Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: Towards a common understanding of Sustainable Food Systems

Dear members of the FSN Forum,

There has been a lot of activity related to the consultation “Towards a common understanding of Sustainable Food Systems” over this past week. Detailed and thought provoking feedback was provided, looking at the draft v.1.0 from a whole range of different angles. Among the most frequently expressed comments was the suggestion to integrate more examples to illustrate the different concepts and approaches (e.g. further examples of sustainable diets, resilient production systems, etc.). In addition, several contributors high-lighted the importance of the Right to Food and the adoption of a human rights-based approach. Yet other feedback focused on language, highlighting the need for the draft to be easily understandable to a range of different stakeholders. Furthermore, it was mentioned that the interlinkages and differences between the different approaches presented in the draft may still be made more explicit. This is just to highlight some of the most recurrent inputs, while the wealth of feedback received was of course much broader and detailed than that. Many thanks to all contributors for their time and effort put into this consultation so far!

Several commentators highlighted the fact that Sustainable Food Systems is a very broad and complex topic that requires adequate consideration. In addition, there was an important increase in the activity on the FSN Forum over the past days, which I see as an indication of the persisting appetite for this online consultation. For both these reasons we have decided to extend the consultation period until December 13th, allowing even more contributions to add to the solidity of the draft and improving our common understanding of SFS.

For this last week of the consultation, we would particularly appreciate:

  1. inputs providing illustrative examples for the different concepts and approaches presented in the draft; and
  2. suggestions on how to further strengthen the description of the relationship (incl. similarities and differences) between the SFS Approach and the other presented approaches.

Best regards,

Alwin Kopse

Deputy Assistant Director-General

Head International and Food Security Unit

Federal Office for Food and Agriculture FOAG, Switzerland