World Food Day teaches us the importance of dialogues in solving the world’s food problems

Everything has been different in 2020, and World Food Day was no exception. In Brazil we held the first ever virtual World Food Day event, hosted by FoodTech Hub and sponsored by Bayer. The meeting brought together a total of 39 leaders, broadcasting in real time across six panels on topics related to the Brazilian food system, such as food security, climate change, sustainable food, biodiversity, healthy diets, and sustainable industry.

Despite the unusual situation of not all participants being in the same room, the event ran seamlessly and was a success, bringing together stakeholders from organizations as diverse as the FAO, the Brazilian government, major retailers, consumer goods companies, nutrition experts, food and packaging associations and more. Streaming the panels live on YouTube was an excellent addition: with all the discussions public, we felt that we were really opening up the value chain and inviting collaboration from all parties. More than 40 thousand people connected during the day from all over the country.

In most of the panels the importance of the technological transformation in agriculture were mentioned. Similar to consumer technology, which in 30 years went from computers entering the home to handheld devices offering every service combined, agriculture is undergoing a transition from using separate technologies to unified solutions.

It was highlighted that everything in agriculture is becoming data-driven. Today we can easily collect, store and organize agronomic data at levels never before seen, such as plots within each farm. The more data we have and the more accurate it is, the more information we will have about what is happening in the physical world, which can be used to give farmers decision support and improve their results.

Leaders also drew our attention to food waste and how poor infrastructure and logistics can cause it. The goal of developing public policies for sustainable consumption and called on the value chain to facilitate access to information and provide transparency for consumers, so they can make fully informed buying decisions, was discussed too.

As a final highlight, a recent study shows that consumers are increasingly concerned with the sustainability of their food as well as its nutritional value. Most Brazilians get their food information from the social media and television and most of the times reading only the headlines, underlining the importance of being assertive and clear with the information we pass on to the consumer, since we have very little time to get their attention.

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However, what I found most memorable was not any particular panel. It was how, time and time again, the discussion went to surprising places. It started with the themes I had been expecting, such as climate change and nutrition – but before I knew it I was listening to an expert in refrigeration technology talk about optimal refrigerator use for food preservation versus energy expended.

This is the value of these cross-industry events: they present new ideas to you and make you realize their importance, when you would never otherwise have considered them. I came away from the World Food Day event with an appreciation not just of new subject matters, but of the importance of having these conversations in the first place. This level of knowledge-sharing only happens when we bring people together from a mix of backgrounds, industries and specialisms. Collaboration is what truly promotes sustainability, and we all need to work harder to share our insights and achievements along the value chain.

Ensuring resilient food systems and access to healthy and nutritious food is a huge and complex challenge, and no single entity can solve it. Instead, it needs to be addressed in collaboration with all actors in the food system, with attention to the most vulnerable. We need to move towards a network of intersectoral partners dedicated to innovation and sustainability; I hope that World Food Day was a turning point in making this network a reality in Brazil.

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What is also crucial is that our networks include the people with the greatest responsibility for putting change into practice: farmers. Only by working with farmers in the field will we ensure sustainable agriculture, putting less pressure on the environment and safeguarding biodiversity and health.

There is no doubt that Brazil has global agricultural importance – the volume of its exports is testament to that. Investments in agricultural research – leading to advances in science and practical innovations for farmers – are combining with public policies and cross-industry schemes to amplify that importance. But for Brazil to truly fulfil its potential and scale up its sustainability, we need more collaboration in the food system, both domestically and overseas. We need to include everyone – governments, NGOs, business leaders, health and nutrition professionals, retailers – and we need to scale the science-based technological solutions that create the environment for this.

Connecting the value chain is an enormous challenge. But I am optimistic that not only can we solve it, but furthermore, Latin American countries will play a leading role in doing so.