Discussing policies driving sustainable food systems
Agriculture and food systems urgently need to change to meet the SDGs by 2030. The WFSC took part in a recent webinar by Helvetas exploring how policies can drive this change.
Most agree that agriculture and food systems urgently need to change to make progress on several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while staying within planetary boundaries. In a recent comment in Nature Sustainability, a group of authors including WFSC member Dr. Adrian Müller proposes a policy framework that triggers the required transition. Organic agriculture, although not a silver bullet, is a useful component in such strategy.
On 16 May, Helvetas Switzerland hosted the webinar “Coherent policies driving sustainable food systems in Switzerland and India” to further discuss the policy measures discussed in the article. Authors Frank Eyhorn (Helvetas) and Adrian Müller (FiBL and ETH Zurich) were joined by
Bernard Lehmann (Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture) and Neeraja Adidam (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, India). Martijn Sonnevelt from the WFSC moderated the discussion.
The two policy makers talked about how they perceived the interventions identified in the article as ones that can synergistically transition the food system to a more sustainable one. They also discussed the priorities for future development in food systems in Switzerland and India. The panelists also answered questions from online participants during the discussion.
We thank Helvetas for hosting this timely and interesting webinar. It was a pleasure to take part in the discussion.
Read the full comment article “Sustainability in global agriculture driven by organic farming” external pagehere
And Adrian Müller’s Zukunftsblog “Organic farming drives sustainable agriculture” here
