The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam (MARD) invited FAO to present the report The future of food and agriculture – Drivers and triggers for transformation to the 4th Global Conference of the One Planet Network’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme from 23 to 27 April 2023 in Hanoi, Viet Nam, organized by MARD itself in collaboration with One Planet Network’s Sustainable Food System Programme and the Food System Coordination Hub. Thousands of participants from over 190 members worldwide, bringing together leading organizations from government, the United Nations system, civil society, the scientific community, and the private sector attended.

Lorenzo Giovanni Bellù, Senior Economist, Team Leader of the Policy Intelligence Branch - Global Perspectives in the FAO Agrifood Economics Division (ESA) and lead author of the report, presented the report and addressed the issue of transformative pathways for agrifood systems and related strategic policy options.

Key messages of this report were in full synergy with the overarching conclusions of the Conference: stress the need to link short term actions with long-term visions and efforts; avoid short-termism not conducive to transformation; recognize the central role of consumers in transformative processes; ensure access to food by granting higher incomes (and not necessarily low food prices, which are increasing anyway and need to reflect ‘the true cost’ of food), and the need to improve governance at all levels, including reorienting subsidies towards sustainability.

The Conference is expected to  contributes to the first United Nations Food Systems Stocktaking Moment, a follow-up process to the UN Summit (UN FSS) to be held in Rome (Italy) from 24 to 26 July 2023, by focusing on required agrifood systems transformation to overcome the multiple deeply rooted and interlinked crises of climate, biodiversity, conflict, energy, prices, hunger, malnutrition, and health and, finally, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.