Solving the Great Food Puzzle: 20 levers to scale national level action
WWF International
Time: Friday, 20. January 2023, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Room: M1
Languages: English, German
Summary:
A growing body of evidence suggests that significant changes to the global food system are needed to meet climate goals, reduce biodiversity loss, and ensure optimal human health for all. Shifting to healthy diets, reducing food loss and waste, and nature positive food production are often cited as key actions to transform food systems. At the global scale, there is considerable evidence that these strategies, when combined, are enough to feed at least 10 billion people healthy diets while keeping global warming to 1.5C and restoring biodiversity. Less attention has been paid, however, to how these actions might play out at the national level and whether these actions always achieve win-win outcomes. In this side event we will explore the place-based nature of food system transformation and what strategies may be more effective and hold greater relevance in certain countries than others. An improved understanding of the country-specific nature of food system transformation will help identify key actions that work within and across countries so that we can exponentially accelerate action at the national level.
Outcomes:
1. To explore the place-based nature of food system transformation using a handful of national level case studies and food system types.
2. To examine how 20 transformation levers are important across all countries but will have varying degrees of potential for transformation depending on food system type.
3. To establish collaboration and connect the dots between governments and organizations to scale impact at the national level.
Keynote Speaker
Previously, Brent worked for EAT, the science-based global platform for food system transformation, where he was a lead author on the EAT-Lancet report on Food, Planet, and Health. His past research includes a variety of publications ranging from subjects on food and health to orangutan terrestriality and tropical forest governance.
His current work includes a report on food consumption patterns in G20 countries and the potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a series of papers that develop national-level roadmaps on GHG mitigation potential from changes in food and agriculture, and an analysis on how sustainable logging in a tropical forest impacts biodiversity.
In addition, Brent co-founded and helped lead a progressive international school and co-founded a conservation NGO that focused on protecting rainforests and biodiversity by empowering indigenous peoples. Rarely patient, Brent believes to achieve the SDGs and Paris Agreement in the short time that is available it will be because of fast-moving and innovative organizations and people that disrupt the status quo and actively show the world a more healthy and sustainable way of living in harmony with nature.
As part of Global Science, Brent is bridging the technical and conservation practice worlds, synthesizing information from a wide range of food, agriculture, nutrition, and environment disciplines for their creative application to the global nature agenda.