Giving Compass' Take:
- Danielle Nierenberg reports on experts' call for urgent food system change and climate action to avert a global crisis of food insecurity.
- How can you advance food system change and climate action, starting with your own community?
- Learn more about best practices in philanthropy.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits in your area.
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Last week, 153 top Nobel Prize and World Food Prize laureates sounded an alarm about the dangerous consequences of the world’s current approach to climate action and food system change.
In their new open letter, the experts do not mince words about food system change: “Humanity is headed towards an even more food insecure, unstable world by mid-century than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity.”
“We must take bold action to change course.”
With hundreds of millions of people worldwide already hungry today—while the climate crisis continues to pose new challenges to food production and resource availability—we are “not even close” to meeting the food needs of the future, they write.
It is an uncomfortable truth—but we need to understand it to advance food system change. This is not just one person’s analysis: It is the consensus view among more than 150 preeminent thought leaders in food systems, economics, science, peacemaking, humanities, and other areas of expertise.
The open letter was coordinated by Dr. Cary Fowler, the former Special Envoy for Global Food Security at the U.S. Department of State and 2024 World Food Prize laureate.
“What really keeps me up late at night is the combination of factors,” Dr. Fowler said during an announcement event for the open letter about food system change. “It’s not just the effect of climate change on food production. It’s the effect of climate change plus soil degradation plus problems with aquifers that are supplying irrigation water...We’re going to be seeing the effects of all of these factors combined.”
What does this group of experts call upon us to do to advance food system change?
The open letter outlines big-picture steps aimed at high-level national and global policymakers and food system leaders. But these must be accompanied by and bolstered by local, grassroots organizing.
So here’s a to-do list of ways we can apply the experts’ “moonshot” recommendations for food system change to our own lives and communities.
Read the full article about food system change by Danielle Nierenberg at Forbes.