People don’t agree on much when it comes to food. But most think how we produce it isn’t working for everyone on the planet, nor for crucial natural systems vital to food production, including soils, water and the climate.

In response, Thursday’s UN summit on food systems is aiming to curb damage to the environment and wildlife from what’s on our plates, as well as tackle hunger made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-heating emissions from agriculture and food waste.

Preparations over 18 months for the event, held in New York and online, brought together some 100,000 people — government and UN officials, farmers, indigenous people, youth and business executives — to discuss ways of making food production fitter for the future.

A July meeting in Rome distilled some of the more than 2,000 ideas that emerged from hundreds of dialogues around the world into a set of themes and coalitions the summit has endorsed, to be taken forward at a practical level.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the summit process had injected “new life into multilateralism” and led the way to food systems “that can drive the global recovery in three fundamental ways. For people. For the planet. And for prosperity.”

Agnes Kalibata, Guterres’ special envoy for the summit, told journalists it marked a “turning point” for the global food system and the challenge is now to go out and make it work on the ground - to end hunger, provide better jobs, produce healthier food and protect the planet.

Read the full article about improving our food systems at Eco-Business.