From September 20 to 21, 2021, the first ever UN Food Systems Summit will be held in Rome to bring together key players from the worlds of science, business, policy, healthcare and academia, as well as farmers, indigenous people, youth organisations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders. Before, during and after the Summit, these actors will exchange on how to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations has convened this Summit as part of the UN Decade of Action to be held in 2021. The UN Food System Summit aims to launch bold new actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food, as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
India with close to 18% humanity on the globe owes paramount stake in this Food System Summit. India has volunteered, but not limited to, to the Action Track 4: Advance Equitable Livelihoods for the UN Food System Summit 2021. To take the process further. the Government has constituted a high level Interdepartmental Group under the Chairmanship of Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog along with the representatives from Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoAFW), Rural Development and others.
The prime function assigned to this group is to conduct National Dialogues with all the stakeholders of agri-food systems for exploring national pathways towards creating sustainable and equitable food systems in India and suitably contribute to transformation in global food systems to meet the needs of present and future. The consultative processes shall culminate in the Food System Summit in September 2021 in which India’s Prime Minister is likely to participate along with other global leaders. 
Why food systems?
The term “food system” refers to the constellation of activities involved in producing, processing, transporting and consuming food. Food systems touch every aspect of human existence. The health of our food systems profoundly affects the health of our bodies, as well as the health of our environment, our economies and our cultures. When they function well, food systems have the power to bring us together as families, communities and nations.
But too many of the world’s food systems are fragile, unexamined and vulnerable to collapse, as millions of people around the globe have experienced first-hand during the COVID-19 crisis. When our food systems fail, the resulting disorder threatens our education, health and economy, as well as human rights, peace and security. As in so many cases, those who are already poor or marginalised are the most vulnerable.
The good news is that we know what we need to do to get back on track. Scientists agree that transforming our food systems is among the most powerful ways to change course and make progress towards all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Rebuilding the food systems of the world will also enable us to answer the UN Secretary-General’s call to “build back better” from COVID-19. We are all part of the food system, and so we all must come together to bring about the transformation that the world needs.
About the Food Systems Summit (FSS)
The FSS aims to help stakeholders to better understand and manage the complex choices that affect the future of food systems and to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This will be aligned with a Pre-Summit that will take place this year in Rome, 26-28 July, as well as a possible Post-Summit in 2022. Whether all these events will in the end go virtual or hybrid is still to be seen.
The setup of the FSS, as it is known by now, is the following:
- The Summit will be supported by five Action Tracks, aligned to the Summit´s five objectives, that will offer all constituencies a space to share and learn, to foster new actions and partnerships, and to amplify existing initiatives. Among the leaders of the five Action Tracks are the Global Alliance for Increased Nutrition (GAIN), the EAT Forum, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to name but a few. A sixth Action Track on governance might be added soon.
- The Action Tracks will also draw on the expertise of actors from food systems across the world. Together, they will explore how key cross-cutting levers of change can be mobilised to meet the Summit’s objectives. In view of this, the Summit Secretariat has also issued a call for game-changing solutions to pick up the pace to delivery of the SDGs.
- The Food System Summit Dialogues (FSSDs) offer an opportunity for anyone to come together to identify food systems that are both sustainable and equitable, aligned with the SDGs. The dialogues represent a core component of the preparations for the Summit and are divided into three categories:
1. Member State Summit Dialogues: organised by national governments (UN-Member states).
2. Independent Summit Dialogues: organised by individuals, organisations independent from the national ones,
3. Global Summit Dialogues (GSDs): Co-convened by the Food Systems Summit Special Envoy. IFOAM has been part of the Food Systems Dialogues since 2018 as a member of their Reference Group, before these were turned into GSDs.
- The Champions Network will serve to mobilize a large and diverse group of stakeholders representing a broad range of constituencies in every region of the world to call for a transformation of the world´s food systems. The Champions Network will inspire and facilitate coordinated action before, during and after the Summit. It is chaired by Ruth Richardson, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food with which we are advocating together on true cost accounting and other issues to reform our food systems.
- To help the work of the Special Envoy, an Advisory Committee and a Scientific Group have been set up. The good news is that one of IFOAM’s Ambassadors, Dr. Urs Niggli has a seat in the latter.
