Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

Discussion Topic, Group 1 By 2030, food loss and waste have decreased by 50% across key supply chains and demand for food production has diminished proportionally, leading to lower production emissions. ACTIONS 1. Recognize the long-standing inequalities that have been exposed by COVID, the Black Lives Matter movement and the present “policy window” to address these inequalities. Given this context, the dialogue process is a moment of opportunity that should not be squandered. 2. Recognize the urgency. There are only nine harvests remaining until 2030 to get this right. 3. Recognize lesson... Read mores learned from food banks in 2020. It was the first year where 85% of the food they distributed was recovered from the industrial/agriculture sector (not purchased). There was a sense of solidarity among the communities they worked with, and there was no decrease in the amount of food distributed. 4. Map the actions that would lead to reduced production. Companies should have public commitments on reduced production based on food loss reduction programs. Indicators that would demonstrate this could be identified. • Companies and producers are there to create products to sell. Therefore, decreasing food loss will not necessarily lead to a reduction in production. 5. Understand the unique challenges facing smallholder farmers and provide resources to help them. • Understand and acknowledge the unique challenges facing smallholder farmers, who first need to meet their daily needs before addressing food loss. • Provide technical support and guidance to smallholder farmers to reduce food loss from the beginning of production. • Scale programs that assist smallholder farmers in distributing products via larger producers. • Work with the private sector to get insurance to small and medium farms. The group discussed a current example in Latin America. • Find ways to help smallholder farmers stay in the market when international trade is not possible. PARTNERSHIPS Foster partnerships with: 1. Organizations working in the broader context of sustainable development, beyond the usual stakeholders who are involved in the food supply chain. 2. Organizations that are addressing hunger and poverty. This is what food banks do, by adopting a holistic approach that includes technology, investment, new practices, and innovation, while trying to address human behaviors that cause food waste. 3. Private sector. This includes helping to create innovative insurance products to address the needs of smallholder famers. 4. Government agencies, like the ministries of agriculture, environment, and social protection, who play an important role in providing technical assistance. Via partnerships with governments, there can be more effective outreach, financial support, and assistance to bring useful innovations to smallholder farmers in remote rural areas. Read less

ACTIONS 1. Support smallholder farmers in adopting evidence-based regenerative agriculture practices. • Recognize that smallholder farmers are often on the frontlines of catastrophic impacts of climate variability and change, nature loss, deepening poverty, and the wide inequality gap. • Develop evidence-based regenerative food systems and foodscapes that are attuned to local cultures, and economic and biophysical circumstances. • Integrated approaches are good for soil and the environment, healthy animals, and raising farmer productivity and livelihoods. • Provide smallholder farmers ... Read morewith technical assistance, resources, incentives, payment systems, and access to technology and connectivity, the best seeds, and crop insurance, so they can produce crops sustainably, while making a livelihood for themselves and their families. o Ensure that digital tools are co-created and farmer-centric to address their issues, including lowering production costs and improving incomes. o Explore payments for ecosystem services. • Address challenges facing women farmers, such as lack of access to land, financing, markets, agricultural training and education, suitable working conditions, and equal treatment. 2. Involve young people. • Make farming more appealing to young farmers, who are often in the best position to advance evidence-based scientific innovations and technologies for sustainable farming. • Provide school-based agriculture education, including experiential opportunities. 3. Share effective, evidence-based, scientific practices beyond the communities where they originated. • Create coalitions that share these practices among NGOs, extension services, etc., that provide services to farmers so information can be disseminated widely. • Bring awareness about market trade to allow farmers to sell their crops to secure living wages and prosperity. 4. Educate consumers. • Educate consumers about farming and making food decisions that are healthier and better for the planet. Build awareness of the impact of the excessive consumption of animal-sourced foods; provide guidance regarding healthy portion sizes; and make food label dates more easily understood. 5. Better align international policy. • Promote harmonization of legislation/standards across regulatory systems. • Foster end-to-end solutions working across the food system and address the concrete needs of end users. PARTNERSHIPS 1. With organizations that work in the larger context of sustainable development, beyond the usual stakeholders who are involved in the food supply chain, for a more holistic approach for interventions, innovation, and solutions. 2. Between research institutions, farmers, and consumers to support the development, deployment and scaling of evidence-based scientific innovations. 3. With and among various government agencies and ministries, including agriculture, environment, education, etc., to provide education, technical assistance and outreach, data collection, financial assistance, and financial investment to smallholder farmers in remote rural areas. Everyone in food systems can benefit from these partnerships including many other food system actors. 4. With the private sector, to bring innovation, digital technology, finance, and insurance products to farmers, especially smallholder farmers. 5. With schools, to provide agriculture education and provide a market for local farmers by providing locally grown sustainable food, especially in countries greatly relying on smallholder farmers. 6. With youth – include them in decision making and empower them to bring innovative solutions to farming, and the rest of the food system, as they are often early adopters of technology. 7. With consumers to help them understand the challenges and opportunities related to farming and the environment, the true cost of food, and how to create change through demanding sustainably grown food. 8. Within regional and context-specific coalitions that include technology providers, farmers, NGOs and INGOs, and businesses. 9. Between conservationists, policymakers, and farmers. 10. Among members in the value chain to reduce the cost of food related to transportation, food waste, and pest reduction. A close network of communication from a coalition/connection between farmer, supplier, wholesaler, etc. 11. Between regulatory systems coalitions to promote harmonization and end-to-end solutions. 12. Between governments to create more compatible and global solutions. Going forward, it will be key to continue existing coalitions, building on partnerships that are already doing the work, as well as create new coalitions and continue conversations with people from diverse backgrounds far beyond 2021 to ensure action. It is important to ensure young people are at the table, as youth are not only our future, but the planet is their future. It’s up to all of us to keep the conversation going – the UN, farmers, companies, agricultural workers, academia, researchers, etc. The Summit should just be the beginning. Read less

Hosted by CCAFS/CGIAR, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Bayer, this fourth and final dialogue brought together almost 100 key stakeholders from across our global food system to discuss game-changing solutions that can put us on a transformative path to an equitable, sustainable, climate-smart future. Following the five Action Tracks, this event opened with high-level presentations and then moved participants into groups for intensive, facilitated discussions that explored the solutions needed and how they can be delivered on the necessary scale. Through this dialogue, the game-c... Read morehanging solutions put forward will inspire action from global leaders in what is potentially a make-or-break year for international cooperation on sustainable food systems. The dialogue’s objectives were: • Identify current coalitions, partnerships, and programs that are aligned with priority game-changing solutions • Evaluate key actions to advance priority game-changing solutions • Identify key stakeholders for implementing these actions The MAJOR FOCUS topics from the group discussions were: 1. Consider food systems in the broader context of the SDGs Planning for action and partnerships for food systems transformation must be considered in the larger context of sustainable development, with a more holistic approach for interventions, innovation, and solutions. Transforming food systems will advance progress towards numerous SDGs, including no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life on land, and partnerships toward the goals. Addressing food systems in alignment with related SDGs will optimize results in serving humanity and the planet. 2. Address environmental threats and opportunities Biodiversity loss threatens humanity and the planet. Additionally, soil degradation interferes with carbon sequestration. Researchers and scientists are vital partners in developing new technologies to monitor and evaluate progress in mitigating the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. Evidence-based scientific findings and innovations must be disseminated to farmers and inform policymakers and consumers. By aligning efforts, diverse stakeholders can work together to improve food systems for a healthy and sustainable planet. 3. Provide support and resources for smallholder farmers Providing smallholder farmers with technical assistance, access to technology and connectivity, the best seeds, and crop insurance, will promote sustainable farming while also improving farmers’ livelihoods. Regenerative food systems and foodscapes must be attuned to local cultures, and economic and biophysical circumstances to produce food, on land and in water, in ways that actively restore habitats, protect biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 4. Educate consumers for healthier food choices Educating consumers is essential to supporting food decisions that are healthier and better for the planet, according to evidence-based science. For example, stakeholders should build awareness of the impact of the excessive consumption of animal-sourced foods, provide guidance regarding healthy portion sizes, and label food more clearly with regard to “sell by” and “use by” dates. 5. Promote government and public policies to advance food systems transformation Developing evidence-based scientific recommendations from the UNFSS to guide national and international action will be key to advance access to nutritious food for all, better livelihoods for farmers, and a healthy planet. 6. Take a broad view of innovation Innovation is not only new technology – it is knowledge sharing and combining traditional knowledge and technology to create enriched practices that better farmers and their livelihoods. Promoting what is working and disseminating it through extension and application will close gaps and make innovations accessible to the smallest farmer. Innovation can apply to farming practices, how we share information, and how specific innovations are adapted to work in local contexts. Read less

One of the Four Discussion Groups documented an area of divergence around perceptions of household consumption inequality. In discussing nutrition as the focus of food security in Liberia, participants in one group held divergent views on whether men's (HH head) household consumption is prioritized over women's household consumption in rural, remote areas - particularly poor households sharing meagre amounts of food. Some participants held the view that the consumption amounts for men are always higher - given the most nutritious foods available (eg: protein) rather than offering them to child... Read moreren or women in home to improve their nutrition outcomes. Other participants held the view that there is no discrepancy in household consumption and that men and women have access to the same amounts of food in the home as evidenced by weight gain in women. Read less

GOVERNMENT IS A STRONG AND DYNAMIC LEADER IN NUTRITION PROGRAMMING Actions that are urgently needed: 1. Government needs to review its overall nutrition strategy to ensure it captures the urgency 2. Establish an integrated, multi-sectoral strategic approach to nutrition, specifically inclusion of hygiene awareness. 3. Increased awareness raising for legislative officials to reinforce advocacy for action by ministries and agencies 4. Government action to incentivize importation of nutritious foods 5. Increased funding of nutrition-related interventions by Government to demonstrate commitment to... Read more nutrition. 6. Intensify nutrition and education awareness in school curriculums beginning in primary schools, through to university in order to effect behavior change. 7. Collaboratively develop standards to fortify locally produced staple products - especially rice and cassava 8. Establishment of a decentralized agency focused on nutrition to drive coordinated actions towards nutrition interventions 9. Intensify efforts to strengthen the value chain inputs for diversified local food crops - especially rural storage and processing facilities & farm to market access Who should take these actions: 1. The Executive Branch of government as the policy and implementing arm should drive the shift in urgency towards nutrition. Their action is needed to create the enabling environment and lead with accountability for partners to support their priorities and interventions. 2. The elected officials in the Legislature should increase their level of oversight and advocacy on nutrition through their roles in national budget allocation and approval. 3. International and local partners supporting the priorities of Government 4. Inclusion of other sector lead agencies collaborating with Ministries of Health and Agriculture as lead agencies on nutrition and food security. Ways in which progress could be assessed: 1. Increased national and agency budget allocations to direct nutrition-related interventions 2. Articulation of an integrated, multi-sectoral nutrition strategy 3. Established local food standards for food fortification and safety 4. Increased local production and processing of diversified food crops 5. Improved statistics on women and child malnutrition, anemia and stunting 6. Improved educational attainment Challenges that might be anticipated as actions are implemented 1. Competing policy and political priorities with limited available fiscal resources 2. Coordination amongst donors and implementing partners, as well as within government across ministries and agencies. 3. Implementing decentralized activities and coordination in view of existing budgetary constraints Read less

WOMEN AS CHAMPIONS OF HOUSEHOLD NUTRITION IN LIBERIA Actions that are urgently needed: 1. Perception change of cooking and household chores as a woman's duty vs providing nutritious meals in partnership with spouse for the improved health of the whole family. 2. Involve men at household and community level to understand the importance of nutrition, of the woman's role in providing nutritious food for children and family, and the value of nutrition for health outcomes. 3. Media engagement as part of a focused perception change awareness campaign to introduce notions of healthy, nutritious food ... Read moreavailable from existing farming and gardening. 4. Using women entrepreneurs to engage in dialogues with other women regarding roles in the home and the importance of nutritious food for family diet, provide positive reinforcement for modified norms of household roles, and serve as role models for women nutrition champions. 5. Enable men to be perception change agents given their more frequent/present role in policy decision-making spaces. 6. National government driven investment in locally produced foods 7. Promoting climate smart agriculture to increase resilience and yields of harvest and reduce the food production burden on women. 8. Establishment of a national agency to coordinate nutrition interventions. Who should take these actions: 1. Government should create an enabling environment to empower women in their roles as household nutrition champions 2. NGOs should increase awareness of the importance of women in changing nutrition outcomes in the home 3. Individual family members and community members should feel that nutrition is their individual responsibility for the outcomes of their young children and family members. 4. Male family members should be enlightened about the importance of burden food gathering and preparation on women and supporting her to provide improved nutrition for the family. 5. Universal acceptance of nutrition as a human right which should be championed by Government. Ways in which progress could be assessed: 1. Reduction in women and child malnutrition, anemia and underweight statistics 2. Increased local production and consumption of locally-produced food. 3. Increased land access, titles/rights for women 4. Women's involvement in household decision-making beyond domestic chores (eg. financial decisions) Challenges that might be anticipated as actions are implemented. 1. Difficulty with accepting perception change of women's roles from men, older women, community leaders and authorities. 2. Building a critical mass of men and women to drive behavior change around roles of women 3. Continued low enrollments for girls limits access to nutrition education and awareness and exposure to become nutrition household champions Read less

NUTRITION AS THE FOCUS OF FOOD SECURITY IN LIBERIA Views on actions that are urgently needed: 1. Enabling policy to guide public consumption towards more nutritious foods through behavior change 2. Behavior change communications for people in hard-to reach areas with increased awareness of nutrition for health outcomes and nutritious foods. 3. Re-imagine the role of transportation systems in the focus on the availability of nutritious foods in remote, rural areas. 4. Increased advocacy for nutrition focus from multiple sectors - ex: Agriculture, Food Security, Reproductive Health and WASH 5. I... Read morencreased advocacy and behavior change around redistributing burden of food production, processing and preparation on women - women's empowerment. Who should take these actions: 1. Government was identified as the lead to act in a way that demonstrates the urgency and prioritization of nutrition. Particular mention of the need for increased capacities for coordination of nutrition-focused efforts at the sub-national level. 2. Civil society organizations - local NGOs and community based organizations working with farmers in remote areas should increase advocacy around the importance of nutrition 3. International and Local NGOs supporting government on policy formulation should also take lead roles in advancing these actions. Ways in which progress could be assessed: 1. Progress on coordination can be addressed through all partners in nutrition having a decentralized shared policy framework and plan for nutrition interventions. 2. Reduction in costs of nutritious foods 3. Improved indices on hunger index studies, malnutrition rates and stunting. 4. Increased consumption of locally grown foods and produce - also requires tracking of annual production quantities 5. Reduced reliance on imported staple foods such as rice Challenges that might be anticipated as actions are implemented: 1. Continued rural to urban migration may further advance the current rate of agriculture labor leaving rural areas. 2. Slow pace of Government's fiscal decentralization to finance sub-national interventions. 3. Transportation difficulties in remote, rural areas to access communities for increased outreach to populations 4. Difficulty of farmers and agro-entrepreneurs to transport produce and moving nutritious food to markets 4. Limited availability of storage facilities for storing crops and produce at rural markets. 5. Differing perspectives on the role of women in household nutrition Read less

STUNTING REDUCED TO 20% IN LINE WITH THE PRO-POOR AGENDA FOR PROSPERITY AND DEVELOPMENT: Actions that are urgently needed: 1. Scale-up advocacy on exclusive breastfeeding for babies and importance of nutrition for nursing mothers. 2. Government increased spending on nutrition-related programs through community healthcare initiatives 3. Expanding availability of local seeds for household gardening as dietary supplement 4. Establish a multi-sectoral coordination structure at national and sub-national level to elevate the importance of nutrition 5. Increase advocacy within Government - including ... Read moreelected legislative officials 6. Pursue an integrated approach to advocacy, including linkages between WASH, women's empowerment and nutrition 7. Expand preventative measures against malnutrition and programs creating awareness on food fortification and micro-nutrients. 8. Increased accountability of Government for existing and subsequent commitments to nutrition Who should take these actions: 1. Government has the primary responsibility to fund nutrition programs and drive advocacy 2. International and local NGOs should align programming to complement Government's efforts in view of resource constraints. 3. Local elected officials (Legislature) have a responsibility to increase budget allocations in their fiscal oversight role. Ways in which progress could be assessed: 1. Reduction in malnutrition and stunting rates 2. Increase in first 1000 days of life indicators 3. Uptake in exclusive breastfeeding for up to 6 months 4. Improved Human Development Indices for Liberia Challenges that might be anticipated as actions are implemented. 1. Difficulty with behavior change on dietary and consumption habits for people living in extreme poverty with access to meagre finances 2. Financial constraints and limited fiscal envelope may lead to continued underfunding of nutrition interventions. 3. Limited ability to hold multiple government stakeholders and NGO partners accountable for inactions towards scaled up nutrition programming. Read less

1. Data and Evidence remains critical to assess progress against the Pro Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development and SDGs. 2. Must invest in a SMART Survey. 3. Need national & sub-national coordination structure for nutrition interventions (across sectors and partners) 4. A government-led multi-sectoral national strategy for nutrition - through a collaborative effort 5. Increased involvement of legislative actors in advocacy & budget allocations 6. Need to reduce domestic household burden on women and increase their economic empowerment 7. Increasing Government expenditure on target... Read moreed nutrition interventions 8. Importance of partners providing coordinated support towards Government's prioritized actions 9. Partners coordinate on advocacy for Government's consideration of policy priorities Read less

The dialogue's key focus was to (i) highlight the urgency for adequate and sustained investments in nutrition in Liberia in order to meet national development agenda targets outlined in the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development as well as the Sustainable Development Goals; and (ii) amplify the voices rural people living in poverty, especially women farmers and entrepreneurs working in remote areas, on this topic of nutrition and ensure their inclusion in the Global Dialogue Summit. (iii) ensure a multi-stakeholder & inclusive approach to consultations in Liberia ahead of the Globa... Read morel Summit Dialogue Read less

There were few areas of strong divergence, but a number of issues or tensions recurred regularly throughout the meeting: • Planetary health vs Population health This was a topic of strong divergence. Despite the rising levels of NCDs and malnutrition in all its forms, it was considered by some participants that too much focus is given to sustainable diets – producing more resilient crops and enough food (calories) and skewed towards addressing environmental concerns and climate change. Nutrition and the quality of diets must be more strongly recognised as an equal priority in discussions, ... Read morepolicies and actions about sustainable diets and addressing climate change. The alternative views expressed were that the agricultural sector is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and there is more urgency associated with this challenge and thus, is being addressing via mechanisms such as COP26 and the Paris agreement. • Dietary guidelines vs consumer behaviour Although it was agreed that there are some commonalities and differences in existing food based dietary guidelines (FBDG) between countries, they are designed as ‘one-size-fits-all’ despite different nutritional requirements across the lifecourse and the need to develop FBDG tailored to specific populations was clearly identified. Opposing views expressed were that as the majority of citizens do not follow these guidelines anyway, does it really matter? It needs to be acknowledged that there are many reasons behind consumer food choices: people know what the guidelines are but choose to ignore them; not everyone is interested or chooses foods based on health or environmental impacts; there other priorities or barriers, mainly affordability, accessibility and inequalities, but also culture; and social aspects and pleasure which are important for wellbeing. Food environments are currently skewed towards promoting unhealthy food choices and we must make it easier for people to make healthy choices so this becomes the normal practice. There are key roles for food technology/processing and the food industry sector to produce more affordable nutritious foods that people want to eat and for social and behavioural science to develop methodologies and technologies to enable consumer uptake • Livestock vs Plant This is a strong area of divergence. Opinions were expressed that the livestock industry, particularly red meat agriculture is heavily criticised for having negative impacts of the environment and health. There needs to be a shift between the negative perceptions towards unhealthy processed meats as distinguished from eating smaller amounts of good quality meats. Too much focus is also given to meat-based diets with less emphasis on the impact of dairy. The nutritional value of foods such as meat and dairy may outweigh GHG emission, particularly in countries where nutritional intake is relatively poor, or consumption of animal sourced food is low. There needs to be a more balanced approach with nutrition incorporated into an integrated index for human and planetary health. Research investment on livestock farming should focus on making it become more carbon neutral and produce more affordable, nutritious, high quality animal-based foods. Opposing views from participants were that increased production and consumption of plant-based foods is better for both planetary and population health. Although, it was noted that not all plant-based foods are ‘healthy’ depending on the method of cooking or processing and that some plant-only diets may have some unintended consequences for health • Animal-based vs Plant-based proteins There is currently an unbalanced focus on protein when in many countries the majority of citizens consume sufficient quantities of protein (although the quality may differ). It is important to encourage re-balancing of protein from animal- and plant-based sources for planetary health but also consider the changes to micronutrient content and bioavailability and the impact on health. It should also be noted that other macronutrients are important, for example, in the UK the consumption levels of fibre need to be improved. • Transparency vs Health by stealth There was discussion about whether improving the consumption of more nutritious foods & diets should be conducted in a transparent way by consumer information and education to encourage the uptake of healthier foods or to use ‘stealth’ to make the composition of ‘less healthy foods healthier via modifying food production & processing methods such as, gene editing technologies, breeding lines selection, biofortification & food fortification and the reformulation of foods to provide affordable priced products in order to reach the consumers who need it most. • Nutrition vs Taste Evidence suggests that taste, price and convenience tend to be greater determinants of food choice than health, resulting in increased intake of processed foods. Better education & reduced availability of heavily processed, nutrient poor foods could help overcome this. We also need to increase consumer understanding that not all plant-based food products are necessarily healthier, particularly those that are highly- processed foods. Also, when choosing alternatives to animal derived foods, protein content should not be only consideration, other nutrients that are present in animal derived foods also need to be considered • Yield Vs Nutrition Farmers are often focused on yield over nutritional value, incentives to produce more nutritious & environmentally friendly produce would be advantageous. Read less

10. Food System Vision A vital first step in tackling complex interdisciplinary challenges is the need to establish a vision of where we want to get to and what we want future food systems to look like. By gaining acceptance and agreement on common goals for a future food system, research and innovation can focus on areas that will have the greatest impact on achieving that vision. The importance of establishing a common goal was stressed by dialogue attendees using such methods as scenario modelling and foresight analysis. Once this is established, the appropriate metrics to measure the succe... Read moress of meeting this vision can be designed. Actions: • The commissioning of scenario modelling and foresight analysis to help frame common goals for a future food system • High-level commitments on agreeing what a future food system should look like • Agreed metrics on how to measure success of meeting this vision Success: • A shared understanding of the principles and goals of a future food system that progresses towards the SDGs Read less

9. Early Career Researcher training Alongside the need to support interdisciplinary research in tackling food systems challenges, it is critical to support capacity building and early career researchers. There is a need to build a resilient, sustainable research and innovation community with more opportunities for staff mobility between institutes and disciplines, and training for systems thinking and approaches. Large funding programmes can favour established researchers and research groups and should consider an element of future-proofing the sector. Actions: • Sandpit and network style ev... Read moreents for ECRs to discuss food system challenges • Training packages or programmes on systems thinking and systems approaches for ECRs • Greater opportunities for staff mobility between institutes and disciplines Success: • A better connected, interdisciplinary community of early career scientists and innovators building capacity and capability in food systems science. Read less

8. Global Averages There is a need to move away from using global averages when identifying the challenges facing food systems around the world. This approach can miss regional and local concerns which are dependent on regional and local context and can be lost when looking at international and even national data. Applying a one-size-fits-all approach can lead to resentment in areas where this is not appropriate and the building up of mistrust of decision makers. Actions: • Less use of global averages when framing food systems challenges across different contexts • Increased support for re... Read moresearch and innovation that focusses on local and regional challenges Success: • A better appreciation of local and regional challenges with interventions tailored to each specific context Read less

7. Co-creation and co-design of research • Research and innovation that enables us to sustainably deliver affordable, acceptable and nutritious meals every day for everyone is a massive challenge and a range of academic disciplines, the private sectors and other sectors must to come together to deliver this. • It is important nutritionists are involved the co-creation/co-design of research projects that are focussed on food • Stakeholders and end-users of research such as industry, farmers, consumers and policymakers must be involved in the co-creation/co-design of research projects and ... Read moretraining to ensure viable products, uptake and impact of the research. For example, co-designing research with farmers who would be growing the new varieties of nutritionally dense food/crops, because if it takes extra efforts for farmers to grow those varieties without much return on investment then the whole research stays at laboratory level. Just as we have patient participation representatives in the design of human studies, we must involve consumers in food research, there is no point producing food products that consumers will not purchase or eat. This will provide some indication of the economic sustainability of interventions and the research impact in the medium to long-term (e.g. Environmental taxes, acceleration the breeding to marketing cycle) • The co-design of research with stakeholders, end users and civil society has been central in the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems for Healthy People and a Healthy Environment Programme which has received positive feedback in terms of balancing quality of research with impact focushttps://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/research/foodsystems-spf/ • It is also important to have more active engagement (monitoring/support) during projects and follow-up after completion to help with the dissemination of findings and deliver impact. This has been very successful in the UKRI-BBSRC supported Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC) which was first established in 2008 to support pre-competitive research that investigates the link between diet and health. The research has enabled the food and drink industry to develop products that deliver enhanced health benefits for consumers. https://bbsrc.ukri.org/innovation/sharing-challenges/drinc/ Actions: • UN to encourage research projects and programmes to be co-created and co-designed by a range of academic disciplines and with a wide range of stakeholders and end users of research such as industry, farmers, consumers and policymakers to ensure greater outcomes, uptake and impact of the research Success: • co-designing research and training across disciplines and stakeholders will deliver coherent evidence to enable concerted action from policy, business and civil society. Read less

6. Consumer behaviour • There is distinct gap between knowledge and practice – we know broadly what we should be eating, but how do we get there? The key challenge is how to use our knowledge to influence actual diet across diverse communities to achieve a win-win for human and planetary health. • the 'human' aspect of diets and eating go beyond nutrients. Not everyone is interested in or chooses foods based on health or the environment. They have other priorities of which the major is barrier is affordability of food as well as other influences such as pleasure, cultural and social aspe... Read morects which are more important and effect wellbeing. Decades of research have shown that education alone does not change diets and making information about healthy diets available to people is a very partial solution • Food environments are currently skewed towards promoting unhealthy food choices (advertising, pricing etc) and we need to make it easier for people to make healthy choices so this becomes the normal practice. However, this needs to be balanced as food is also an economic commodity so we need to factor in economics, livelihoods and inequality of access as a driver and impact factor. This could be addressed by integrating data methodologies including qualitative data, modelling and scenario development • We need to help people to better understand what they are eating and to develop interdisciplinary approaches, embedding social/behavioural science (e.g. marketing psychology), to enable this. Methodologies and technologies, such as objective feedback and coaching are crucial, but there is an urgent need to develop better, more objective dietary assessment methods to improve the self-reporting of diet. Currently it is very difficult to capture misreporting (under- and over-reporting of dietary/food intake) • We need robust evidence to make a real difference to diet and health and must develop clear metrics to derive a sustainability index that includes the nutritional quality of food at its center. There are lots of trade-offs to consider such as, food safety (allergenicity), cleanness of label, socio-economics and finding a way between these needs in an environmentally balanced way which is highly complex, particularly considering the different agricultural/food production methods including local production and self-sufficiency • Food technology: interventions at food processing, manufacture and distribution level is key to providing nutritious and affordable food for all. As increased food production alone does not always ensure affordability, regulatory interventions to make nutritious foods affordable are crucial. Actions: • Increased investment in food technology (food processing, manufacture and distribution level) is key to closing the gap in food affordability and providing a culturally acceptable and nutritious diet for all • Integration of data methodologies including qualitative data, modelling and scenario development relating food environments, economics, livelihoods and inequality of access to influence consumer behaviour/food choice • Integrating economic and social science in food systems research to help interventions take account of behaviour and equity of access Success: • A better integrated food systems research community with an appreciation of the importance of economic and social implications of transforming food production and nutritional quality of diets Read less

5. Research & Innovation – the role of technology • While there is a very strong focus on taking a systems or interdisciplinary research approach to address global challenges, it is important that we do not lose sight of the reductionist approaches to challenges where there can be some big wins, for example widening the gene pool of our cultivated wheat varieties • Innovation can take a considerably long time to convert an idea into a product (which is increasingly important to funders and policymakers) and it has been reported that on average, in the agricultural sector the time sca... Read morele is approx. 30 years. Therefore, to deliver the rapid change requested by the UNFSS timeline, we should focus on innovations already in progress along this pathway, improve or more effectively use the ones we currently have • The availability of tools, technology and data can advance a more comprehensive and systems-wide research approach, such as - GM and gene editing techniques which have the potential to deliver quick results with a large impact such as increasing the resilience and nutritional value of crops, fruit and vegetables and livestock - Using AI, modelling, data integration and platforms, digital twin technology to capture, increase understanding and manage the complexity of, food chain supply and high throughput testing systems to determine nutrient compositions and status • The development and translation of technologies needs to be tensioned against the needs and capabilities of smallholder farmers in the developing world (who make up a significant proportion of agriculture). A better understanding of rural issues and more support for rural infrastructure with low-tech solutions should be factored in Actions: • UN to encourage changes to local and National policies, particularly those surrounding the use of GM/GE • Reduce the barriers to getting nutritious crops with improved functionality onto commercial lists and accelerating the breeding to marketing cycle • AI, modelling and digital twins to capture and manage the complexity that currently exists in the food system (e.g. environmental issues, human health, behaviour and inequalities). This will enable us to develop a better understanding of the divergences and trade-offs • Link food, health, and personalised food service (i.e., increasing use of online food shopping, food delivery services) using big data • Develop an integrated index for human and planetary health for monitoring purposes • Develop accurate & robust biomarkers (biomes) to allow the evaluation and monitoring of nutritional status and enabling early interventions to improve human health. These need to be simple to collect easily at scale • develop high throughput, cost-effective tests to determine and subsequently improve nutrient compositions and nutritional profiles for crop breeding lines/animal breeds, harvested products, raw materials, processing & storage, food formulation and cooking/shelf life Success: • Widespread use of tools and technologies to aid understanding of the nutrient quality of food once consumed and the impact this has on health outcomes • Increased support for rural smallholder famers with affordable technological solutions to relevant issues Read less

4. Food loss/waste • The post-harvest stage is often over-looked, but this is a key component of the food system. A reduction of food and nutrient loss during the post-harvest and processing phases is essential. Food loss often occurs at entry into the processing system. For example, large proportions of grain gets rejected, of which some passes into livestock feed and rejection levels increase with severe weather events. Actions: • Invest in stable post-harvest processes, such as low-cost cool supply and storage chains, to provide economic security to farmers by preventing spoilage and de... Read moregradation, developed with the whole system and energy efficiency in mind. • develop better methods of processing foods to reduce nutrient loss Success: • improvements in reducing food lost and waste at production/post-harvest stage can be a quick win Read less

3. Improving the nutrition quality of food in a changing environment • Animal based foods provide many nutrients important for human nutrition which are not found in plant-based foods or the plant form cannot be digested or absorbed as efficiently by humans. However, current pressures from animal welfare policies in the UK are making it harder to farm livestock in an environmentally friendly way. • Collaborations between plant and clinical scientists would remove the bottleneck between enhancing nutrition in plant studies and human trials by enabling preparatory work to improve understandi... Read moreng of/ remove barriers in project design, translation and impact • Stronger collaborations between industry and researchers are needed to improve nutritional profiles across all food groups and not just among niche products with perceived higher economic value, e.g. higher vitamin D in eggs with no price increase for consumer • Currently industry do not use gold standard accredited tests for nutrition screening as they are too expensive and time-consuming. High-throughput, cost-effective assays to determine nutrient composition need to be developed and could be used to improve labelling to inform the consumer about what they are eating • Also need simplified, but accurate methods to measure bioavailability and absorption of nutrients in humans in real life environments. • Bioavailability: There are many gaps in our understanding of nutrient bioaccessibility and bioavailability and the disconnect with the nutrient composition of food(s). Bioavailability is difficult to measure and is affected by meal composition and nutritional status/physiological requirements of the consumer, e.g. phytochemicals (phytates) and phenolic compounds (tannins) can bind important micronutrients such as Iron, Calcium and Zinc and make them unavailable to be absorbed by our intestinal cells. A better understanding of what happens to nutrients along the food chain from soil to production to processing to consumer is needed Actions: • Cross-collaboration across the different disciplines and sectors (agricultural, environmental, clinical and social sciences, nutritionists, livestock & crop farmers, industry, investors & retailors) is needed to advance the area – all whilst bearing the consumer in mind. • Research on livestock farming should focus on making it become more carbon neutral and produce more affordable, nutritious, high quality animal-based foods and reduce population consumption of more processed foods, particularly those high in saturated fat, sugar and/or salt. • The UN should encourage international legislation to focus the marketing of processed foods on nutritional quality (both composition and bioavailability of nutrients) • develop high throughput, cost-effective tests to determine and subsequently improve nutrient compositions and nutritional profiles for crop breeding lines/animal breeds, harvested products, raw materials, processing & storage, food formulation and cooking/shelf life • develop a real understanding of bioavailability of essential nutrients (e.g minerals) from soil to consumer and at the food level with human studies to progress and eventually predict the nutritional value of foods once consumed. Success: • Better cross-disciplinary work across all stakeholders and different countries to produce high impact work. • high-throughput nutritional screening assays for industry • Better food labelling • Improved nutrient flow and reduced nutrient loss along the food chain • processing to maximise the use of existing nutrients from a range of sources to produce affordable, healthy processed foods with a balanced nutritional profile which also address sustainability/waste issues Read less

2. Sustainable healthy diets Nutrition and the quality of diets need to be more strongly recognised in the discussions, policies and actions about sustainable diets and addressing climate change. There are large knowledge gaps on the impact of what we eat on livelihoods, environment, ecosystems etc. We need a broader understanding of the connections between the different parts of the whole system and the impact on the planet. At present, much of the evidence is focused on GHG emissions whereas wider aspects such as cost, water usage, land use, cultural acceptability are being overlooked. What ... Read morewill the impact of a move toward more plant-based diets be on the food system and on achieving nutrient requirements? Due to COVID, individuals have become more aware of food systems and the concerns of the environmental impacts on the planet. A more balanced approach is required, e.g. the impacts of seeds and plant-based diets, such as pulses, should take into account the processing and energy taken to turn them into ingredients that people want to eat. The nutritional value of foods such as meat and dairy may outweigh GHG emission, particularly in countries where nutritional intake is relatively poor, or consumption of animal sourced food is low. We need ensure that nutrition and locally relevant data are included when considering sustainable diets and environmental impact. Actions: • Establish a clear challenge about how food systems might meet global and local needs in terms of nutrition/health and the environment. No one size fits all and there will be different challenges in HIC & LMIC countries. • More work is needed on the balance between nutrition and the environmental impacts of production and supply chains, for example, the metric ‘food miles’ does not currently take into consideration the impact of farm worker migration, supporting local economies (e.g. food exports), and better gender equality in LMICs, compared to the sustainability of food imports. • Integrated index: Incorporate nutritional quality into lifecycle analysis. Adopting this approach across different nutrients will give a sounder basis for decision-making. It will also need to include other dimensions such as water, SES. Provide accessible information for consumers, based on robust evidence, about the environmental impacts of their food choices • Additional research is required to look at the balance between the point at which the higher environmental footprint of some nutrient-dense foods is offset by their higher nutritional value • Build on available technology and the good practical research being undertaken in processing to reduce impact on planetary health (energy & water usage) to add value quickly and potentially make some traditionally negative planet health foods kinder to the environment • Develop the use of accurate & robust biomarkers (biomes) to allow the evaluation and monitoring of nutritional status and enabling early interventions to improve health. These need to be simple to collect easily at scale. • Grow more food in urban areas in an environmentally friendly way to reduce supply chains and increase the accessibility and affordability of seasonally produced and fresh food to individuals who need it most. This will also assist in reducing food miles. Success: • Good food system (whole chain) data production and analyses – using data better to give a clearer understanding of situation and sound basis for routes forward • An integrated index for human and planetary health informed by robust evidence base is developed and established • Established toolbox of nutritional and health biomarkers for use at individual and population level • Advances in technology research and building on current processing research for quick wins Read less