Urban Food Policy Forum: Reclaiming Democratic Governance of the Food System: Lessons from the UN Summit

The UN has described its Food Systems Summit, an 18-month process culminating on September 23, 2021, as a “peoples’ summit,” bringing together food producers, Indigenous communities, youth activists, researchers, and business leaders to identify strategies to transform the global food system in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Yet hundreds of civil society organizations have chosen to boycott the Summit, claiming that it lacked transparency and accountability and privileged market-based, corporate solutions to food production and distribution over agroecological approaches grounded in food sovereignty and the right to food.

In this month’s forum, Molly Anderson, the William R. Kenan Professor of Food Studies at Middlebury College, will discuss the evolution of the UN Food Systems Summit, the concerns voiced by civil society organizations and others, and potential strategies for more inclusive, democratic governance processes that empower small producers, frontline workers, and communities facing food insecurity and malnourishment.

Saulo Araujo, co-facilitator of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance’s International Relations Collective and the US Friends of the Landless Workers Movement and Bryan Pride, Food Security and Climate Fellow with InterAction, a US based alliance of international NGOs, will respond to Dr. Anderson’s presentation, followed by discussion with the audience.

Guest speaker: Molly Anderson, The William R. Kenan Professor of Food Studies at Middlebury College

Respondents: Bryan Pride, Food Security and Climate Fellow with InterAction

Saulo Araujo, Co-facilitator of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance’s International Relations Collective and the US Friends of the Landless Workers Movement

Moderator: Nevin Cohen, Associate Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and Research Director, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute