INRAE takes part in the UN Food Systems Summit 2021

Zero hunger, sustainable consumption and production, clean water – ten years remain to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 agenda. The sustainability of food systems is considered a major lever for achieving several of these goals. For this reason UN Secretary General António Guterres has called for the first UN Summit on food systems to be held in 2021. Through its integrated approach to agriculture, food and the environment, INRAE contributes to several of the Action Tracks of this Summit.

The UN Food Systems Summit: purpose and audience

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (Food Systems Summit: FSS) aims to raise global awareness and work together to change the way we think about, produce and consume food.  It will bring together key players from the worlds of science, business and politics, with scientists, farmers, consumers, environmental activists and all key stakeholders. The FSS is a people's summit and a summit of innovative and bold solutions to combat the burden of malnutrition (hunger, micronutrient deficiencies, excess weight and obesity) and to protect the environment and the climate.

 

Definition:

The term 'food system' refers to the constellation of activities involved in producing, processing, transporting and consuming food.


A multi-actor and multi-scale process

Governments, citizens – everyone involved!

The Summit aims to generate a vast range of discussions among as many stakeholders as possible, based on several principles, including respect for local cultures and contexts, consideration of the complexity of the issues, and complementarity with other initiatives carried out at the international level.

The Summit develops a standardised approach with three types of Dialogues:

  • A Member State Summit Dialogue organised by governments with stakeholders, under the aegis of a designated coordinator. It should result in "national pathways" supported by a wide range of stakeholders.
  • A Global Summit Dialogue co-organised by the Summit's Special Envoy, Agnès Kalibata, to address the issue of food systems in a range of major thematic events on climate, biodiversity and more.
  • An Independent Summit Dialogue organised by individuals or communities based on a guide available on the Summit web site.

Today in the world: 305 Member State Summit Dialogues, 4 Inter-State Summit Dialogues, 8 Global Summit Dialogues, 560 Independent Summit Dialogues

Through these extensive exchanges, the Summit aims to identify initiatives at all levels to produce concrete measures and support the implementation of reforms. It will establish a system to monitor achievements in each country. This way, the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are advanced. Those 17 goals were established for the UN 2030 Agenda in 2015, calling for action from each country to promote prosperity and protect our planet.

Find out more At G20 the French delegation led by INRAE presented France's position on the transformation of food systems

The 10th Meeting of G20 Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS) was held on June 15 and 16 2021. Philippe Mauguin, INRAE Chair & CEO, was asked by the French Ministries of Agriculture and Food and Higher Education, Research and Innovation to lead the French delegation. He outlined France’s five key positions on the need to transform our food systems to create healthy, sustainable models.

Science as a basis for reflection

The design and implementation of the Summit is supported throughout the process by several bodies including a scientific panel of 29 independent experts. Jean-François Soussana, INRAE's Vice President of international policy is an expert on the panel.  

Find out more An Independent UNFSS Dialogue: Strengthening international research cooperation on food systems

INRAE and the  University Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Fildho (UNESP, Brazil) gathered scientists from Australia, Brazil, France, South Africa and the United States, for a webinar ahead of the Science Days of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021. Jean-François Soussana, INRAE's Vice President of international policy and IPCC expert, spoke about creating a renewed strategic framework.

Through monthly meetings held since July 2020, this panel has gathered scientific summary reports and analyses on ongoing initiatives in the framework of, among others, the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and the UN system (the UN and all its programmes, funds and specialised agencies).  The Scientific Panel ensures the reliability, representativeness and independence of the scientific data on which the Summit and its products are based. Among the many reports prepared by this panel, Jean-François Soussana (INRAE) and Sheryl Brook (UNESP, Brazil) coordinated the drafting of a background paper (available in English only) to carry out the first Action Track of the summit: The aim is to "ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all through the transformation of food systems".

INRAE's involvement

The goal of "Healthy and sustainable food for all" requires an integrative approach between agriculture-food-environment, which corresponds to INRAE's scientific strategy for 2030. Indeed, sustainability must be designed and applied at every stage of the food chain: a socially, economically and environmentally multi-performing agriculture; the reduction of resource loss and waste; varied, balanced and safe diets; producers who enjoy a decent standard of living; preserved ecosystems, and resistance to climatic and health upheavals. INRAE promotes the need for a transition of agricultural and food systems, combining the principles of agroecology with technical and social innovation such as digital agriculture and biotechnology.

Find out more Agroecological transformation for sustainable food systems: Insight on France-CGIAR research

Published on the occasion of the UN World Food Systems Summit, this dossier compiles the works of 500 French and CGIAR agroecology scientists and experts and includes 20 contributions from INRAE. The urgency of agroecological transformation of agrifood systems linked to SDGs will be one of the game changers discussed at the Summit.

The Institute is developing its research strategy through major projects that fall within the 5 Action Tracks of the Summit.

Action Track 1: Ensure food security for all (eliminate hunger and malnutrition)

Changes in land use, food security and nutritional aspects

Changes in land use, food security, nutritional aspects – following the Agrimonde foresight study published in 2011, INRAE and CIRAD have studied the main factors behind land use changes and their expected effects on food security and climate by 2050.

Global change: what impacts on world food security?

From 2014 to 2020, INRAE and CIRAD co-led the GloFoodS interdisciplinary metaprogramme to shed light on the different dimensions of world food security in relation to global change. This unique programme, involving international partners and bringing together a wide range of disciplines and approaches, has produced concrete results that are available to stakeholders in the field and decision-makers.

Developing intermediate food value chains

Coordinated by INRAE, the Horizon 2020 FAIRCHAIN project (2020-2024), is focusing on small and big food chains in an effort to support the farmers’ transition towards intermediate food chains. Ten FAIRCHAIN Work Packages will be conducted in the dairy and fruit & vegetable sectors, including testing recently developed technological, organizational and social innovations.

Action Track 2: A shift to sustainable consumption patterns (improving nutrition, recycling waste and reducing food waste)

Reducing losses, recycling waste

In 2016, INRAE initiated a global foresight study to reduce food loss and waste by 2050. Using three urbanisation scenarios (megalopolis, medium-sized city network, small rural city), experts proposed nine levers for action to be implemented to reduce waste at the source or increase recycling.

Waste as a resource

A pioneer in pollution removal and the methanisation of agrifood effluents, INRAE's Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology, transforms human waste into resources (hydrogen, bio-batteries, water purification using microalgae, digestion and carbon-rich water for agriculture, etc.). It has received the Key Enabling Technologies label from the European Horizon 2020 programme.

Simplifying labelling to help people eat better

The Nutri-Score is a non-mandatory labelling system that summarises the nutritional profile of foods based on their ingredients (sugar, fat, protein, etc.). In 2020, a study conducted with more than 500 participants, in which INRAE took part, confirmed the usefulness of the system in guiding consumers towards more nutritional food choices.

Action Track 3: Boost nature-positive food production (processing and distribution)

Growing and protecting crops differently

Led by INRAE, the Growing and Protecting Crops Differently Priority Research Programme, aims to develop breakthrough knowledge for the emergence, by 2030-2040, of pesticide-free agriculture based on the principles of prophylaxis and agroecology.

Storing carbon in grassland and forest soils

INRAE has studied the feasibility of the "4 per 1000 in soils for food security and climate" initiative in France at the request of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and the French government. Still in progress in French overseas territories, the study already promotes several agricultural and forestry practices that would allow additional carbon to be stored in metropolitan France. From this data, an indicator of trends in carbon stocks in agricultural soils (SOCCROP) should be available by early 2022.

Working for sustainable agricultural policies

Commissioned by the European Parliament, experts from INRAE and AgroParisTech have proposed several recommendations to strengthen the climate and environmental requirements of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in line with the objectives of the Green Deal. The study highlights the need for a comprehensive and coherent food policy which includes a focus on diets.

Digital technologies to support the agroecological transition

With digital technology, access to (local food systems) is becoming more affordable. From farm sales to sovereign buying groups, this local food trend creates attractive economic and social prospects and, in particular, makes it possible to involve consumers in the governance of their food systems. These developments accompany an agroecological transition, which is being explored by the Living-Lab Occitanum in collaboration with seven sectors and with citizens.

Action Track 4: Advance equitable livelihoods (full employment, decent work, fair distribution of value to all food actors)

Global innovation for local food systems

The FAO and INRAE have published a bilingual Innovator’s Handbook in French and English entitled Enabling Sustainable Food Systems. The result of seven years of research and collaborative actions in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, this guide includes experiences with local food systems and the behaviour of actors in the field.

Women and agriculture

Although women produce nearly 70% of the world's food, they face significant inequalities in agricultural opportunities in both developing and developed countries. A workshop on these issues was held at the second International Symposium on Work in Agriculture (ISWA), led by INRAE researchers. It identified local initiatives contributing to the promotion of women in agriculture, as well as existing obstacles to overcome.

Action Track 5: Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress (health crises, natural disasters, climate change and conflict)

The One Health concept

INRAE is conducting a number of projects integrating the One Health concept according to which the protection of human health is contingent upon that of animals and the environment. One example, the Prezode initiative , brings together over a thousand researchers in 50 countries on five continents to work on research projects and operational action on the link between biodiversity and the emergence of potentially epidemic infectious diseases.

European agriculture up against climate change

Heat and cold waves, drought, diseases – INRAE is evaluating progressive and transformational ways of adapting French agricultural and livestock ecosystems to climate change. At the European level, INRAE experts have developed an estimate of the role of European agriculture in global food security by 2050.

Agricultural land and rising sea levels

A foresight study entitled "Dealing with rising sea levels”, in which INRAE participated, identifies three factors that reduce agricultural land use in coastal areas – urbanisation, salinisation, agricultural methods – and establishes scenarios for changes in their availability in different regions of the world, including moving inland, land grabbing from other regions, and an increased dependence on trade.

Targeting food aid more efficiently

Researchers from INRAE and the American University of Beirut developed an original methodology, combining individual and large-scale community aggregate data by the United Nations, to reduce the misallocation of food aid to populations in situations of insecurity or poverty such as refugees.

Agenda

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (FSS) is an ongoing international reflection process, with a few key milestones: