los diferentes grupos.

El tema principal del diálogo fue la Agricultura Digital. El diálogo propuso analizar y proponer acciones y colaboraciones que contribuyan a asegurar los aportes que la agricultura digital puede hacer a la transformación de los sistemas agrícolas. El diálogo tuvo una presentación de encuadre en la cual se plantearon los siguientes conceptos: - La digitalización de la agricultura es necesaria (aunque no suficiente) para la transformación de los sistemas alimentarios. La agricultura digital puede contribuir de múltiples maneras a las 5 vías de acción que propone la cumbre, y con ello ... Read morea cumplir varios Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible. - La digitalización de la agricultura supone múltiples impactos positivos o beneficios, pero también conlleva riesgos de impactos negativos, en especial asociados a la dimensión social (acentuar desigualdades, acelerar exclusión y desplazamiento, generar conflictos). - La digitalización de la agricultura es inevitable, pero aún es incipiente y desigual por la existencia de múltiples barreras y brechas: Infraestructura, Correspondencia entre la oferta tecnológica y las necesidades de agricultores, Acceso a las tecnologías, Capacidades para el uso de las tecnologías, Agendas de promoción y regulación. - La digitalización de la agricultura está en marcha y se acelera (influencia importante de COVID-19): Es urgente concertar agendas público-privadas de impulso a la digitalización de la agricultura, de modo de asegurar que se expresan sus beneficios por sobre sus amenazas. Hacia el final de la presentación se mencionaron acciones sugeridas para agendas de impulso a la digitalización de la agricultura. Las consignas para el diálogo (en grupos y luego intercambio plenario) se plantearon de acuerdo a los conceptos propuestos en la presentación disparadora: - ¿Qué aspectos de la digitalización de la agricultura debieran priorizarse para asegurar su contribución a la transformación positiva de sistemas alimentarios? - ¿Qué acciones concretas podrían realizar distintos actores para un avance dinámico e inclusivo de la digitalización de la agricultura? Read less

Based on Action Track 1 - Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all the theme for the first dialogue of our series was 'Migration and Nutrition - Female leadership for innovation in nutritional food security: Colombia and Venezuela'. It addressed the reality and complexity of Migration on the Colombian-Venezuelan border. In this dialogue, we learned about the work of two members of the Social Gastronomy Movement Comparte Por Una Vida Colombia and Alimenta la Solidaridad, the multisectoral approach of the World Food Program, and we listened to the voices of migrant mothers, heads of hou... Read moreseholds, and community leaders. Venezuelan civil society, for approximately 6 years, has been articulating in favor of those most affected by the Complex Humanitarian Crisis, together we could understand the situation, and propose solutions to malnutrition and uninformed migration. The main points of discussion were: 1. Unexpected challenges, realities, and testimonies of irregular migration experienced by more than 1.7 million Venezuelans in Colombia. 2. The pilot project to support migrant enterprises by the World Food Program, expanding the action of food systems to accelerate integration socioeconomic status of Venezuelans in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. 3. Prevention programs implemented by Alimenta la Solidaridad serve more than 14,000 meals in 15 states and 239 communities a day in Venezuela. 4. CPUV has performed around 53,518 nutritional treatments and delivered more than 42,000 school snacks in Colombia. Read less

Participants agreed on several solutions to mitigate this regional challenge, including the following: 1. Educational programs that demystify migration, spreading the information of the reality of those who migrate in search of food. 2. Implementation of co-responsibility models that offer worthy opportunities, eg. The new Colombian policies for the regularization of Venezuelan migrants. 3. Comprehensive analysis of food systems in Venezuela within the current context of the country. 4. Strengthening logistics to prevent food waste. 5. Creation of donation networks, necessary for the implement... Read moreation of food banks. Read less

How are programs in Venezuela strengthened to prevent and regulate unsystematic migration? The lack of information about organizations such as Alimenta la Solidaridad for some Venezuelans is a reality. If not the most pressing, food security is one reason people decide to leave their country, and yet, they are unaware of the solutions they can find if they decide to stay. Despite technological challenges in the country, it is important to find ways to strengthen communications between organizations, vulnerable communities, and potential allies. If different organizations joined forces, they wo... Read moreuld create a ripple effect that reaches most of the population. These alliances and partnerships could determine the success of eventual food banks in Venezuelan territory and even food sovereignty, with the creation of seed networks that could potentially awaken agriculture again in a country where most of its food is imported and sold at terribly high prices. Do you think Venezuela is in condition to set up food banks? What ideas do you have? - Difficult passage from the border, transportation capacity does not currently exist - Combustible crisis - They work with Macro as a distributor, only through orders - Persecution of activists or organizations - Production on the floor, production can be at 30% - Agricultural production - Colombia has ANDI, Venezuela has the Venezuelan Food Chamber: actor key code - Polar Companies - How to do an analysis of food systems today? - How is it currently articulated? - Civil society is not articulated - Opportunities identification Conclusions: - Food banks are born worldwide in order to avoid losses and food waste to contribute to the food and nutrition security of the vulnerable population. - A logistical infrastructure is required for the rescue of food and a network of donors. - Both agricultural production and industry are currently limited - It is important to do an analysis of food systems, with the current context in Venezuela in order to identify opportunities. Read less

One of the outcomes of our dialogue was the need for education of people concerning the reality of migrants, spreading the word of what is the reality of those who already migrated in search of better conditions to live is the best way to guarantee those people are well informed when making that kind of decision. The big problem here is that the ones that need the information are the ones with little to no access to the internet and general communication means, based on CPUV research, 35% of the migrant families in Colombia only have 1 smartphone with internet access when they have it.

The Dialogue convened at the University of Virginia was an interdisciplinary examination of food systems involving several schools and departments from across the university having special relevance to this subject. This approach was to bring diverse perspectives to the “decision” table and to avoid problems of multiple policy and programmatic silos. This Dialogue accepts that there is value to all people having access to a sustainable, healthy, and sufficient diet, including individuals directly engaged in the food value chain at all levels. While this Dialogue includes a determined domes... Read moretic focus, it is intended that U.S. policies should contribute to international stability food security and the goals described above. The design of this Dialogue was the work product of students at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The Dialogue’s discussion on the topic of sustainable consumption was framed around three workstreams of food environments, food demand, and food waste. The discussion was based on topics of food availability, accessibility, and inequity; food affordability and insecurity; and the consumption and production of unhealthy food and its effects on public health and the environment. The first major theme that emerged from the discussion was the socioeconomic and geographic inequities that exacerbate barriers to healthy food consumption and sustainability. The second major theme was the multidisciplinary scope of the problem, where food consumption policies must be addressed from the lens of public health, urban planning, and social welfare. Finally, bottom-up, community-led approaches in food consumption program implementation will be crucial to increase food security, affordability, and food autonomy in the long run. The discussion surrounding nature positive production focused on practices that promote reduced impact of agriculture on the environment while ensuring sufficient food production. While more research is needed, our preliminary discussion found a need to provide farmers with financial incentives (such as tax breaks or payment for ecosystem services) to change their unsustainable monoculture agriculture practices. A move towards more nature positive production will involve multiple objectives. To promote equitable livelihoods, it was necessary to explore communities’ ability to create local access to a varied diet. It was recognized there are many complex and intersecting challenges to advance equitable livelihoods. However, the Dialogue chose to focus on domestic issues, particularly the living wage and low access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Ensuring healthy and nutritious food is available to all in times of crisis requires preemptively building resilience and efficiently responding to shocks when they occur. Enhanced resilience requires advancement in consumption, production, and livelihoods. This requires a focus on environmental, economic, health, and equity to build food system resiliency against shocks. The discussion included how methods used to improve resilience can be transferred to other countries and how U.S. foreign policy can improve international food stability. Though focused domestically, the findings and actions presented below will contribute to international stability and food security by representing key root causes of global food instability. By focusing on economic factors through the living wage and cultural factors through community engaged gardens, we home in on intervening at critical points that impact the multiple parts of the food system. Read less

The forces that shape food systems are interconnected. Sustainable consumption is complicated by wealth inequities and healthier options vary along socioeconomic lines. Similarly, food deserts (an issue of distance, access, and affordability) contribute to rampant American malnutrition and obesity, and are most often found in areas serving minority, low-income, and rural households. Healthy food is underproduced and is not cost-effective in the short term as compared to unhealthy options. The affordability disparity is highlighted by highly processed food diets versus those with more fruits, v... Read moreegetables, and healthier proteins. The Dialogue highlighted the need for bottom-up approaches and by affording those affected a say in necessary changes. This includes discussing how food should be incorporated in urban planning, such as considering the primary modes of transportation a locality uses, geographic barriers, and zoning plans. Improved quality in food pantries and incentives for cheaper pricing and wider selection of healthy options in grocery stores (and improved profitability) can improve consumption patterns in America. Finally, food justice should be deliberately incorporated into sustainable consumption and urban planning as it relates to food policy. The Lancet Commission's six planetary boundaries best describe nature-positive production. The boundaries are climate change, biodiversity loss, land system change, freshwater use, and nitrogen and phosphorus flows. It is significantly difficult to consider these boundaries separately, as they often affect or are dependent on one another. Promoting soil health and carbons sequestration through regenerative practices can address these boundaries. Unfortunately, economic, and political lock-ins incentivize chemical-dependent, high-yield, monoculture agricultural practices, further complicate these issues. Therefore, major reform must include additional research on agricultural methods that balance both the financial and environmental goals of farmers and a general deconstruction of the economic and political lock-ins that continue to promote current American agricultural. Factors to consider include: • Planetary boundaries as interconnected elements. • Promotion of soil health and stability through regenerative practices. • Intensive rather than extensive agricultural growth. • Incorporation of indigenous knowledge in farm policy. • Inclusive policymaking. • Incentives for farmer investment in nature-positive methods through tax credits and payment for ecosystem services. • Concentration within agricultural and small farm operations access to finance. • Public buy-in and involvement of multiple stakeholders. • Data collection and education. • Reduced food waste and loss at all levels of the food supply chain. • Regional and local initiatives as incubators for national-level change. Equitable livelihoods require a broad systemic change to increase food access to all individuals. This change will take time and immediate ameliorating action is needed. A raised minimum wage will combat food insecurity among low-income individuals and families and recognize the value of workers within our food system. Empowering local creativity through community gardens will reduce food inequities. Communities that take ownership of their access to fresh fruits and vegetables will provide those with low access to nutritious food the agency to produce their own food and meet their needs. Sharing ideas for interventions in equitable food access and reduce challenges to innovation and creativity posed by siloization. Climate change, environmental, conflict, and economic shocks threaten to disrupt the food system resulting in a lack of affordable, nutritious food which is exacerbated by racial and socioeconomic inequality. The lack of healthy food impacts community resilience to shocks, such as pandemics, through nutrition-related non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, for which Americans of color are impacted at disproportionate rates. Poor health harms resilience to face future shocks, as does climate change through rising global temperature and environmental shocks which disrupt the food system. There is a lack of preventative systems of early warning to environmental shocks or sufficient planning and prudent response when they occur. Gaps also exist in responding to shocks due to breakdowns in social networks, as illustrated by school closures due to COVID-19 and the aftermath of major hurricanes, such as Katrina. Furthermore, the current lack of racial and ethnic diversity within the agricultural system translates to a lack of new ideas, perspectives, and experiences, which holds back progress and innovation in resilience building. Read less

Food social safety nets should aim to address persistent inequities in food access for low-income, minority, and rural households, as well as improve consumption patterns. Programs should serve people living in food deserts and other nutrition-deficit localities. Two improvements include providing food with a higher nutritional value in food pantries and lowering the qualification threshold to food pantries to improve access. Means-tested food programs such as SNAP and WIC do not provide sufficient money for people to consume a healthy, adequate diet. SNAP and WIC need increased federal fundin... Read moreg. Additionally, these two programs should increase participant benefits to match the costs of a healthy, adequate diet and can incentivize participants to spend their money on healthier food. This would help households eat in a healthier, more sustainable manner. For instance, providing people with an extra thirty cents on every dollar that they spend on specifically designated healthier food items has been shown to improve healthy consumption patterns. Other program improvements could include lowering the barriers to access the program itself, such as decreasing the volume of application paperwork, simplifying the language used on the application, and conducting widespread program outreach to help enroll eligible households. We suggest that, in addition to improving existing programs, new non-means-tested nutrition programs be created to address the access gap for healthy food. Regardless of income level, most Americans are malnourished. An example of such a program is a food bank (with healthy food) in schools. This food bank would not be means-tested, which would help reduce malnutrition among students of various socioeconomic backgrounds. States should also increase the budget for school lunch and breakfast programs. These should be offered and accessible even when school is not in-session, such as over summer and winter breaks, and students should be allowed to take food away from the programs to be consumed (at home or at school or to share with their family members). Finally, school food programs can be more effective in their implementation by engaging in a bottom-up approach, such as by including students and parents in the food selection process, bringing students to farms, allowing students to “try out” various new food, and generally making the nutritional standards more appetizing and appealing to children. One element of building resilience to shocks would include a legislative response, namely merging the SNAP and WIC programs in the United States to improve nutrition and health. A concerted focus on nutrition outcomes will help build resilience to future shocks through improved health. Congress would need to enact this legislative change. Policymakers would measure progress by tracking rates of food insecurity and childhood obesity, and other nutrition-related health outcomes. Potential challenges to this outcome include political buy-in and funding constraints. It should be noted that food-related social safety nets also apply to the production of food, as have been a central theme in U.S. farm legislation for nearly a century. But consistent with the objective of this recommendation, modifications should include: • Incentives that encourage farmers to produce food with nature positive methods to help reduce the cost of these changing practices on the consumer. • Farmers markets participation (especially for small-scale farmers) incentives to improve access to nutritious food for all consumers. Read less

This issue approaches healthy consumption from an equity lens, highlighting social determinants across socioeconomic lines. Establishing a living wage and increasing worker dignity can increase food affordability and autonomy of workers. Local governments should ensure that individuals who work in community gardens/other agricultural spaces that produce fruits and vegetables are compensated through a higher, living minimum wage and allow them to purchase the food they help to produce at a highly subsidized rate. Because these individuals are often low-income, this can help increase the afforda... Read morebility of healthier food across socioeconomic lines. In a market-based economy, insufficient income will reduce consumption. When it comes to food, that can lead to food insecurity and/or malnutrition. To reduce food insecurity due to affordability barriers, we recommend increasing the minimum wage to a living wage rate. Increased income will improve food access by bringing the minimum standard of living to a sustainable level. This will help all low-income, food insecure individuals and families obtain sufficient, healthy nutrition and demonstrate that we value the food systems employees. There are many paths to securing a living wage for low-income Americans and workers along the food value chain. In the ideal case, this would be implemented through a federal legislative mandate to raise the national minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. The key stakeholders here are clearly the members of Congress, the President, and the political actors likely to want to influence the congressional debate, including constituents and the business lobbies. However, given the current political landscape, efforts should also be made to promote state and local minimum wage mandates, which would require input from the corresponding governmental stakeholders. Government at all levels could provide incentives (especially those involved in the food system) to increase their minimum wages through tax breaks, subsidies, and other programs. These efforts could be supported by public campaigns (including local community organizers) and unionization efforts. Our Dialogue found that implementing a living wage should be just one part in overall efforts to increase food worker dignity. Others include updating worker safety regulations, increasing enforcement, and public campaigns that acknowledge the value and importance of this work. A living wage’s impact could be evaluated by wage rates and employment of the bottom of the income distribution, and particularly for those who work in the food value chain. Demand for benefits like SNAP and WIC would assess how food insecurity has changed as a result. We recognize the significant implementation challenges. Definition of a living wage is perhaps the most fundamental of these challenges. Others include how to address regional differences in the cost of living and impacts of inflation. Efforts to increase the minimum wage through legislation will face strong political resistance due to claims of harm to businesses and increased unemployment. However, the work of addressing these concerns has already occurred in many localities and the lessons learned in these contexts should inform future action and advocacy. A living wage will break down economic barriers to food insecurity. It is important to enact more targeted changes in the food system, however, this is a starting point to ensure that low-income households are not food insecure simply because they do not have the money to purchase nutritious food. Read less

Shifting to healthy consumption patterns has vast environmental benefits. Flexitarian and vegetarian diets reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the environmental footprint of food is heavily dependent on how the food is produced. Using increased agricultural land toward fruits and vegetables rather than commodity crops would help the environment and improve agricultural sustainability. This recommendation is divided into three significant parts: short-term goals, long-term goals, and the importance of inclusive policymaking. The first short-term goal is increased research on nature-positive me... Read morethods of agricultural production. Data collection among farmers (perhaps through federal policies) including information on soil health, carbon, and pesticide levels should be expanded. Data on measures of farmland health is crucial in crafting federal policies to aid farmer transition to nature positive production. Another short-term goal is creation of economic incentives for farmers transition to nature-positive practices. These could include carbon sequestration tax credits or other financial incentives. Restrictive tax policy or mandates may only further impair low-income farmers’ abilities. Additional research on financially feasible sustainable agricultural practices is needed. A long-term goal is to dismantle current economic lock-ins for American agriculture practices. One method involves restructuring farm subsidy policies, specifically crop insurance, to be more environmentally friendly and could involve insurance that is not crop-specific but applies to all crops. Another policy approach involves reforming antitrust policies for the nation's largest industrial farms. Thirdly, a more inclusive process for policies to enhance sustainable and nature-positive food production is needed. All stakeholders, including small farmers, citizens, businesses, scientists, and legislators, must be included to ensure positive and equitable outcomes. In addition, consideration must be given to indigenous practices. Similarly, Congress should improve finance opportunities and risk management, especially for farmers of color. This could include debt relief, grants, training, education, and other forms of assistance to secure land tenure. This could build resilience through education and training to support farm stability and diversification of food production and consumption through sustainably healthy diets. Improved minority access to credit could be measured by a quantifiable increase in the number of farmers of color in the U.S. These actions need to recognize budgetary challenges. Additional nature positive specific measures include: • Increased funding to agricultural extensions and research programs. o Increased research on soil health o More research on ability farmland to sequester carbon, carbon sequestration tax credits, and their applicability to farming systems o “Farming of carbon capture” • Economic incentives for ecosystem services, to promote nature-positive methods of farming that produce co-benefits of food production, soil regeneration, carbon storage, and biodiversity. o Cost share programs for investments in new practices o Payment for ecosystem services through tax credits o Restructure crop insurance program practices o Competitive prices for farmers; make the profit from taking land out of production higher than what would have been produced with poor practices o Antitrust approaches Read less

Food is at the source of human life. While it sustains us and connects us, our food systems are severely distant resulting in a disconnect and reduction in the value we place on food within our value-chain. In the US, people do not engage in food production and preparation as in countries with lower rates of obesity and diabetes. As in those other countries, Americans should be more involved with food production through community gardens to reduce distance from production to consumption. This includes participation by schools and universities to engage students, since significant lifetime cons... Read moreequences of poor nutrition emerge at a young age, and local governments/organizations should find ways to compensate individuals for working in these gardens. Involving schools and afterschool programs would have the added benefit of teaching children about nutrition. Community gardens place food agency for improved nutrition in the hands of those who are food insecure or cannot access preferred foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. These efforts draw on existing community and nonprofit institutions and promote ownership and pride in work through cultivation. Funding sources may be local and state government and it is important to emphasize the need to adequately compensate community members for their efforts and labor in the community garden. At the local level, each community garden can be tailored to the local community in terms of food types, type of engagement, funding mechanisms and access. The community garden will be completely run by community members themselves. An example of success is Cultivate Charlottesville, a local food justice organization in Virginia working towards food equity through community-engaged gardens. Implementing this approach at a large-scale will take time and a benchmark of quality common to all is needed to ensure gardens meet community needs. A mechanism (such as an annual assessment needed for funding) would ensure that each community garden is performing to a set standard. This intervention may employ metrics quantifying both food available locally to community members from these community gardens as well as the level of engagement community members exhibit towards those places. The latter will be more challenging to measure but qualitative case studies and focus groups can illuminate any cultural shift that may occur because of the community gardens. Building up relationships between food system stakeholders is essential in building resilience and inspiring coordinated action to shocks. Community-based programs including community gardens improve access to affordable nutritious food. Organizations and community leaders should cooperate to put gardens in locations that target those most in need of fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also opportunities for nonprofits to partner with local schools to create community gardens. Response networks that supply and transport available food in times of crisis would also help strengthen resilience. These outcomes could be measured by Resilience indicators, such as Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities index (BRIC). Challenges associated with executing this outcome includes potential logistical and coordination difficulties. Monocultures are more profitable and easier to scale than producing a diverse array of food. Government subsidy or tax incentives for community garden/local grocery stores in food deserts that promote more nutritious vegetables/fruits would decrease our reliance on monocultures and help reduce micronutrient deficiencies. Read less

Building resilience and responding to shocks will require local, state, and federal governments to work with businesses to successfully continue providing nutritious food to those in need during shocks. One way that governments can care for vulnerable populations during a shock is through establishing early warning systems in cooperation with businesses to know in what regions shocks are most likely to occur based on history. Governments can provide incentives to businesses (such as tax incentives and subsidies) to increase food supply and decrease food costs in certain regions at certain time... Read mores of the year to create an ease of access equitably. Additionally, if supply starts to quickly fall during a shock, both government and business can coordinate to rapidly increase supply to that region so that shortages are prevented. There are several challenges that can be associated with cooperation, though. First, businesses are not required to uphold certain measures that they may claim to support in cooperation with governments. Businesses can choose to backout at any time unless they are held accountable for their actions in some sort of manner. Early warning systems may also not be adequately prepared, depending on the severity of the shock. Success can be measured using Resilience indicators, such as the BRIC index. Success can also be viewed by observing the impact of how much food was distributed that may not have been otherwise distributed via the partnership. While this issue is largely focused on the resilience of a food system, consumption of affordable and nutritious food is heavily influenced by food supply chains. The ability to purchase healthy food options is fragmented across socioeconomic lines, but misaligned incentives within the market structure of food suppliers render healthy consumption a difficult problem to solve without public/private cooperation. Given the overreliance on a lack of diversity in the food supply market and the culture of fast-food dominance in the US food system, public/private partnerships to shift incentives will be a focal point of increasing healthy consumption in the US. Government interventions such as sugar taxes or subsidizing healthy produce could potentially improve incentives to purchase and consume healthy foods but do not address the larger barriers to nutritious consumption. Read less

In the lead up to the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, the Global Action Network - Sustainable Food from the Oceans and Inland Waters for Food Security and Nutrition will arrange a series of three Independent Dialogues in an effort to include aquatic foods as a key food source for food security and nutrition - bridging the Decade of Action on Nutrition, the Decade of Ocean Science and the Decade of Action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals The aim of this webinar was to showcase important actions for aquatic foods to be a part of the solution to the food system summits action track 1 ... Read more(access to sustainable, safe and nutritious food for all) and raise awareness on the importance of a cross sectorial approach. Combining knowledge on food composition data, nutrients, contaminants and dietary needs with knowledge on the role of sustainable aquatic foods in a sustainable diet, and present important actions for aquatic foods to become integrated in food and nutrition policies as part of sustainable and healthy diets. The outcome of the webinar will feed into the UN Food Systems Summit Action Track 1. The virtual dialogue brought together UN Member States representatives from ministries and other public institution that covered areas related to healthy oceans, sustainable seafood, food security, nutrition and health. Stakeholders such as private sector, civil society, including academic institutions, and regional and intergovernmental organisations could also attend. The program brough together actors from Government, UN Food System Action Track leaders, research institute directors and policy specialists to explore impactful aquatic food system initiatives led by research experts from around the world. The panel discussed innovative ways to connect research with policy and action to ensure aquatic foods are recognized as part of game-changing solutions in the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. The panels took a holistic approach by combining knowledge on different aspects of food security: access for all to sufficient, safe, nutritious foods, meeting dietary needs, food preferences, and discussed key actions needed for aquatic foods to be part of the solution for sustainable food systems. . In this first dialogue, cross sectorial representatives, including high level, were gathered to showcase possible solutions and discuss important actions for food systems transformation with aquatic foods as part of the summit’s Action Track 1, which aims to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all. Themes: - Food systems transformation with aquatic foods - Access to sustainable, safe and nutritious aquatic foods for all - Connecting research, policy and action to achieve food system goals Read less

Aquatic foods offer game-changing solutions in line with the UN Food System Summit Action Track 1: Access to sustainable, safe and nutritious food for all. Sustainable production and consumption of aquatic foods are an important key to ending poverty and hunger, and to ensure food security and health for all. We must keep our oceans and waters renewable and clean, ensure a variety of aquatic foods and fully use what we harvest, without loss and waste. To release the potential of aquatic foods, in a sustainable way, we have to work together across borders. The importance of international cooper... Read moreation also applies to combat fisheries crime and to maintain sustainable management of all marine resources. Aquatic foods are 1 a) a vital source of nutrition, micronutrients vitamins, minerals omega fatty acids - b) they have a lover environmental impacts than many terrestrial food systems, c) they employs many of the worlds most vulnerable and many of them are women. If we get the productions right we get supply of nutritious foods, lower environmental footprints and generate livelihoods for the most vulnerable and support womens income. 2) We can increase the production of aquatic foods within the planetary boundaries, 3) How can we increase the consumption? Many factors: peoples income is to low to afford it, prices to high, need to work on that from the production side to the retail side, low demand might be due to worries about many issues such as safety, taste etc. There are worries about sustainability. • Panelists highlighted how the vast array of aquatic food systems, from ocean to inland water bodies, can produce diverse aquatic food species critical to the food and nutrition security of communities in low- and middle-income countries. • Holistic knowledge and food system approaches are needed to ensure access to sufficient amounts of aquatic foods that is sustainably produced, nutritious and safe to eat and consumed as part of healthy diets for generations to come. • The benefits derived from giving aquatic foods greater recognition in the food systems agenda can contribute to building the sustainability, resilience and inclusivity of aquatic food systems and related value chains. Innovative and holistic approaches to aquatic food systems hold significant opportunities for boosting health, livelihoods and wellbeing, especially of the poor and vulnerable. · Aquatic foods provide essential micronutrients to the diet of millions of people, therefore reducing the risk of micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases. · Panelists pointed to the importance of accurate information on the nutrient-content of locally available aquatic foods for consumers to understand their impacts on food and nutrition security. · By combining sustainable intensification of aquaculture, improved management of capture fisheries while increasing the development of fish value chains and reducing significant fish loss and waste, improvements can be made to the provision of food and to nutrition while keeping within planetary boundaries. · Innovative solutions, such as knowledge tools and mobile applications that are efficient, cost-effective and accessible, are critical to bridge technical gaps and develop consumer knowledge and understanding of diverse aquatic foods and their benefits. · Mobilizing government interests towards developing meaningful dietary guidelines, such as school-feeding programs, is key to boosting local consumption of healthy and nutritious aquatic foods, especially among the poor and vulnerable. Creating an enabling environment for research to connect with policy to ensure sustainable production and consumption of safe and nutritious aquatic foods. • Panelists explained that sustainable resource management of aquatic food systems, from production all the way to consumption, is key to environmental sustainability and food systems resilience. • For instance, making full use of low-trophic aquatic foods that have low-environmental impact but contain high nutritional value, such as jellyfish and mussels, must be recognized in upcoming national food-based dietary guidelines. • Fisheries and aquaculture also support the livelihoods of around 820 million people around the world, 90% of whom work in the small-scale sector and half of which are women. • Women-centric policies are thus critical in aquatic food systems to create employment opportunities that are equitable, inclusive and can contribute to the growth in household income. • This can best be achieved through a close collaboration between the Food Systems Summit, industry, research and policy to ensure aquatic foods play a central part in sustainable food systems transformation for ‘healthy ocean and healthy people.’ Read less

• The vast array of aquatic food systems, from ocean to inland water bodies, can produce diverse aquatic food which is critical to food and nutrition security and which can contribute to combat the triple burden of malnutrition (SDG 2 and SDG3). • Aquatic foods are a biodiverse food group, provide essential nutrients such as protein, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals to the diet of millions of people, therefore reducing the risk of micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases. • There is a lack of open access analytical data on nutrients and contaminants in aqu... Read moreatic foods following the value chain. The importance of accurate information on the nutrient-content of locally available aquatic foods is a prerequisite for consumers to understand their impacts on food and nutrition security. • Holistic knowledge on food system approaches is needed to ensure access to aquatic foods that is sustainably produced, nutritious and safe to eat and consumed as part of healthy diets for generations to come. • Discussions are commonly dominated by agriculture. There is an urgent need for the recognition of aquatic foods as a game-changing solution in the food systems agenda. • Innovative solutions, such as knowledge tools and mobile applications that are efficient, cost-effective and accessible, are critical to bridge technical gaps and develop consumer knowledge and understanding of diverse aquatic foods and their nutritional benefits. • Food Composition Data forms the basis of many programs and policies, making it more nutrition-sensitive and cost-effective, and enable the development of meaningful guidelines for improving dietary adequacy. Mobilizing government interests towards developing meaningful dietary guidelines, such as school-feeding programs, is key to boosting local consumption of healthy and nutritious aquatic foods, especially among the poor and vulnerable. • There has been limited attention to the use of highly nutritious, low-trophic aquatic foods for human consumption. It is part of UN Nutrition’s mission to encourage policy frameworks to leverage aquatic foods for their untapped potential in national food-based dietary guidelines. Read less

There were no strong divergence among the participants. This is a summary of open ended questions answered after the webinar. Q1: What are the key actions to be done for aquatic foods to be a part of the solution for a sustainable food system? There are 5 main themes suggested by the participants that can be a part of the solution for a sustainable food system, including: science & technology, sustainable practices, supply chain, awareness and overall governance. In the theme of science & technology, participants called for publication of scientific data, with particular emphasis on it... Read mores availability, transparency and readability. These further encourage the data to be acquired and understood cross-sectionally, cross-regionally and internationally. There are several specific areas which require advancement: understanding in productivity, accessibility, safety, traceability, accountability and transparency of aquatic food at regional and global scales, technologies to increase productivity and farmer-friendly technologies. For aquaculture specifically, AMR, seed development and quality feed are essential and all required attention. Lastly, a special focus on the waste and loss of product is needed including food process and storage. Improving sustainable aquatic food production is crucial, in particular, diversifying target species (e.g. non-traditional species, seaweed and low trophic position species), promoting native species and avoiding the introduction of invasive species, reducing environmental impacts, and establishing and managing MPAs and sustainable fisheries. The majority of the participants agree that the awareness of aquatic food should be raised to increase consumption and provide job opportunity. The scientific knowledge about aquatic food should be communicated to the general public such as the health benefit and combating global food insecurity. This can be done through public figures and social media influencers. Such information should also be made aware cross-sectionally. These together will enhance the reliability and accountability of aquatic food and thus its value chain at both regional and global scales, thus, leading to encountering ongoing biased opinion against aquatic food. In terms of governance, the participants indicated the important role of governments in market management, pricing vs affordability management, implementing quality standards, advertising aquatic food (e.g. health and economic benefits), integrating aquatic food into the current food and nutrient policies, especially in the global food system dialogue, providing support (e.g. investment and other public resources) and equal opportunity for fishermen, particularly those in the small-scale fisheries, improving the rights of fishermen, including younger generations in relevant dialogues and practices. Q2: How are aquatic foods included and weighted in the ongoing general debate and policies on food security, sustainable healthy diets and sustainable food systems? There is only one participant who thinks that aquatic food receives high priority while the rest believe that it is either inadequate, increasing, or varying. The participants who chose ‘inadequate’ suggested a few reasons including; aquatic food was not sufficiently accredited; lack of data, particularly for small-scale fisheries; insufficient technological advances; insufficient discussions, food strategies or measures to incorporate fishery organisations into UNFSS, for example, in the recent UNFSS, the discussion of terrestrial agriculture dominated; lack of funding; lack of sustainable development strategies, especially for the wild catch; lack of actions; issue with GMOs; and misleading information. Q3: How do we scale up the good solutions? There are 5 main themes suggested by the participants including: advancing science & technology;, policy making and reinforcement;, improving awareness and education; enhancing collaborations and business development. Improving the science and technology including research on nutrient benefits, environmental impacts, data transparency and sharing, policy making, diversifying marine resources (e.g. seaweed), technologies of food processing and knowledge transfer. Policy making, which includes developing incentives, financing relevant industries, strategies for different time and spatial scales, equal opportunity for small scale fisheries, following the 3 pillars of FAO, and incorporating aquatic food into policies. Read less

The main focus of the dialogue was aimed at restoring supply chains in the post-pandemic period and effectively integrating into these chains the most diverse producers from large companies to local farmers. It has been repeatedly emphasized that centralizing supply chain management is detrimental to efficiency to a large extent. At the same time, it was especially emphasized that it is necessary to put a person at the forefront of every action. Of particular interest in this regard were the speeches and remarks that touched upon both food security and the need to increase food production with... Read moreout harming the environment. In this regard, hopes were pinned on the development of IT management systems for agro-industrial production and product sales. The humanitarian component also got its sound when discussing the promotion of Food Banks as systems for effectively overcoming hunger, social protection and environmentally friendly solutions. Read less

Among the findings it was pointed out that it is necessary to constantly monitor and analyze the state of the food systems and supply chains across countries and continents. New standards are needed in the training of specialists in this area. It has been repeatedly emphasized that education and science are cross-border in nature. It is necessary to create both international educational clusters and national laboratories and associations. These findings carry important messages for media policy makers. All of the above led to the conclusion about the need to create a new integration platform a... Read morend an intellectual environment that will allow implementing new initiatives. In addition, the Russian office of FAO, supporting the need to enlighten and promote the ideas of the Summit, in the person of its director made a proposal to create the Institute of FAO Goodwill Ambassadors. Read less

ANDREY YU. BELYANINOV - Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly : "The success of the 2021 Food Systems Summit depends on the engagement of representatives from a wide variety of actors, organizations, movements and initiatives. The independent dialogue in support of the Summit, organized by the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, is an open platform for finding solutions to real problems. Listen to each other; explore both synergies and divergences; collaborate to identify promising courses of action, welcoming different perspectives, forging new connections." Alexandra Ochirova, UNESCO G... Read moreoodwill Ambassador, Deputy Secretary-General, Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly: "I believe that the issue of food security is one of the most important global development agendas and it applies to all countries and nations without exception, to every human being on the planet. In this regard, the global threats of hunger, poverty and disease existing today in many countries, on the one hand, and the vulnerability of methods of production and consumption of food worldwide, on the other hand, as well as imperfect functioning of food systems, limited natural resources and other environmental problems require new protocols of interaction between all spheres of human activity, between states, nations and public organizations to reform the existing national and global food systems in order to remove the existing threats to education, health and the economy, to human rights, life and health, to peace and safety worldwide. Practical decisions concerning all systemic changes in this area must proceed from the possibility of safe and sustainable development of a human being and society, the preservation of nations and of all mankind. These decisions must be moral and responsible." MR. RICHARD GILMORE - founder of the GIC Group, an international agro-industrial company with partner offices in Beijing, Sao Paulo, Quito, Moscow and Tel Aviv. Chairman of the nongovernmental organization «Global Forum on Food Safety»: "The pandemic and its after-effects underscore the need for a cultural shift in which both private and public sectors recognize the importance of food safety systems for future risk avoidance in our new normal world. If and when we transition to a ‘New Normal’, the stark threats to food systems and human health are real. So are the solutions, which depend on new technologies and a supportive policy environment for sustainable agriculture" Yulia Nazarova, president of The All-Russian Charity Foundation Foodbank Rus: "24 tons of distributed products, this is not only 2.5 thousand people who were fed during the week, but 12 tons of greenhouse gases that did not enter the atmosphere". Read less