Rome - Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The work of the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which started in Rome on Monday, continues for two days, with the attendance of about 2,000 participants from 160 countries, including leaders and heads of government of 20 countries.
The summit is taking place at a time when a host of factors are challenging the ability of the world's agri-food systems to provide nutritious food and a more sustainable life for all. Among these factors are population growth, urbanization, changing consumption patterns and climate change.
Corina Hokes, Director of the Food Systems and Food Security Department at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said that the world needs an integrated and sustainable approach that takes into account economic, social and environmental factors, and for everyone to cooperate to deal with these challenges.
The summit will provide a space for participating countries to review their commitments to action made at the first Food Systems Summit in 2021.
The FAO official said that the agro-food system is everything related to food and agriculture, noting that it is called the system due to the fact that everything related to it is "interconnected".

"stressed" system
The agri-food system is "stressful," Hawkes said. "How should something stressful provide solutions? So the frustration and the challenge here is that the ability of the agri-food system to provide those solutions is not there until we transform this system, make it stronger, and help it provide solutions that we know it can provide."
The Director of the Food Systems and Food Security Department at the FAO touched on the lack of diversity in production, saying that there is a need to think carefully about diversifying agricultural production, "as it is beneficial for biodiversity, and it is also beneficial for the environment."
She added that diversity is also beneficial for people because there is a need to diversify the food they get, noting that "the mistake we made was to exaggerate diversity from the system."

Momentum continues
The UN official stressed that the Food Systems Summit is an opportunity to confirm the continuation of the momentum that resulted from the previous summit, and that commitment to change will not remain a commitment, but will lead to action on the ground to bring about actual change.
The United Nations Secretariat is organizing the summit - which is hosted by Italy - in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, will chair the opening meeting of the high-level summit.