Farmers, fishers and food producers, who are the bedrock of the agriculture sector, are central to the transformation of food systems, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has told the UN Food Systems pre-summit in Rome.

He said the voices and concerns of farmers, fishers and food producers must be heard.

“The UN Food Systems Summit provides us with a unique opportunity to come together, to share our experiences, listen and learn from each other, and champion new solutions and build shared pathways towards more sustainable food systems.

“Ireland believes that sustainable food systems are crucial to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030; and, therefore, has been strongly supportive of the summit objectives.

"Ireland’s four national food systems summit dialogues, which attracted over 8,000 participants, generated valuable insights and understanding from across our food system,” he said.

Challenge

The Minister added that Ireland is responding to the food systems challenge.

“Over the past two years, stakeholders in our agri-food sector have worked together on a national agri-food strategy, which I brought before Government last week.

"Food Vision 2030 – A World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems envisages a transformational pathway to a position of world leadership by dealing with the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social.

“It was developed using a food systems approach which recognises the interconnections between policies for food, health, environment and climate.

"I believe Ireland’s experience of stakeholder involvement in strategy formation will be of interest internationally.”

Food systems transformation

The Minister said the summit must also address the important question of how we transform our food systems.

“The farmers, fishers and food producers who are the bedrock of our sector are central to this transformation, and their voices and concerns must be heard.

"For this reason, Ireland has been leading the development of a food systems transformation support facility that will assist countries in building inclusive, sustainable and equitable food systems for the future.

“We will continue to develop this coalition over the coming months as we prepare for the summit in September,” he said.