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1. Capacity for gender-inclusive private sector engagement i. Access to proven technologies will help improve food production and food security, and job and wealth creation for women and youth across the value chains. ii. Promotion of gender-sensitive technology that meet women’s needs, labor-saving and very simple to operate by non-educated youth. iii. Build the capacity of women and youth for efficient use of the technology. This can be across the incubation centres or other ways of mechanism for capacity building. iv. Capacity building is needed for the private sector to address the speci... Lire la suitefic needs of women and youth in terms of technologies and solutions that fit their needs and other productive resources to increase sustainable agribusiness development. v. Build technical skills and capacity of women researchers and provide mentorship to women who tend to be grossly underrepresented in research leadership on the continent 2. Building up policy support for gender-responsive investment i. Research must aim to solve the market's need and consider women’ needs. It must also be targeted at developing products that meet the needs of women who use agricultural services. ii. Policy programmes and agricultural development strategies must include and prioritize gender-specific needs of men and women. iii. Understand the environment to develop policies that cover the different cultures of the people they’ll serve towards ensuring collective uptake of policies and participation of all actors. iv. Regional Economic Communities in Africa must leverage their position as regional coordinators to mobilize support for gender-response policies in member states. v. Member states need to push for a policy that has been made to address critical issues for women and youth. Also, COMESA and other RECs have a solid role to play in lobbying, advocating and influence investments and gender-responsive products 3. Women and youth empowerment i. Empowering women through access to finance and markets while accelerating job creation for women through skills enhancement and increase in women’s access to social services through infrastructural development. ii. Provides quality information for women to scale up modern agriculture practices and enhance access to farm inputs. iii. Provides youth with the complete ecosystem of the value chain in ideation, acceleration, financing, coaching, and mentorships. iv. Improve gender equality and women's empowerment as pathway to get closer to food and nutrition security. v. Strengthen advocacy towards ensuring that women’s livelihoods are sustained and their working conditions are improved and not exploited 4. Data and evidence i. Provide one-stop-shop for gender indicators and sex-disaggregated data across the food systems. ii. Ensure that young people have access to data and accurate data to make a precise decision and scale up their business across the continent. 5. Innovation i. Facilitation and the application of science, technology and innovation in African agriculture while tightening the loop between technology generation, adoption, refinement, use of technologies and its commercialization. ii. Deploy innovative solutions to addressing critical issues on issues on climate change, cultural, political and economic environment, and agricultural systems in particular iii. Develop technologies with the users, the people who will use them because it ensures that they are going to address the needs and priorities of the users. Lire moins

Some divergence areas were highlighted during the dialogue as listed below: o In the food systems approach, technology cannot be looked at in isolation. It is not just about putting technology on a farm, but also ensuring that the market systems is working such that if farmers invest in the technology, they can make money out of their investment. o Across countries, mainly agriculture, forestry, natural resource management, climate change, trade policies, and investment do not always include or provide for gender equality and women’s empowerment. In many cases, efforts for women’s empowerm... Lire la suiteent has been limited to initiatives that sometimes fall outside of the policy framework. o When talking about women in agriculture or women in food systems, stakeholders should go back to the roles women play in the sector. Thus, the need to reframe the conversation to reflect how our food and agricultural systems contribute to achieving empowerment and justice. o Agricultural value chains start at the research stage and embed that gender lens at the beginning-end of the value chains is critical. o Governance remains a key part/output for gender-responsive agricultural research. o Gender-responsive policies should not only be limited to production but cutting across the entire agricultural value chains including agri-finance, agro-processing, access to inputs and research. o The pandemic had devastated so much with the countries, but it also presented a tremendous opportunity to show that these adaptations are possible. That, it is possible for people to work from home and be productive. o Recognize that gender mainstreaming is about the empowerment of women and the building of individuals, organizational, and institutional capacities to mainstream gender. o Most agricultural policies mainly focus on the production, processing, and marketing aspects of the value chains. In nearly all cases, these policies do not look at matters on relations of production. o Examine the involvement of the private sector because most are looking at profit-making as their primary interest. Hence, the need for a balanced perspective to understand why the private sector wants to advocate and help mainstream issues of gender. Lire moins

The dialogue focused on an exploration of private sector investment in gender-responsive food system in Africa. It was noted that despite important initiatives advocating for gender equality for African agriculture development, there is still an increasing demand in the continent to ensure greater visibility and productivity for women who are central to food production and food security on the continent. On the topic of equal access – There is ample evidence suggesting that there is substantial difference in women and men access, use of financial services and capital. Women, however, still l... Lire la suiteack savings, collateral to start new businesses and grow existing ones. Most often, social, and institutional support systems do not protect farmers, particularly women farmers against lost and shocks. Discussions on capacity development within the sector, women in Africa largely lack essential business skill, particularly rural women. There are still gender differentiator social capital in terms of access to the network and social interaction that promotes business for both women and men, especially in the rural areas. The institutional framework for promoting private sector investment across Africa, are still skewed in favor of foreign direct investment, and still not targeted at indigenous growth. Thus, the institutional framework is still relatively weak or lacking in different countries. While there are gross variations across countries in Africa, many institutions are still not investing adequately in gender-inclusive strategies and actions. For example, growth is still disintegrated, disjointed across the value chains development (production, processing, distribution, or consumption). Most private sector development investment and service providers still advocate in the agricultural sector, demonstrating a lack of gender competencies. Gender-specific needs of men and women, therefore, need to be prioritized. Policy programmes and agricultural development strategies must include their interest and intersections with other identity actors. On the other hand, the dialogue recognized that agricultural value chains begin at the research stage and must begin by supporting the ability of researchers to lead and develop gender-responsive innovations. Agricultural value chains start at the research stage and embed the gender lens at the beginning-end of the value chains. Evidence has confirmed that gender-responsive research is more efficient, more inclusive, better targeted, and more relevant innovations with higher adoption rates. Most important are the ongoing efforts by AWARD, to ensure that women are conducting research and are also empowered to deliver the very best for the continent. AWARD has therefore developed a model that tracks what empowerment looks like, and some of the elements measured are power from within, power to do, power over resources – the power to be able to attract funding, for example into their research institutions, power to collaborate – that’s power with, and most importantly, the power to empower others. The dialogue therefore embodied an open collaboration in building science skills, synergy, expanding networks, growing institutional capacity, advancing women leadership in Agricultural research, advancing policy for inclusive agricultural research and collaborative training. Lire moins

The dialogue came up with five main key finding/recommendations that need to be implemented to enhance the Africa food system including Getting the narratives right on the priorities and incentives The major issues are related to policy, governance, and investment. According to FAO’s Agriculture Orientation Index for Government Expenditure, between 2001 and 2018, SSA has fared the worst when it comes to allocation of public investment to agriculture – it revolves around 3.3% without showing notable improvement over the period. This is notwithstanding the CAADP’s commitment to allocate at... Lire la suite least 10% of the national budgets to agriculture. The underinvestment in STI shows that policymakers are not convinced about the returns (economic, strategic, and political) accruing from investment in food and agriculture versus other sectors. The fact that Africans can afford to pay USD 50 billion in importing food shows that the resources exist. What is lacking is the political will to invest in the systems that support national food systems to make them more self-sufficient in food. This is also a reflection of weaknesses in the governance of food and agriculture. Exploring what is emerging and how it can be considered as an opportunity Action track 3 calls for improvement in the sustainability of agri-food systems, in terms of protecting, managing, and restoring ecosystems to “produce more from less”. Clearly, it does not bode well for Africa to continue the practice of deforestation to expand agricultural land. A full contribution of the linkages of climate change in agriculture to food systems, markets and energy should also be explored. Naturally, nature-positive solutions are context-specific and based on bottom-up and territorial processes, and can be strengthened by science, technology, and innovation as well as by enabling policy environments and improved governance systems. Africa can have a comparative advantage and make a significant contribution in this regard. Practically, supporting farmers to differentiate products and develop means of accessing markets will not only boost agroecological production patterns but also create demand for sustainable production systems. Bridging the missing middle point between the global-scale scientific options and the local and national level capacities to innovate and share Agricultural commodities produced under different contexts and regimes meet at the local marketplaces – often resulting in displacements of less-competitive products and systems. In the face of large and rising food imports, African local products are often on the displacement side of the equation. This is attributed to the fragmentation and inefficiencies in the “missing middle” that increase the production and marketing costs of African food products. Bridging the missing middle entails building capacities for innovation from the bottom up. Women constitute a large part of food production, thus supporting the self-organized groups with structural assets can increase women’s participation in decision-making. Embracing a systems approach and catalyzing non-State Actors (private sector, farmers, NGOs) Improving a food system necessarily calls for a systems approach which in turn entails devising an institutional mechanism for the relevant actors to work systemically. Concerning AR4D, Innovation platforms that bring together stakeholders with a common interest to leverage skills, research technologies, competencies, markets, financing, social capital, and other resources are critical for economies of scale in the deployment of technologies and innovations. Adopting foresight methodologies will also contribute to valorization of strategic products such as cocoa, cashew nuts among others while supporting financiers in developing credit-friendly products for the producers. Market-driven approaches should be promoted and strengthened, given that they can serve as reinforcement of agroecological production patterns. Creating an enabling policy environment for Raising the Productivity of Africa’s Food Systems Governments and their higher-level structures at the regional and continental level (i.e. RECs and the AUC) should take responsibility for directing this transformation and provide opportunities for closer engagement with all actors in the food system. The policy environment is the most critical factor that will underpin the continent’s transform. The policy environment should assure that activities and services across the entire spectrum of the food system function to accelerate progress to the achievement of SDG 2 (zero hunger). Lire moins

Five (5) main topics were discussed during the dialogue regarding actions that need to be taken urgently to turn around and enhance the food system of Africa. The topics which ranged from investment to youth and gender include Increasing Investment in AR4D in Africa; Building appropriate capacities in terms of infrastructure, equipment, and human (experts); Building and strengthening solidarity and collective actions through partnerships; Enhancing capacities of farmers and consumers to contribute to AR4D; and Harnessing the potential of the youth equitably and gainfully participate in AR4D. T... Lire la suitehe discussions on the first topic yielded recommendations including strengthened advocacy through the preparation and presentation to policy makers evidence on returns to investment in research and innovation. Also, getting beneficiaries and users of AR4D products to contribute towards research and innovation was recommended, and forging a stronger enforcement of agreed upon targets as well as providing incentives for private sector to invest in AR4D were further recommended during the discussion. Participants recommended that in order to build capacities appropriate for AR4D, there is the need to strengthen the capacities of farmers and SMEs to profitably adopt technologies, strengthen the capacities of African institutions to generate new knowledge and technologies and adapt those generated from elsewhere, and the strengthen the institutional and physical infrastructure for scaling up innovations in the food system. Devoting greater attention to regional approaches to AR4D through regional programmes and strengthening regional institutions for research, extension, education, farmers, youth, Agribusiness, Policy were found o be some of the approaches that need to be used to build and strengthen solidarity and collective actions through partnership. The discussion on the need to harness the potential of the youth to participate in AR4D recommended the shared responsibility and the need to invest in capacity development and business incubation for the youth in agriculture and food. Also, the urgent need to formulate and implement affirmative actions for youth in relation to access to knowledge, land, financial services, green jobs, and markets was highly recommended to be looked at in Africa’s quest to harness the potential of its youth to participate in AR4D. Lire moins

Participants discussed the various means and approaches to enhance the food system in Africa during a breakout session. The breakout session was made up of groups including Youth and gender actors; Farmers, private sector, and other non-state actors; Research, extension, and education actors; and Policy makers and investors. The views were collated in a form of a poll and results collated as representation of the views expressed by participants in those groups. Though views expressed in the various groups were generally convergence, there were few divergence views that are worth mentioning. Po... Lire la suitelicy makers and investors; and the Youth and gender actors had divergence views on how to Increase public investment in AR4D. while the policy makers highly recommended increased incentives for the private sector to invest in AR4D, the Youth and Gender group recommended stronger enforcement of agreed-upon targets as the means to increase investment in AR4D. Also, the youth/gender group and the farmers group had divergence view on how to harness the potentials of the youth to participate in AR4D equitably and gainfully. Whiles the youth/gender group recommended increased investment in capacity development and business incubation for the youth in agriculture and food, the farmer group recommended the formulation and implementation of affirmative actions for youth in relation to access to knowledge, land, financial services, green jobs, and markets as the approach to achieve the objective. Lire moins

The discussion on the Africa food system centered on the main challenges and concrete steps that need to be taken by Africa countries to improve the continent’s food system. As far as Action Track 1 is concerned, participants identified that productivity levels for both crops and livestock are at lowest levels compounded by high post-harvest losses (about 14%) and hence more than 237 million Africans suffer from chronic malnutrition and high incidence of foodborne illnesses leading to over 130,000 deaths and 91 million acute illnesses. The challenges related to Action Track 2 were identified... Lire la suite as poor diets being the leading global health risk and accounting for 11 million premature deaths globally, and its irreversible effects of child undernutrition. Also, in Africa, 33% of adults are overweight, with a further 11% tending towards obesity. Furthermore, levels of diet-related non-communicable diseases are rising because of rapid urbanization, and rapidly changing food systems. Diets have become the leading contributor to global environmental degradation, affecting land, water, biodiversity, climate, and air quality. With respect to Action Track 3, participants noted that, agriculture uses 34% of all land on the planet, withdraws 70% of fresh water, and is responsible for 68% of total biodiversity loss (70% on land and 50% in freshwater). Also, growth in production is mainly achieved through the expansion of the cultivated area which resulted in the conversion of 12 million ha of forests to cropland. Beside these challenges, Africa identified as the most vulnerable to climate change despite its marginal (2-3%) contribution to the emission of greenhouse gasses. Socio-cultural drivers underpinning inequalities among and within African societies and structural barriers for several groups, particularly women and youth, including land rights, access to financial services, among others were identified as the main issues confronting Action Track 4. The main challenges that were identified to militate against Action Track 5 in Africa include the recurrent crises and stresses that leave Africans to struggle to recover and inability to improve well-being. Similarly, the likelihood for Africa food systems to face complex challenges to deliver sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for all in the next decade and the Covid-19 pandemic is delivering new severe shocks to food systems, impacting demand and supply potentially leaving an additional 132 million people undernourished worldwide. Minimal changes in technology uptake, productivity, climate protection, post-harvest storage, processing, and marketing innovation are found to be the main challenge to Action Track 6 in Africa. Based on these challenges, the following recommendations were made by participants in the collective effort to enhance the Africa food system towards the achievement of the SDGs, most importantly, SDG 2. 1. Increase public investment. 2. Build appropriate capacity (infrastructure, equipment, and expertise) at local level 3. Build and strengthen solidarity and collective actions through partnerships 4. Enhance the capacity of farmers and consumers to contribute to research and innovation, and to policy formulation 5. Harness the potential of the youth, women, and persons with disability to participate in the food system equitably and gainfully. 6. Create a regional pool for financial resources to be accessed by institutions and governments 7. Co-creation of technologies and innovations with farmers. Lire moins

The dialogue focused on a comprehensive exploration of the Africa food system. From 2016 to 2018, Africa imported about 85% of its food from outside the continent. The Challenge for Africa to feed itself and become a major food supplier for the world is compounded by the need to produce healthier, safer, and more nutritious food on less land, using less water and chemicals, and producing less waste and less greenhouse gases. The demands explain why Africa resolved to develop a Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa with a vision aptly stated as: “By 2030 Africa is food secure, a global sci... Lire la suiteentific player, and the world’s breadbasket”. The structural inefficiencies of Africa’s agri-food systems, however, arguably emanate from the fractured dual economy. Most of the rural agrarian population small family farms (SFFs) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) largely disconnected from supplying the manufacturing-industrial part of the economy. While SFFs account for the largest proportion of the domestic food market, that market is almost entirely reliant on artisanal processing, whose market is separate market from the manufactured goods and services market. As such, poverty continues as the main cause of hunger. Apart from hunger and malnutrition, extreme poverty in Africa has increased from 413 million in 2015 to 437 million in 2019 (5.8%). Forecasts suggest that without significant shifts in policy, extreme poverty will still be in the double digits in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. The source of agricultural growth in Africa has largely been through expansion of the cultivated area at the expense of forests, grasslands, and other uses, rather than from increased productivity. A recent study by FAO on land use changes between 2000 and 2018 indicates that about 12 million hectares of forests were cleared and converted to cropland, constituting about 58% of the cleared forest areas. In addition, close to 11 million hectares of grassland was converted to cropland, constituting about 46% of the cleared grasslands giving way to cropland. This is not sustainable! Post-harvest losses in Africa are estimated to be about 14%, one of the largest in a context of low production overall. Water use efficiency has been the lowest, showing only marginal improvement overtime – and this with comparatively lower water stress levels. Also, according to FAOs Agriculture Orientation Index for Government Expenditure between 2001 and 2018, Sub-Saharan Africa has fared the worst when it comes to allocation of public investment to agriculture – it revolves around 0.2 without showing notable improvement over the period. This is notwithstanding the CAADP commitment to allocate at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture. No wonder that Africa is a net importer of food, despite the huge potential. On the positive side, the potentials for increased productivity and opportunities for agri-food transformation are quite enormous. For example, according to some estimates, Africa could be two-three times more productive if it gets its agri-food systems in order, which means getting priorities right in terms of policy, governance, and investment. AfDB estimates that the value of annual agricultural output would increase from US$ 280 billion to as much as US$ 1 trillion by the year 2030. This potential in embodied in the current transformations taking place to include: positive food demand growth from the urbanization process; diet diversification; food supply chain transformation already emerging; factor market changes happening that promote economic converge Lire moins

Sustainable food systems incorporate an understanding of transformation and linked to the aspirations of the 2030 Agenda. The game-changing options for agri-food systems transformation were identified and discussed as follows. Accelerating the integration of SSFs and SMEs into industrial food system processes: that penetrate the mainstream markets, transforming the agri-food system from the “old economy” based on artisanal technologies to “new economy”. Africa’s unorthodox structural transformation is also such that there is rapid urbanisation with no manufacturing jobs in the cities... Lire la suite. A deeper analysis places the agri-food system at the centre of orthodox structural transformation that pulls in the majority of SFFs and SMEs into industrial processes of mass production, mass processing, and mass consumption of food products and services by a growing rural middle class and bulging urban population. In many regions outside of Africa, agriculture is increasingly organized more like manufacturing – facilitated through technological advances to manipulate and control the production process and its ecosystems. Agricultural commodities produced under different contexts and regimes meet at the local market places – often resulting in displacements of less-competitive products and systems. In the face of large and rising food imports, African local products are often on the displacement side of the equation. Aggregation and agrologists for SFFs and SMEs: Bridging the gaps between supply and demand through aggregation systems. A good example is the aggregator model developed by Africa Harvest and deployed along the Sorghum value chain in Kenya, and parts of Tanzania, which has fast tracked the commercialization of Sorghum production among smallholder producers in arid and semi-arid areas of the country, working with a large off taker in the malting industry. The role of private sector players, especially that of end-users/processors is pivotal in this drive through Africa’s rapid urbanisation will also be converted to an innovative advantage given that the urban population already consumes more than 50% of the food although they are less than 50% of the population. This will be achieved through aggregation and agro-logistical innovations that will see SSFs and SMEs achieve economies of scale and dominate both rural and urban the food systems’ value chains, especially in industrial processes.provision of sustainable local off-take SMES & other markets. Inter- and Intra-Regional Food Trade: Free Trade Agreement would expand intra-regional trade in agri-food products by 20 to 30 percent by 2040, with particular gains in sugar, fruits and vegetable, nuts, beverages and dairy products. A handful of African countries account for the massive US$ 35-40 billion food importation bill. To reverse this trend, there is need for enabling monetary and fiscal polies, trade regulations, as well as institutional and technological innovations that will catalyse infrastructural development, as well as aggressive facilitation of inter- and intra-regional trade. The top priority of AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) being food transfers from the majority African countries with a positive food balance sheet to the deficit ones. Workforce reconfiguration: Without significant investment in improving human capacity and infrastructure for agricultural research, training and extension the necessary transformation of African agriculture and food systems will not occur. Facilitating Innovation platforms and the use of ICT tools for long term sustainability; Development of innovation ecosystems within and across value chains and leveraging. All the transformations above will need an urgent shift in the agri-food systems workforce configuration from pre-occupation with farm production, to expansion into badly needed skills in food processing and service industries. Bridging the missing middle between the global-scale scientific options and the local and national level capacities to innovate and share. One CGIAR concept is expected to enhance the implementation of this agenda. This and many other conversations about the enhancement of the agricultural value chains have been discussed during the last fifteen years have been on the front burners but success continues to elude our continent in these regards. Unfortunately, the question of institutional capacities to embrace and deploy contemporary technologies remain our Achilis heel in our quest towards food self-sufficiency. It is, thus, important to invest in research and development to strengthen understanding of nature-positive production systems while increasing cooperation between public and the private sector. Lire moins

Participants in the dialogue expressed the view of an urgent need for a broad-based partnership between the major stakeholders and players across the entire agricultural and food system and innovation systems. This collaboration needs to provide strategic platform that fosters continental and global collective actions including networking to strengthen the innovation to impact pathways of Africa’s agricultural research and food systems. Participants identified the main call to action by the STI community in Africa should action such as; Upgrade existing domestic food system processes as a bi... Lire la suitegger priority than FDI in the upgrading of domestic and local food processing technology from artisanal to industrial scale food processing. Also, the need to diversify food systems agro-industrial activities, products, and services, as distinct from prioritizing upgrades to existing products is eminent. Participants identified the need to Strengthen SFFs and SMEs along entire value chains to bolster aggregation and agro-logists: truckers, wholesalers, warehousing, pre-processing, etc. Furthermore, the food industry research needs to be disintegrated into industry food systems needs: BIOCHEMISTRY of basic food fermentations; NUTRITIONAL outcomes under alternative processing technologies. Participants further identified the need enhance capacity for a steady flow of trained scientific & technical skills along the value chain: Farm production; Food and animal feed industries; Processing and packaging; Manufacturing & bio-chem engineering; Storage cold-chain logistics infrastructure; Supply chain management skills. Lire moins

Participants discussed the various means and approaches to enhance the food system in Africa during a breakout session. The views expressed in the various participants in the dialogue were generally convergent. This is because participants generally agreed on the urgent need to improve the current food system scenario on the continent to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition. Participants further agreed generally on the actions that need to be taken in the short term, the medium term, and the long term to address the issues that confront the food system in Africa.

In this dialogue, our approach was to explore the reasons behind food choices, digging into resources from behavioral science to market analysis and the impact of faith and culture. Recognizing that the Food Systems of today are unsustainable, leading to deforestation, climate change, destruction of ecosystems, food insecurity, and malnutrition, a transformation is urgently needed in order to ensure the survival of mankind and all living beings on Earth. Global leaders must strongly comply with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to meet its ambitious climate targets. How... Lire la suiteever, in order to make these changes, the public must first be able to accept a fundamental shift in dietary choices. According to the IPCC, industrial agriculture is responsible for one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture uses about 70% of global freshwater and occupies very large parts of land: It is estimated that around 40 % of the terrestrial surface is used as croplands and grazing lands. In some parts of the world, this represents a significant cause for deforestation. Drivers linked to food production cause 70% of terrestrial biodiversity loss as a result of the growing demand for resources. In addition, as the loss of habitats forces wildlife to move closer and closer to civilization, zoonoses become an increasing concern. Food insecurity has resulted in an epidemic of hunger (especially in the Global South): Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 690 million people worldwide were undernourished. Meanwhile, in the Global North, more than 70% of the US adult population suffers from obesity or being overweight as a result of poor dietary choices and overconsumption, they are therefore more likely to deal with diabetes, heart disease and other health issues. It is clear that our current food systems are detrimental to our health and wellbeing, destructive of the environment, unsustainable, and inequitable. From the mountains of evidence and research on the inevitable collapse of our food systems, a rapid and abrupt shift in food production and consumption is necessary in order to ensure the survival of life on Earth, if not to mitigate the environmental impacts of food production then to adapt to an environment which has already been drastically altered. This implies a shift in dietary choices--a global shift towards plant-centric diets may be key to sustainability in the near future. Our dietary choices are deeply ingrained in personal identity. Despite the overwhelming evidence that a shift in food systems is not only necessary but inevitable, without public acceptance and consent to this shift, governments will be reluctant to make the necessary policies for change. Lire moins

Culture and Religion: - We have grown increasingly disconnected from the natural world, and by extension, our food. The critical role of religion and culture is to help renew our relationship to the environment we live in and produce our food from. - There is an emergent culture war between those who eat meat and those who don’t, which has been co-opted into an issue of political identity as well. In order to address this divide, we must utilize both culture and religion to identify those who feel disenfranchised by emergent cultural messaging on climate friendly diets, and work with policym... Lire la suiteakers to address their gaps and needs. - More work has to be done in investigating the linkages between the narrative of “wealth” and “progress” with the overconsumption of meat. Additionally, cultural narratives around masculinity and meat must be reshaped to ensure as we transition towards more sustainable diets, that men do not feel marginalized. - Much of the cultural and religious messaging will not succeed unless subsidies for CAFOs and animal products are shifted towards plant based foods. So long as subsidies for animal products continue in their current shape, climate friendly diets are not an economical option for many families around the world. - Recognizing how precious food is to our identities, as we continue to work towards a just transition of our food systems, we must not only address the systems at play, but also speak to the heart of those we are trying to change, to which, culture and religion are key levers to utilize. Health: - People are on a different spectrum in relation to how easy diet change is for them. Those that perceive it to be the most difficult may find it the hardest to change - We need to have fresh foods more present in our life – build a system of choice architecture system to make healthier foods more available to us. - Need to change legislation – e.g. France and Spain have legislation pushing for meat and dairy to be included in every school meal - People may be limited in their options due to health conditions (diabetes require low-carb/keto diets, those with celiac disease require gluten-free, etc) and we need to be mindful of this - Food has a large influence on how we think. There is research on how certain gut bacteria can influence our thought processes ('psychobiome'). Sugar/glucose is also important for brain function. There have been recent studies that point out vegetarianism has some correlation with higher levels of depression and anxiety. - Morality and food are strongly linked; moral disgust and physical disgust are both associated with the insular cortex Politics: - Citizens are shifting, but not policymakers → lack of channels to give input and possibility for citizens to organize. - We need a stronger citizens movement - Intersectionality of the issues (connection between food practices and history, oppression, marginalization of some populations etc.) Economics: - We need to change taxation of food: there is a disconnection of Food production and consumption, strengthening local supply chain, strengthening local supply chain and connecting consumer with farmer - Consumers need to be better connected with producers, they need to pay a price which includes the hidden cost of food (True cost accounting) - Food systems economic model: well-being for humans. How to measure growth (GBD) does not reflect reality. Environment: - We need education to make behavior in the food systems more resilient and connected with nature. - We must promote education materials for each age group and this must take into consideration intergenerational actions. Lire moins

CULTURE AND RELIGION We acknowledge that: - Religion has failed to scale to the potential of food systems transformation. - We are disconnected from our plates. - We need to reinstate the connection with traditional food practices: Since morality and reaction to food are both associated with the insular cortex, there is a strong relationship between religion (morality) and food. Thus, religion has a bigger influence on people's food choices than you may think (hence the many different food traditions and STRICT adherence to those traditions from followers). In developed countries, there is an ... Lire la suiteawareness that our current food systems are not sustainable, but there is no way to transform. In developing countries, purchasing powers are increasing and we can observe a transition towards unsustainable practices, adopting the culture of the global North. The narrative that animal products are strong in proteins and a rich food is still very present. On the faith level, we see that the case for food theology isn’t well spread and known. The relationship between faith and ecology isn’t really defined. Is religion a resource or a barrier? What we need is: - To change societal traps on what is valuable because how culture and religion views food is the key to behavioral change. - A policy and regulation shift with regulatory commissions and subsidies. Those have a cultural impact because they change the price of food and how we see this food. - A cultural shift in what foods connotate wealth and progress, from the “meat for every meal” as the rich man’s diet, to “healthy foods” as the baseline of wealth. - To empower faith and culture communities so they know how to advocate to local governments for policies that incentivize sustainable food systems for their communities, whether those be subsidies for plants or zoning land for community gardens. - A coherent and unified culture that promotes environmentalism as a moral virtue. There are some religions (or faith leaders that propagate this) that emphasize that the Earth is made by God for human beings to exploit (Anthropocentrism). They've successfully created an Us vs Them narrative that environmentalism is for those who do not have faith. However, plant-based diets are seen as a privilege coming from the “influencer culture”. They’re viewed as for coastal elites and that is problematic. This creates a further polarization within the population. Eating meat vs. eating plants is a culture war. How do we give access to the plant-based culture to those who aren’t not part of the influencer community? We need cultures and religions that promote sustainable diets encouraging transition by patterned actions taken by culture and faith leaders. Lire moins

HEALTH What we acknowledge: - People are on a different spectrum in relation to how easy diet change is for them. Those that perceive it to be the most difficult may find it the hardest to change. - There are different barriers: - Health barriers and social influences can stop people to switch to a plant-based diet - Other barriers that prevent people from shifting towards a plant-based diet could be the lack of basic cooking skills - Food plays a major role in the way humans think and behave through physiological and neurological processes. What our solutions are: - Information is important: ... Lire la suiteUsing evidence to demonstrate to populations the impact their diet can have on their health is an important motivating factor. This evidence should be used with health care providers. - Healthy yet sustainable food choices need to be encouraged – but this will ultimately lead to higher prices. Whatever the food we choose we need to look at the environmental prize as well. - People don’t follow suggestions, we need to give the voice to the citizens to share the challenges of making a diet change. - We need to have fresh foods more present in our life – build a system of choice architecture system to make healthier foods more available to us. - We need food solutions that not only fulfill the health needs of everyone, but are also sustainable and carbon neutral. So, could evidence be used to change our health system, for example, with health insurance costs linked to their health choices? - Using economic incentives as a way of directing individuals to the best diet, using ways of encouraging default steps to direct people to the best way can work. - We need ways to elevate plant-based diet, and make it the easy choice: That can happen through better legislation. We need to change legislation – e.g. France and Spain have legislation which means meat and dairy has to be included in every school meal which is not the most sustainable and healthiest choice. Lire moins

POLITICS What we acknowledge: - Some countries are still vehemently opposed to a radical transformation of our food systems. - Policymakers are not listening to citizens: There is a lack of channels at the international and European level. - We cannot expect a transition without offering a concrete alternative for those losing out. - Politics is not about ethics or the right thing to do, but rather about power dynamics and wealth. - There are highly influential policymakers that are driven by greed, propaganda, and corporate donations. - Propaganda plays a large role in public opinion; even ba... Lire la suited policies have a strong chance of actualization if a significant portion of the population is convinced to support it. - Public opinion, rather than being driven by data, science, and reason, is significantly more influenced by tribalism, emotional appeal, and appeal to authority. What our solutions are: - We need possibilities for citizens to organise, they should be given more freedom to do that: It might be easier at the national level to organize a stronger citizens movement. We need to make citizens feel empowered. - We need to think about these issues in a more intersectional way to include everyone (Women, Youth, Minorities). There is a need for solutions for everyone. - Education is necessary to create awareness. We could create an informed universal picture of what needs to be done: There is no platform like that yet. - Policymakers need to be following the science and the consensus needs to be inclusive. Lire moins

ECONOMICS What we acknowledge: - There is a disconnection between food production and consumption. - There are always hidden costs of food. - How we measure growth (GBD) does not reflect reality. What we need to do: - We need to change the taxation of food by strengthening local supply chain, strengthening local supply chain and connecting consumer with farmer, - Farmers need to get a financial benefit when doing a better a more sustainable production - The quality of the communication with the consumers also needs to be improved → the consumers need to pay a price which includes the hidden ... Lire la suitecost of food (true cost accounting). - We need better tax regulation e.g. higher tax for meat, new tax models - We need to repurpose subsidies to nature-positive production - We need better labelling and classification to give information about the environmental impact of food (e.g. Nutriscore in many European countries for the health impact, but we could do that on the environment as well). Lire moins

ENVIRONMENT We acknowledge that: - Education is a key element from a very young age. - Raising awareness about the impact of the traditional agricultural practices is important What we need: - In order to change the behavior in the food system to be more resilient and to connect with nature, we need education. - We need to promote the education materials for each age group and this must take in consideration intergenerational actions - We need actions to raise awareness about the Impact of the traditional agriculture practices that are not sustainable and animal industry in the food system: A ... Lire la suiteshift toward plant-rich diets is important because those are healthy, they protect nature and animals. - We highlighted the need of having a role model that can help to advocate for change at a political level. Lire moins

The main area of divergence that emerged during our Dialogue was the opposition Producers/Consumers → While producers’ interests should be more taken into account with fair prices, we cannot forget that some consumers’ categories are not able to make sustainable and healthy food choices. We need as well a better taxation of food products as subsidies enabling both producers and consumers to be treated fairly.

There was little divergence in the discussions. Instead, the participants identified possible constraints to their proposed recommendations: a) Lack of political will among policy makers to expedite the process of the policies that support, recognize and promote the FMSS b) Lack of resources to a) undertake consultative meetings with stakeholders in the policy development process, b) raise awareness on the importance of policies that recognise and support FMSS, c) provide incentives for creating a favourable environment and d) conduct trainings for farmers on quality seed production. c) Existi... Lire la suiteng seed laws which do not support the FMSS constrain operationalizing the proposed actions. The time taken for policy change is often very long and this has a potential to slow down the implementation of the recommendations d) Seed Companies may oppose the development of policies that foster a conducive environment for the FMSS as they may perceive this as a threat to their seed business. e) Low yields of local farmer seeds. Efforts should be developed at the technical level to improve these using simple methods such as Participatory Variety Enhancement (PVE) and Participatory Variety Development (PVD) f) Lack of legislative and policy frameworks to promote farmer seed systems. The private sector is closer to the centres of power than those of the proponents of farmer seed systems. Proponents of farmer systems should develop capacities to engage those responsible for policy-making. g) Advocacy and lobby champions for farmer seed systems are still too few. There is a need to build a critical mass of champions at all levels (field, technical, policy and legislative levels). Lire moins