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Transforming food systems: to change everything, it takes everyone

25 July 2023

A farmer holds shafts of grain as the sunlight falls on his face — Caption: Pivoting towards more sustainable food systems which deliver food security for all was one of the commitments world leaders made two years ago at the UN Food Systems Summit.

Photo: © WFP/ Fuad Balajam

Like many people around the world, I often start my day with coffee and toast. Grown by farm workers in Ethiopia, the coffee beans in my favourite brand are first picked, dried and milled locally, then exported to the US where a company in Brooklyn buys, roasts and grinds them, before selling neat packages to the grocery store I frequent to fuel my caffeine habit. Similarly lengthy and complex supply chains tell the stories of the sugar and milk I mix into the coffee, not to mention the flour, salt, sugar, oil and yeast that form the bread I toast.

These sets of actions, events and choices – from food production to processing, storage, trade and distribution to consumer behaviour – are known as food systems. The primary goal of our food systems is to ensure food security: a situation where all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

But our food systems are failing to deliver food security. In 2022, as many as 783 million people in the world faced hunger, with women and people living in rural areas disproportionately food insecure.

The Problems with our Food Systems

Food insecurity is driven by many factors including shifting commodity prices, variable production levels, conflict and displacement, income inequality, urbanization, and trade disruptions, all of which are on the rise. But there are two structural features of our current food systems which threaten our long-term goal of food security.

First, our food systems are fragile. The interconnected nature of food with other systems such as economic, geopolitical, health, energy and ecosystems make it more vulnerable to crisis and supply chain breakdown. This became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Increasing drought is also highlighting the risks of our reliance on a limited number of grain commodities.

Second, our food systems are in a fight with nature. The food we produce largely depends on synthetic fertilizers, which are made from oil and are significant contributors to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. These fertilizers ensure high yields but also deplete soil health, necessitating their continued use and trapping us in a vicious cycle of depletion and dependency.

A single yellow fruit lies in an empty food produce shelf in a supermarket — Caption: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the interconnected nature of food with other systems, including public health and the economy, which make it more vulnerable to crisis and supply chain breakdowns.

Photo: © Unsplash/ Mike Haupt

Pivoting to Sustainable Food Systems

This situation is untenable. We need to grapple with the complexities of the food system and transform it to ensure we reach the goal of food security for the present and future generations, while accelerating progress on related priorities such as climate action. This was a commitment that world leaders made two years ago, at the UN Food Systems Summit.

What must happen to turn this commitment into reality?

It is clear that to change everything, it takes everyone. Governments, for example, must prioritise new policies, legislation and regulations that repurpose agricultural support and favour nutritionally-diverse and climate-resilient food systems. Companies and financial institutions must weather short-term risks to move markets and secure greater long-term profits. Consumers, voters and shareholders must signal a demand for a paradigm shift, thus giving permission and incentive to governments and companies to do things differently. These investments must flow at local, national and global levels.

This brings us to the more challenging part: trust. In any collective problem, changing the behaviours of all actors requires radical trust. The formation of such trust depends on neutral arbiters and brokers who can nudge, advise and incentivise all actors to break barriers to cooperation and take the steps necessary together.

One solution to the trust challenge is the United Nations. Following the UN development system reforms in 2018, UN Country Teams – and the 130 Resident Coordinators (RCs) that lead them – are uniquely positioned to choreograph the food systems transformation. With no ‘skin in the game’, and with considerable knowledge, expertise and convening power, RCs are ready-made trust-builders for food systems transformation.

A woman in an orange shirt and yellow headscarf shakes out a pan of brown grains — Caption: Tackling food insecurity requires addressing shifting commodity prices, variable production levels, conflict and displacement, income inequality, urbanization, and trade disruptions.

Photo: © WFP/ Luise Shikongo

Choreographing transformation on the ground

This role for the UN is not a wishful fantasy; but a reality which is playing out daily on issues across the breadth of the sustainable development agenda. Consider the Gran Chaco Americano region of Latin America, where three UN Resident Coordinators – in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay – have joined the forces of their respective UNCTs to bring together Indigenous Peoples, national governments, food producers and consumers, and engender a common vision and pathway for sustainable food systems and climate action in these countries that share vulnerabilities. In Thailand, the RC has led the UNCT to bring together the USD 1.3 trillion domestic investment community of banks, investors and asset managers to unlock commitments to carbon neutrality and sustainable financing development.

We can customise these approaches to food systems and in all countries where the UN is present. To this end, the UN’s Joint SDG Fund has just launched a new funding window for food systems, which anticipates USD 350 million of catalytic funding over five years to improve national leadership on sustainable food systems and facilitate multistakeholder action. Once capitalised, this funding window will provide RCs and UNCTs with a unique opportunity to activate multisectoral UN support and to undertake the necessary choreography in their country contexts.

A woman (farmer) in a grey dress kneels in a wet field surrounded by water and lush green plants — Caption: Transforming food systems on the ground requires efforts from various actors; Resident Coordinators can be an important link enabling impact on the ground.

Photo: © UN Photo/ Martine Perret

With only seven years to go until the 2030 deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals, there is no time to lose. This week, the world is gathering in Rome at the Food Systems Stocktaking Moment to recommit to sustainable food systems and to inject momentum in this global shift that needs to happen. Despite political will, countries, companies and cities with deep coffers are not yet redirecting their investments towards sustainable food systems.

This is an ideal opportunity to turbocharge the RCs and UNCTs to help get results. ln sponsoring the UN Development System reforms and the revitalised RC system, countries have created a potent tool to overcome shared obstacles and reach the goal of sustainable food systems by 2030. Let’s use it.

This blog was written by Poorti Sapatnekar, Sustainable Development Officer in Climate, Environment and Food Systems, UN Development Coordination Office.