The European Green Deal: A Conversation on the Transformative Force of the EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies to build Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems

The European Green Deal:
A Conversation on the Transformative Force of the EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies
to build Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Opening remarks by Dr. QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

Ambassador Jan Tombiński

Distinguished Panellists,

Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

FAO is committed to paving the way for more sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Delivering healthy food and prosperity for all, while preserving our planet’s natural resources.

Today’s event is therefore very timely to discuss the role of biodiversity in building healthy and sustainable food systems and how to mainstream biodiversity across agricultural sectors.

Biodiversity is vital to improving agricultural and food production and maintaining our planet’s resources and ecosystems. 

FAO’s report of last year on The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture clearly demonstrates this.

It also shows that loss of diversity poses a serious risk to global food security by undermining the resilience of many agricultural systems.

On the positive side, the report found out that biodiversity-friendly practices are on the rise.

Compelling evidence is provided to suggest that more and more action is being taken to safeguard biodiversity and manage sustainably natural resources.

FAO Members are convinced of the importance of biodiversity.

They adopted the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors and we are currently finalizing the Action Plan to implement it.

I am pleased to see FAO Members going ahead and mainstreaming biodiversity across their food systems.

This strongly supports FAO’s action towards sustainability.

The question of sustainability is also at the centre of EU’s ‘Farm to Fork’ and Biodiversity Strategies, as part of the European Green Deal.

The Farm to Fork Strategy is ambitious, as it sets the course for the transformation of the entire sector.

The issues the strategy addresses are well known to us.

Issues, such as reducing loss and waste, reducing the use of synthetic inputs, and strengthening sustainable agricultural practices.

 FAO has taken concrete actions on these issues in order to support its Members to develop sustainable practices.

On Agroecology, FAO adopted Ten Elements of Agroecology as a non-prescriptive analytical and technical tool, aiming to help Members operationalize agroecology.

FAO Members also endorsed the International Code of Conduct for the Sustainable Use and Management of Fertilizers.

The Fertilizer Code provides a locally-adaptable framework and voluntary set of practices to serve the different stakeholders that are directly or indirectly involved with fertilizers.

It sets out roles, responsibilities, and actions of governments and other actors in relation to the production, trade, policy, regulation and use of fertilizers.

We hope that these tools, among many others developed by FAO, will be of use for EU Members in implementing the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity Strategies.

Achieving sustainability at a global scale requires more than just technical solutions, it involves key policy decisions, and in this regard the EU just made a big step.

The next challenge is implementation in the field.

This requires collaborative efforts between environment and agriculture sectors.

In this context, I wish to express my gratitude to the EU and its Member States for their generous and continuous support to FAO’s work in all these areas.

FAO stands ready to strengthen our collaboration.

We are ready to work together with the environment sector; to accompany the changes across the entire food system, from production to consumption.

Let us show nature the reverence it deserves!

Let us work together, learn together and contribute together!

Thank you.