Geneva press engagement on food security and agrifood systems transformation: November and December 2024

Geneva - In the context of the biweekly Press Briefings organized by the United Nations Information System (UNIS) in Geneva, the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva (LOG) regularly contributes to ensure agrifood system issues are on the agenda and FAO activities and messages are delivered to the UN-accredited journalists. In November and December 2024, five press engagement activities were rolled out to communicate about the latest updates on FAO’s works, including the press conferences on the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2024 and the State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2024, World AMR Awareness Week, and the FAO Food Price Index for November and December.  

Two press conferences under embargo were organized for the launch of the SOFA 2024 and SOCO 2024 reports. Andrea Cattaneo, FAO Senior Economist and the lead author of the SOFA 2024 report joined the press conference in-person to highlight the key findings from the SOFA 2024 report. He briefed on the True Cost of Food, providing updates and refined numbers produced for the previous edition. He highlighted three points in his statement. First, he said that we need to acknowledge that distinct agrifood systems categories face unique challenges and to do this, the report analyzes results through the lens of different agrifood systems types. Second, he noted that the report highlights the importance to address health hidden costs, since they account for 70 percent of the total hidden costs, and further breaks these down into 13 specific dietary risk factors to enable countries to build more targeted and effective policy interventions. As for the third point, he emphasized that the report focuses on how to enhance the value of agrifood systems to society, considering more than just GDP and recognizing that agrifood systems are essential for food security and nutrition, biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, and more. 

Ahead of the launch of the SOCO 2024 report, George Rapsomanikis, FAO Senior Economist and lead author of the report, joined the press conference under embargo in-person to give an overview of the latest findings in the SOCO 2024. Nancy Aburto, FAO Deputy Director of the Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) and Andrea Zimmermann, FAO Economist, also joined virtually to provide additional inputs of the report. The speakers highlighted that trade can affect our diets, and that the latest SOCO report assessed trade effects on the composition of food that is available for consumption. The speakers highlighted that this is an important part of the food environment, which can shape nutritional outcomes and that this report looked at food diversity, nutrient adequacy, food prices and the role of trade agreements in affecting the composition of food import demand.  

During the World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week, Junxia Song, FAO Senior Animal Health Officer, explained that AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites become resistant to medicines, making infections harder, or even impossible, to cure. She highlighted that this crisis didn’t just threaten human health, but it impacted animals, agriculture, and the environment and the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in agriculture production accelerated the spread of resistance. She noted that this year’s UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AMR reinforced the urgency of action and mentioned FAO’s initiative ‘Reduce the Need for Antimicrobials on Farms for Sustainable Agrifood Systems Transformation (RENOFARM)’, a 10-year initiative, helping farmers reduce antimicrobial use through sustainable practices. 

As part of the regular monthly update on the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI), Monika Tothova, FAO Senior Economist briefed the journalists on the FFPI for October and November. Briefing October’s FFPI, Tothova stated that the FFPI had increased by two percent in October compared to its September levels, reaching the highest level since April 2023. Price quotations for all commodities in the index, except meat, had risen, with vegetable oils recording the largest increase. For November’s FFPI, Tothova said that it had increased by 0.5 percent compared to October, reaching its highest level since April 2023. The overall FFPI in November was 5.7 percent higher than in November 2023 but remained 20.4 percent below its peak in March 2022, immediately following the start of the war in Ukraine.