Tēnā koutou katoa,

The United Nations Food Systems Summit (the Summit) will take place during the meeting of the UN General Assembly in September 2021 in New York.  In the leadup to the Summit, a series of dialogues are being hosted by governments and independent groups. A key focus of the dialogues is to build momentum and awareness of food system issues up to and beyond the Summit.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is hosting National Dialogues for the New Zealand Government. The events will be independently facilitated by Emily King, a food systems expert.

The dialogues aim to bring together food system stakeholders and will contribute to a national conversation on New Zealand’s priorities for our food system. They are a forum to discuss the challenges and opportunities of New Zealand’s context and consider what the Summit could achieve both domestically and for the global food system. The dialogues aim to welcome a diverse range of perspectives and knowledge on food systems to inform the national and international discussion.

The dialogues will focus on sustainable production, reducing food loss and waste, and ensuring wellbeing from food for all New Zealanders.

Key topics affecting our food system will be discussed in breakout discussions consisting of 8-10 people per group. The outcomes of our discussion will contribute to New Zealand’s domestic work on food systems and will provide information to contribute to our international position on food systems.

Given the format of the dialogues there is limited space and attendance is limited to 70 participants per dialogue, to enable meaningful discussions for all participants. For each organisation, please ensure that there is no more than one participant represented at the dialogues.

The dialogues have been designed to support diverse participation and to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and integrate te ao Māori. The topics to be discussed (one per breakout room) consist of the following themes:

• Sustainable blue production systems: transforming fisheries and aquaculture to achieve environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
• Sustainable production systems on land: transforming farming and growing to achieve environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
• Wellbeing from food for all New Zealanders: nutritional health for everyone; people are enabled to express their identity, choose their preferences and build connections through food; and everyone can access and afford healthy food.
• Food loss and waste: Businesses and consumers reduce food waste.

Registration details:

The online event is on Zoom, free, and is invite only due to limited capacity with the workshop format. The in-person event is at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, is also free and invite only.

Online via Zoom:

Dialogue 2 – Zoom: Friday 4^th June 9:30am-12:30pm

Te papa event:

Dialogue – in-person: Friday 11^th June 9:30-12:30pm at Te Papa, Wellington.

We encourage you to attend either an online dialogue or the in-person event in Wellington depending on your preference and availability.

Places are limited so please get in early as the dialogues will fill up fast.

Ngā mihi nui,

UNFSS New Zealand National Dialogues team