UNFSS +2 STOCKTAKING ADVANCER

Factors such as population growth, urbanization, changing consumption patterns, and climate change are challenging our agrifood systems' ability to provide nutritious food and sustainable livelihoods for all.

To address these challenges, the world needs a holistic and sustainable approach that considers economic, social, and environmental factors, and for people to come together, according to the Director of the FAO Division of Food Systems and Food Safety, Corinna Hawkes.

Factors such as population growth, urbanization, changing consumption patterns, and climate change are challenging our agrifood systems' ability to provide nutritious food and sustainable livelihoods for all.

To address these challenges, the world needs a holistic and sustainable approach that considers economic, social, and environmental factors, and for people to come together, according to the Director of the FAO Division of Food Systems and Food Safety, Corinna Hawkes.

Ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking Moment, which will bring a space for countries to review commitments to action made during the first Summit in 2021, Corinna Hawkes takes us through the basic concepts of agrifood systems and to explain what is at stake at the international event.

SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Division of Food Systems and Food Safety, “The agrifood system is everything that is connected to food and agriculture. And what's really important, and why we call it a system, is that it's interconnected. So that means, for example, that if we want to grow fruits and vegetables in order that people eat healthier, we have to think not just about growing the vegetables, we have to think how they get to people.”

Hawkes said the agrifood system is “exhausted” and urged to transform it to make it stronger.

SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Division of Food Systems and Food Safety, “The agrifood system is exhausted. How can anything that's exhausted provide solutions? So, the frustration here, the challenge here, is that the potential power of the agrifood system to provide these solutions isn't there until we transform the agrifood system to make it stronger and to help it provide the solutions we know it can provide".

Hawkes said one of the major challenges facing the agrifood system is the lack of diversity in production.

SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “We need to think much more carefully about how we produce diversity, which is also good for biodiversity, it's also good for the environment. But it's also good for people, because we need to have a diversity of food in our plate. So, one thing we've done really wrong is to take diversity out of the system too much and we need to bring that diversity back in.”

Hawkws sees the forthcoming UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking Moment an important opportunity to bring commitment into action to transform agrifood systems, Hawkes explained.

SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “The ideal outcome of this stocktaking moment, following from the UN Food Systems Summit, is that the momentum that has been created will continue, and that the commitment to change will not just stay as commitment, but will lead to actions on the ground to really make change.”

Around 2000 participants from over 160 countries, including over 20 Heads of State and Government, will attend the UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking Moment at the FAO headquarters in Rome on 24-26 July.

The event convened by the United Nations Secretariat, and hosted by Italy, in collaboration with the Rome-based UN Agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP), will be officially inaugurated on Monday 24 July at 14:30 CEST during a high-level opening led by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni.

STORY: FAO / UNFSS +2 STOCKTAKING ADVANCER

TRT: 02’49’’

SOURCE: FAO

RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH 

DATELINE: ROME, ITALY 1 JUNE 2023 / RECENT

OCTOBER 2020, PREAH VIHEAR PROVINCE, CAMBODIA

1. Drone shot, tropical rainforest

21 FEBRUARY 2022, NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

2. Med shot, farmer removing weeds from a wheat field

3. Close up, weeds being removed from a wheat field

APRIL-MAY 2017, SAMOA

4. Drone shot, Savaia fishing reserve

5. Med shot, tuna being offloaded

6. Close up, fish being sliced

1 JUNE 2023, ROME, ITALY

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Division of Food Systems and Food Safety, “The agrifood system is everything that is connected to food and agriculture. And what's really important, and why we call it a system, is that it's interconnected. So that means, for example, that if we want to grow fruits and vegetables in order that people eat healthier, we have to think not just about growing the vegetables, we have to think how they get to people.”

2019, ARMENIA

8. Med shot, fruits and vegetables in a market

JULY 2017, KILUNGU, MAKUENI COUNTY, KENYA

9. Med shot, farmer using the jab planter

10. Close up, jab planter being used

22 NOVEMBER 2022, SOMALI REGION, ETHIOPIA

11. Wide shot, cattle at the drying water source 

12. Med shot, cattle at the water source

1 JUNE 2023, ROME, ITALY

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Division of Food Systems and Food Safety, “The agrifood system is exhausted. How can anything that's exhausted provide solutions? So, the frustration here, the challenge here, is that the potential power of the agrifood system to provide these solutions isn't there until we transform the agrifood system to make it stronger and to help it provide the solutions we know it can provide".

JANUARY 2018, BLACK SEA 

14.  Drone shot, aquaculture pods in sea

15.  Med shot, underwater, fish in pods

MARCH 2020, IMATACA FOREST RESERVE, VENEZUELA

16. Drone shot, Imataca Forest Reserve

17. Close up, Onoto plant

18. Close up, Papaya fruit being sliced

19. Med shot, woman giving Papaya fruit to children

20. Med shot, child getting a slice of Papaya fruit

1 JUNE 2023, ROME, ITALY

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “We need to think much more carefully about how we produce diversity, which is also good for biodiversity, it's also good for the environment. But it's also good for people, because we need to have a diversity of food in our plate. So, one thing we've done really wrong is to take diversity out of the system too much and we need to bring that diversity back in.”

OCTOBER 2017, KANDAL PROVINCE, CAMBODIA 

22. Med shot, family ready to eat

23. Close up, dishes and food

24. Close up, people using spoons to get food

28 JULY 2021, ROME, ITALY

25. Zoom out, FAO logo

26. Wide shot, FAO plenary hall

01 JUNE 2023, ROME, ITALY

27. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “The ideal outcome of this stocktaking moment, following from the UN Food Systems Summit, is that the momentum that has been created will continue, and that the commitment to change will not just stay as commitment, but will lead to actions on the ground to really make change.”

28 JULY 2021, ROME, ITALY

29. Wide shot, FAO headquarters

30. Med shot, United Nations flag