Food systems in need of change: accepting the challenge to build a better future
Published on 15/10/2020
Patrick M Loeff CC BY 2.0
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew there were problems with our food systems, including many poultry production and distribution networks. The need to do things differently, to do them better, underpins the creation and ongoing work of our Hub.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the vulnerabilities associated with global food systems. These include the impacts of climate change, freshwater availability, rapid population growth, changing nutritional trends, inadequate human health services, poor governance and under-investment in local agricultural production and value chains.
The resulting upheaval in national and global economies is enormous and will be felt for many years to come.
Panel discussions
During this time of great change, we have a unique opportunity to reflect on where we’ve come from and where we can go in the 21st century. We’re proposing to harness the depth and breadth of our Hub and our partnerships to contribute to United Nations call that we ‘#BuildBackBetter’ after COVID-19 for the ‘#FutureWeWant’.
We will use a virtual series of fortnightly panel discussions and interactive chat rooms to jointly construct a One Health Roadmap for the future of Poultry, People and Planet. Together we will identify and actively tackle the key challenges to sustainable development from the perspective of one of the world’s most important industry contributors to nutrition security, i.e. the poultry industry.
Given the enormity of the task, we’ll spread these discussions across five themes:
- Disease and pandemics
- Disease governance
- Poultry production and distribution systems
- Food systems
- Food systems governance
We will weave together diverse One Health threads to identify practical and equitable approaches to health security; food security and food systems; and justice in human, animal, and environmental health.
Through the wealth of information and ideas generated, we’ll draft a set of briefing papers for each of the key themes that review, analyse and propose strategic steps to achieve the related SDGs by 2030. In countries where the One Health Poultry Hub is active, we will use this material to energise ongoing country and regional level discussions and policy actions.
More broadly, whilst we know that the world changed in 2020, we hope that our joint efforts will help to ensure that it can now change for the better.