“How can we address the critical challenges at the intersection of food production, nutrition, and sustainability?”

To respond to this question, and further unpack who could lead the needed change, how to mobilize the necessary investment for change, and why, despite sufficient global food production and best efforts, there is still a struggle to integrate nutrition outcomes into the agenda on sustainable agriculture, two keynote speakers and a series of expert panelists took the stage. The discussions, which brought together over 100 participants online and in person, were guided by two moderators, Emile Frison (Senior Advisor at the Agroecology Coalition) and Sylvain Perret (Director of Agrinatura).

Emile Frison framed the interventions by underscoring that current food systems are contributing to biodiversity loss and climate change, while malnutrition worsened in the past ten years and the burden of obesity and non-communicable changes grew. A paradigm shift is needed, and evidence shows that agroecological approaches can deliver on food security and nutrition, while simultaneously delivering on economic, environmental, health, and social objectives. Within this shift, it is essential to consider both supply and demand-side interventions to bridge the gap between production and consumption, while supporting dietary needs and tackling malnutrition.

Key note speakers

Dr. Rachel Bezner Kerr, Professor at Cornell University, emphasized that agroecology is more than a set of ecological principles to apply to the food system, as it is also social, political, and economic principles, which bring attention to questions of equity and social justice. A literature review by Rachel and her co-authors published in Global Food Security found that 78% of the selected articles found a positive relationship between agroecological practices and food security and nutrition outcomes. Giving specific examples through case studies from Malawi, Tanzania, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nepal, and Senegal, including randomized trials, Rachel concluded that there is robust evidence that agroecology can improve nutrition in rural contexts, with limited evidence for urban settings. Improvements in nutrition are due to benefits from increased biodiversity, improved livelihoods, social empowerment, strengthened local knowledge systems, and cultural foodways. More research and investment are needed to open up opportunities to expand this approach, particularly in urban environments and to address diet-related diseases, such as diabetes.

Dr. Gabriela Albuquerque, researcher at the School of Agriculture of the University of Lisbon (ISA), noted how the double burden of malnutrition and associated shifts in dietary patterns, particularly the increasing demand for convenience foods in Sub-Saharan Africa, reflect better incomes and purchasing power, but not necessarily healthier food choices. Food demand is often hindered by systemic challenges, and she called for a shift from focusing on individual consumers’ choices to strengthening food agency. Mobilizing the “collective power of food demand” is envisaged as a coordinated approach among all food systems actors, where consumers are supported by enabling environments to drive healthier and more sustainable diets, which are accessible, affordable, and desirable.

Panel discussion

Moving to the panelists, we heard a variety of perspectives to complement the topic.

Oenema Stineke, Senior Policy Advisor for Food Security and Nutrition at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recalled the importance of working coherently across ministries in her role to improve the sustainability of farming systems and tackle food insecurity. She emphasized the need to take small, incremental steps while pushing to connect the dots between sustainability and health outcomes. She also mentioned that improving agrobiodiversity can lead to better nutrition outcomes, depending on other factors in the context such as access to markets.

Angela Odero, CEO of Rio Fish Limited, Kenya, shared the perspective of a small-and-medium enterprise (SME). Rio Fish is a women owned company in a male dominated field, that addresses numerous challenges in this field – including accessing capital, connecting to cold chains, and weak demand due to cultural preferences, availability, and affordability of fish over other protein alternatives. Their original goal to support and empower women has led to a variety of opportunities in the fish value chain (fish farming, aggregation, value addition, fish waste to biogas production, training smallholders on sustainable fish farming, food handling, and financial management) that bring nutritious foods to underserved youth and women populations while supporting economic livelihoods with Rio Fish redefining the blue economy with impact-driven innovation.

Francine Xavier, Director of Instituto Comida do Amanhã, and Fabricio Muriana, Co-founder of the Instituto Regenera, took us from Kenya to Brazil. Francine presented LUPPA, the Brazilian Laboratory on Urban Food Policies, a capacity-building and knowledge-sharing program, and platform for information and best practices on local food policies. This highlighted the importance of the civil society space to promote healthy and sustainable solutions in food systems. There is a growing trend of food system movements, also increasingly made up of self-identified “food system institutions,” which go beyond traditional NGOs, to include a wider range of actors engaged in advocacy and governance. Their efforts in organizing these spaces have supported strategies to expand the public health debate between agrifood systems, climate, and planetary health with solutions for the Global South. Fabricio demonstrated how this was being operationalized in practice at the COP30 in Brazil later this year with the COP30 Food Initiative. They have been advocating to ensure the catering and provision of food services of the COP is low carbon, originating from Brazilian producers, including indigenous producers.

Helena Guarin and Hélène Berton, Head and Policy Officer, respectively, of the Nutrition Sector at the Sustainable Agri-Food systems and Fisheries division (F3), at the European Union Directorate General for International Partnerships (EU DG INTPA) concluded the panel discussion. In a context of a growing global demand for unhealthy food, Helena reinforced the message that integrated approaches – approaches that integrate nutrition and agroecology, as well as approaches that consider both the supply- and demand-side of food – are essential. Certain improvements have been seen through landmark events like the Biodiversity COP16, and governments and international organizations can continue to support healthy food environments to promote access to diverse and healthy products. Hélène complemented this message by underlining the need for a critical mass of actors, notably young ones, well-trained across diverse fields to support this change. DG INTPA is committed to supporting initiatives that promote agroecological practices, enhance the nutritional value of food, and empower consumers. Examples of this support include EU-funded agroecology programmes in countries like Madagascar, Laos, Rwanda, and Senegal, which aim to sustainably improve diets while preserving ecosystems.

Questions and conclusions

A lively question and answer session followed the panel discussions. Sylvain Perret noted that as the UN Decade of Action for Nutrition nears its end, the 2025 N4G Summit in Paris must move from diagnosis to concrete policy action, building on the 2021 N4G Tokyo Summit and past efforts to link nutrition, agriculture, and climate resilience. He closed the event by stressing three key points to fuel policy thinking.

First, evidence needs to be translated into actionable insights, so that they inform targeted policies, recognizing that different food system outcomes relate to public, private, and common goods, services, and even disservices. Addressing these diverse outcomes, e.g., improved livelihoods, climate mitigation, or healthy diets, requires specific policy instruments. These instruments target compensation, investment, regulation, or capacity development, depending on the type of good or service being promoted, supported, or mitigated.

Second, most policymakers focus on the supply side to produce more food, but the demand-side is crucial and needs to be considered as well, along with the question of purchasing power, which must be seen as a lever for food systems transformation.

Third, scale matters and much of the impactful initiatives are happening locally. Territories host many common goods and collective actions, from plant nurseries, community seed systems, and local food procurement schemes to solidarity networks and food culture. These ground-level dynamics are often where food systems transformations begin, and these must be recognized and supported through context-specific solutions to support food system transformation.

The side event was organized by the SASi-SPi initiative (under Agrinatura), the Agroecology Coalition, the European Union - Directorate general for International Partnerships, the French Permanent Representation to the UN Agencies in Rome, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. You can watch it here.