Dispatch From The UN Climate Change Confce: Sunday, Dec. 10

Danielle Nierenberg

Danielle Nierenberg

Today’s the day!

It’s Food, Agriculture, and Water day at COP28 in Dubai. Recent setbacks don’t change the fact that today is the most important day for the food system at COP28. This the first time that food systems have been highlighted in such a big way at any UN Climate Change Conference, ever.

Regarding high-level negotiations we talked about yesterday, progress is being made on the Global Stocktake. A new draft released yesterday references food and agriculture, but advocates are still pushing for the document to more meaningfully recognize food systems as a key lever for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

If countries commit to working together on issues like food loss and waste, soil health, food security, and more, we can absolutely make a difference on the climate crisis.

"International action is absolutely critical and key to helping agriculture address the causes and consequences of a changing climate," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told us yesterday at the Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas Pavilion.

But we need need to build trust, says Sara Roversi, President of the Future Food Institute, at the Food Systems Pavilion.

"Sometimes the people designing our policies don’t know the reality" of those whose livelihoods are in fishing and farming, she says. "We need to break silos, bring everyone together, and tell them—and show them—that the responsibility they are taking will go beyond the outcome they can show."

Meaningful action on food systems starts at the grassroots level—literally.

"If we can invest in better health for our soils, we can get the carbon challenge addressed. We get the biodiversity challenge addressed. And then we’ll have better productivity and a better relationship with nature," Bruno Pozzi, Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division at the UN Environment Programme, says at the Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas Pavilion.

Landscape transformation and collaboration have important roles to play here, as we discussed at the Food and Agriculture Pavilion. Partnerships among farmers, and between farmer groups and political actors, help facilitate a shift toward broader regenerative food systems because they look at entire interrelated systems.

"You have an explicit effort to steward the ecosystems which are critical underpinnings for agriculture and food systems. … Having good seed won’t help you if your entire farm gets flooded," says Sara Scherr, President and CEO of EcoAgriculture Partners.

As soils teach us, our solutions have to be locally rooted. To feed a growing world, we’ll need to listen to those on the ground and elevate the voices of community advocates.

In Africa, "there are often a lot of solutions pushed onto the continent," says Tasneem Karodia, Co-Founder of New Form Foods, at the Food Systems Pavilion. For her, the priority is "bringing a solution to the market that can also be localized."

And of course, this might mean we have to challenge some preconceived notions.

The farmer of the future is just as likely to wear a lab coat as they are to drive tractors, says Evan Fraser, Professor of Geography at the University of Guelph, at the Food4Climate Pavilion.

It’s up to those who have the resources—major governments, large corporations, financial networks—to lead the way and invest in the future of the planet.

At the Future Economy Forum Pavilion, experts came together for a great conversation on making sure that food system financing aligns with climate goals. At this event and a UNFCCC side event that also covered economic transition pathways, we addressed urgent ways that strategic financing can help spark food systems transformation.

When millions of people around the world can’t afford a nutritious diet, unlocking capital investments is a humanitarian necessity, says Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, the President and CEO of Food Systems for the Future.

At COP28, the big food and agriculture lobbyists are here in full force—but the food movement needs to show them how they can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

One way food companies can make a difference is through procurement. For example, in a major win for biodiversity, eight top commodity traders have agreed at COP28 to stop buying soy from producers that threaten South American grasslands.

We’ll take a big step forward today when the UN Food and Agriculture Organization releases its Global Roadmap, the first report in a multi-year process to outline a crystal-clear path for investors and policymakers to step up and translate conversations into action.

The Roadmap will likely present a unified vision for breaking down silos, putting agriculture at the forefront of a sustainable food system transformation, calling for big international coordination, and showcasing the role of climate in protecting food as a human right.

The FAO’s Roadmap shows that "we know where to go in transforming the agri-food systems," Zitouni Ould-Dada, Deputy Director of the FAO, told me yesterday.

I’m looking forward to reading the full Roadmap today. Also coming up, Food Tank has a full schedule of amazing events today, featuring more than 40 amazing speakers! Livestream and in-person details are below, so I hope to see you soon.

(Danielle Nierenberg is the President of Food Tank and can be reached at danielle@foodtank.com)