During the period of the UN General Assembly high-level General Debate this week, the UN World Food Systems Summit is taking place Sept. 23. It was instigated by the World Economic Forum, in early 2019, whose Director of Nature-Based Solutions Justin Adams, hailed it this weekend, as first of three important green world confabs this fall, to get nations to become serious about not only climate change, but to “nature-based” economic activity. The second event he pointed to is in October on Biodiversity in China (Part 1, virtual; Part 2 in Kunming in May 2022) and the COP26 in Scotland over Nov. 1-12.
The Sept. 15 press release on the Food Summit states that leaders of more than 90 countries are supposed “to announce their commitments to transform food systems” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Some of these goals are laudable, such as those for ending hunger, but the focus of this event for over 18 months, has been heavily green, and besides government leaders and agriculture officials, there is a heavy component of “private sector, academia, philanthropy and civil society,” which will also “make commitments.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has issued a “call for ambition,” which states, “A well-functioning food system can help prevent conflict, protect the environment and provide health and livelihoods for all.” Guterres’ Special Envoy for the Summit, since fall 2019, has been Agnes Kalibata, President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), funded by the Rockerfeller and Gates’ Foundations. She is a celebrity figure for keeping the status quo of cartel-serving world agriculture and hunger, while talking the talk of “reform.”
The non-government speakers include Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank President David Malpass, and UNICEF Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity Pau Gasol. Among the countries whose national leaders will speak are Argentina, New Zealand, Kenya, Japan and Pakistan.
