We need good food for all, today and tomorrow, says FAO Chief Economist

31 January, New York – FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero stressed the importance of making agrifood systems more inclusive, sustainable and resilient to major drivers while ensuring affordable, healthy diets, speaking at the ECOSOC Coordination Segment session on resilient and sustainable food systems and SDG 2, at the United Nations in New York. 

“The motto we must follow is good food for all, today and tomorrow. Good food means access to healthy diets, for today means SDG 2, and tomorrow means sustainability,” explained Torero.

In his intervention, the FAO Chief Economist also shared the main takeaways of the Partnership Forum SDG 2 Action Segment, which took place on 30 January, highlighting the need for greater convergence, and that “convergence means coordination of actions.”  

The Partnership Forum and Coordination Segment marked the beginning of the 2024 ECOSOC cycle that will culminate in the HLPF in July, with the review of SDG 2, as well as SDGs 1, 13, 16 and 17. FAO’s engagement in the ECOSOC cycle and support to the HLPF was discussed by Torero at a meeting with the President of ECOSOC, H.E. Paula Narváez Ojeda, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations in New York.

Torero’s participation in the Coordination Segment featured among the activities he undertook during his 2-day mission to New York where he met Member States, UN counterparts and other actors. During this time, Torero provided an in depth look at the challenges presented by food security and nutrition and climate change at a briefing organized by FAO on UNFCCC COP28 outcomes and agrifood systems. At the meeting, Maximo presented the FAO Global Roadmap for Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) without Breaching the 1.5°C Threshold that provides an array of 120 actions across 10 domains and 20 milestones to help deliver on the need to provide “good food for all today and tomorrow”. 

The FAO Chief Economist also met the new Assistant Secretary-General of Youth Affairs, Felipe Paullier, with whom he discussed ways to advance youth engagement in agrifood systems and how FAO can support the new office's efforts, including through the World Food Forum and the new FAO Office for Youth and Women. 

Group of Friends of Food Security and Nutrition
Torero participated in the first Group of Friends of Food Security and Nutrition meeting of 2024, convened by the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN. He provided updates on food security and nutrition worldwide and emphasized the importance of making agrifood systems more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable so they can deliver affordable healthy diets while reducing impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss and degradation of natural resources. In this regard, he stressed the need to build early warning systems, absorption capacity and recovery mechanisms. 

FAO and NYC Mayor's Office of Food Policy on the true cost of food and procurement policies 
During the Chief Economist’s visit to New York, he also visited the Rockefeller Foundation where he met with the executive director of the Mayor's Office of Food Policy, Kate MacKenzie, and other policymakers and researchers to discuss city-level policies to ensure food security and nutrition. Torero was informed about the city’s work on sustainable public food procurement and how the NYC government’s actions are aligned with the FAO Global Roadmap for Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) without Breaching the 1.5°C Threshold. In turn, Torero briefed on FAO’s data and tools, and encouraged the city to share lessons learned on the true cost of food and the Urban Food Agenda. 

Torero and MacKenzie also discussed ways to strengthen collaboration, including by leveraging New York City's experience with its Good Food Purchasing (GFP) framework, an example of how localization efforts have the potential to tackle multiple SDGs, and by sharing FAO methodologies on true cost accounting.