Professor Tim Lang
When a country goes to war, as the UK has just done, it may seem trite to be writing about food systems. It is not. As we know, the food system is under immense strain from multiple factors. The climate change talks in Paris are at last focusing on this iceberg to progress. The Habitat lll talks in 2016 will focus on the urbanised environment. The loss of biodiversity goes on apace, with the Convention on Biological Diversity struggling to get a grip on the losses. And last year (2014), the FAO and WHO tried to face the enormity of the nutrition challenge at the ICN2 in Rome.
What is the connection between all these events? Lack of joined-up thinking? yes. Lack of institutional leverage? yes. Lack of political leadership? yes. Lack of cultural engagement? Yes. Consumerism broken away from its eco-systems requirements? Yes, that too.
As a small contribution to debating this complexity – which IFSTAL is trying to illuminate – Rebecca Wells and I wrote this piece in the online The Conversation. The article asks why is food being left out of the Paris Climate Change talks.
We hope you find it interesting.
