Repurposing Public Support to Food and Agriculture: A Just Rural Transition to Sustainable Food Systems

Providing nutritious, affordable food for a growing global population while protecting the vital natural systems that sustain life is one of the critical challenges of the coming decade.  In recent decades, a large portion of public support to the food and agriculture sector has been directed at supporting food production and farm incomes through increasing both yields and short-term productivity, particularly for major food security crops.  By some measures, these policies were successful – for example, while the global population doubled, food production almost quadrupled.

However, current public support to the food and agriculture sector does not address mounting challenges linked to climate change and environmental degradation (of water, soils, and biodiversity) and poor dietary quality that can undermine long term productivity and sustainability, livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and health (including zoonoses). In some cases, public support to the food and agriculture sector exacerbates these challenges.

In the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit Parallel Event stakeholders will build on the solution cluster under Action Track 3, Protect, and the Policy Dialogues co-convened by the COP26 Presidency and the World Bank. The event will:
1. Highlight the opportunity to repurpose policies and better target public support to reduce the hidden costs in today’s food and agricultural systems;
2. Showcase existing tools, analysis, and evidence available to support countries move forward with the repurposing agenda;
3. Explore how inclusive approaches that engage food producers can strengthen outcomes;
4. Outline opportunities for stakeholders to contribute via a Policy Action Agenda and support this work beyond the Food Systems Summit.

Registration ongoing at: https://merid.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2iF0H9R0R1OPpSqAZxrOtA