2023-07-24 17:12:28
Antonio Guterres, during the opening session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) three-day summit on food systems, in Rome, July 24, 2023. ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP
Two weeks following an alarming international report confirming that hunger in the world remains at a very high level, and one week following the de facto end of the grain agreement in the Black Sea due to the withdrawal of Russia, plunging the grain importing countries into uncertainty, it is in a tense context that the United Nations (UN) is convening a summit on food systems.
This meeting, in Rome, from July 24 to 26, is the second of its kind, two years following a virtual summit in September 2021, which had sparked a wave of discontent. The initiative had been boycotted by many civil society organizations and scientists, because of the place given to multinational agribusiness, and United Nations special rapporteurs had criticized the governance of the process and its lack of transparency.
The new summit, which gives rise to a follow-up of the commitments made two years ago – around thirty thematic coalitions had been created on school meals, food waste, digital technologies for agriculture, etc. –, does not escape these criticisms.
For three days, representatives of 160 states meet, including around twenty heads of state and governments (including the president of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, organizer of the summit with the United Nations, the prime ministers of Ethiopia, Bangladesh or even Nepal). But the summit also opens the door to non-state actors, and in particular to companies. The big food multinationals – BASF, Bayer, Cargill, Nestlé, Sodexo, Syngenta, etc. – are united in a coalition, launched at the end of the first summit, on food systems.
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“People continue to suffer and die of hunger”
The summit will not lead to the adoption of an international political declaration, but the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, took advantage of the meeting to launch a call for action. “In a world of plenty, it is outrageous that people continue to suffer and die of hunger”said the senior diplomat, Monday, July 24, asking for investments “massive” for food systems “sustainable, equitable, healthy and resilient” – up to at least 500 billion dollars (449.36 billion euros) per year in aid to developing countries.
Denouncing the recent Russian withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative, which might push up grain market prices, Mr. Guterres recalled that “when food prices rise, the hopes of developing countries fall”. The Secretary General also insisted on the need to reduce the environmental impacts of food production: “We need food systems that can end the senseless war being waged on our planet”he urged.
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