2020 Borlaug Dialogue

Breaking New Ground: Building Resilience Today for Improved Global Food Systems Tomorrow

Thank you to this year’s Media Partner, Farming First.

The combined challenges of climate change and a global pandemic magnify the weaknesses in our current global food systems, causing the global food security community to confront the need to feed up to 10 billion people by 2050. Achieving equity, sustainability and improved nutrition in the food systems requires swift evolution in our definitions, research, plans, approaches and practices to build resilience. The present examination of the global food systems and subsequent actions must address the growing pressures on natural resources, food supply, technology, labor and capital in order to break new ground. Building upon the momentum of the Sustainable Development Goals, the drive to enact global change through collaborative innovation is greater now than ever before.

We invite you to envision resilient food systems that are responsive, accessible, and fair to all. Creating resilience in food systems has become a core principle in global discussions. During the Dialogue, we will tackle structural vulnerabilities requiring immediate attention and reform. Resilient food systems equip stakeholders with the capacity to recover from shocks and mitigate the impacts of stressors such as pandemics, climate change, natural resource degradation, volatile markets, conflict, and natural disasters.

Shifting from reactive responses to proactive approaches is key to transforming the global food systems.