Food systems are the combination of all actions it takes to produce and consume our food on a day-to-day basis – from farm to fork to landfill. Food systems include any activity that produces, aggregates, processes, distributes, consumes or disposes of food.
Resetting our food system s is urgent. Food systems have fed a growing population, but the cost is unsustainable. Current food systems often encroach on natural habitats, pollute the planet, exacerbate rural poverty and underlie ill health and disease. Market and government failures impose high costs on society and the environment.
Poverty and hunger are increasing in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, while the majority (79%) of the world’s poor continue to live in rural areas. Over 800 million people are hungry and 3 billion people are malnourished.
Food systems produce around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, while agriculture is the largest user of land and water, accounting for 70 percent of water use. Reducing the emissions of “hidden” environmental, health, and poverty costs estimated at almost US$12 trillion per year, compared to US$10 trillion in market value.
1/3 of food produced globally is either lost or wasted, while food loss and waste is a major contributor to global emissions. Meanwhile, millions of people are either not eating enough or eating the wrong types of food, resulting in a double burden of malnutrition that can exacerbate illnesses and health crises.
Photo credit: Curt Carnemark, World Bank
In response to these challenges, the World Bank created a dedicated Umbrella Multi-Donor Trust Fund in November 2020: FoodSystems 2030. Umbrella Trust Funds are specifically designed to address systemic, pervasive development challenges of our time. Food Systems 2030 seeks to transform food systems by 2030, fostering healthy people, a healthy planet and healthy economies.
Photo credit: Charlotte Kesl, World Bank
FoodSystems 2030 is creating a growing movement of countries and development organizations committed to making change happen on the ground. Since 2020, the Trust Fund has co-hosted global Policy Dialogues with the Government of the UK, engaging 49 countries through a total of 10 such dialogues so far.
An outcome of these dialogues was a Policy Action Agenda, launched at COP26 and with the endorsement of 17 lead countries. At COP27 FS2030 presented the outcome of the 2022 dialogues in the form of guidelines and a proposed set of milestones for policy reform processes to deliver sustainable agriculture. At the national level, FS2030 is engaged in 30 countries, providing them with technical and financial support to assess policies and public expenditures and guide policy action for sustainable agriculture.
FS2030 developed tools to help countries assess their policy frameworks: in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FS2030 has developed a toolkit on repurposing agricultural policies and support. In partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, FS2030 developed the Financial Flows into Food Systems Model, tracking financial flows in support of food system transformation.
