Submitting Party: Millennium Institute, Washington D.C., U.S.

Government:
- Swiss Confederation
- Norway

NGO:
- Biovision, Foundation for ecological Development, Switzerland
- BioEconomy Africa, Ethiopia
- Millennium Institute, Washington D.C., U.S.
- The Development Fund, Norway
- More & Better Network
- IFOAM

Participants will enjoy the first parts of the documentary “No Fight No Victory”, presented by award-winning Director Jan van den Berg. One billion people in the world face hunger. In Brazil’s third city, Belo Horizonte, the right to food is now guaranteed by law. Its policy inspired many people in the world, but each country needs to find its own strategy. Together with journalist Sara Abreu Mata Machado, the film takes us around the world to see the hopeful developments eradicating hunger through the eyes of the people Sara meets. It becomes very clear: to arrive at a truly sustainable agriculture and food system, we need to transform the food value chains – from production to consumption.

The world is facing an unprecedented challenge of providing sufficient high quality food to nourish a global population that will peak at more than 9 billion by 2050. This is exacerbated by several factors, including climate change, resource depletion, loss of biological diversity, growing food insecurity, nutrition deficiency, marginalization of smallholder farmers, the diminishing area of agricultural land, desertification, land degradation and drought.

The need for improving the environmental and social performance of agriculture is underscored by the accelerating depletion of non-renewable resources; the overutilization of renewable resources (e.g. agriculture uses 70% of all freshwater withdrawals) and their regenerative capacity; the annual generation of more than a third of the planet?s global greenhouse gas emissions; the widening gap between the Millennium Development Goals about hunger and poverty and the actual hunger and poverty situation; the inefficient use of crops as feed and biofuels; and the enormous inefficiencies in food use as post-harvest food losses and waste along the entire food chain account for at least one-third of all the food produced in the world.

To arrive at a truly sustainable agriculture and food system, it is needed to look at the entire food value chain - from production to consumption. The thematic focus of this event lies on transformative approaches to agriculture and the food value chain that governments and Rio+20 can adopt to:
- Strengthen sustainable agricultural production, with a focus on access to information and markets for smallholders;
- Consider the environmental and ecosystem basis of food production;
- Reducing post-harvest loss and waste along the entire food value chain.

POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO RIO+20
A call for implementation of sustainable agricultural practices has been launched by H.E. Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary General and Secretary-General of UNCSD 2012 Conference, and many other stakeholders with a view to Rio+20. Also food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture figure prominently in the plan of the UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon for the next five years. In addition, addressing implementation issues in food and sustainable agriculture is one of the 7 priorities set for Rio+20. The hosts of the event would like to use this momentum and to discuss how to strengthen implementation along the entire food value chain - with a particular focus on sustainable production and consumptions, including reduction of post-harvest loss and food waste.

SPEAKERS

After opening remarks by Ambassador Martin Dahinden, Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and inspired by the movie, experts will discuss steps that Rio+20 could take to make this happen:

H.E. Patrus Ananias, Former Minister for Social Development and the Fight against Hunger, Brazil

Hans R. Herren, Laureate of the World Food Prize, Co-Chair IAASTD, President Biovision and Millennium Institute

Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)