Initially scheduled to take place in Montpellier, the 4t h International Conference on Global Food Security will be held as an interactive live -streamed event on December 4-9, 2020. Less than one year before the United Nations Food Systems Summit, this event offers scientists around the world an opportunity to share their progress and contribute to the promotion of sustainable food to help meet sustainable development needs.
The conference focuses on the question of food security at all levels, from local to global, highlighting an interdisciplinary and systemic perspective of food systems. It addresses the three-fold consequences of malnutrition: hunger, micronutrient deficiencies, and obesity.
The event seeks to increase understanding of the various driving factors, covering environmental, nutritional, agricultural, demographic, socio-economic, political, technological, and institutional issues regarding food security for today and tomorrow. The conference highlights integrated analyses and perspectives, uniting scientific stakeholders as well as nonacademic players and decision-makers from civil society and the private sector.
Conference results will be shared at the United Nations Food Systems Summit to be held in September 2021 in New York. The Food Systems Summit is expected to provide an essential contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. The goal is to generate the commitments needed to transform food system and thus help fight the three-fold consequences of malnutrition – hunger, micronutrient deficiencies, and obesity – as well as to make transformation a lever for meeting future environmental, climate, health, and social challenges.
Program features: several plenary sessions, including some dedicated to sustainable
development issues and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many sessions organized in parallel to cover the conference’s 12 main topics, along with about twenty minisymposiums starting December 4 to increase interactions between scientists.
The conference’s 12 topics
1. How to assess future food security: foresight, forecasting, projecting, predicting, and exploring the future
2. Transitions to post-carbon food systems in a post-carbon economy
3. Analyzing the impact of COVID-19
4. Development, impact, and ethics of novel and data-driven technologies in food systems
5. Influencing food consumption and demand with respect to the food environment
6. Food security and sustainable development goals: synergies, tensions, and trade-offs
7. Food security and policy, governance, institutions, and trade
8. Stability and dynamics of food availability, access, and utilization
9. Access: food affordability, distribution, and preferences
10. Circularity in food systems at local, regional, and global levels
11. Food utilization: nutritional value, social value, and health safety
12. Availability: food production, distribution, and exchange
Event organizers and partners
The 4th International Conference on Global Food Security is organized by Elsevier, I-Site MUSE/University of Montpellier, Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands), with support by Agropolis Fondation, Agropolis International, CCARDESA, CGIAR, Cirad, IDRC/CRDI, Inrae, IRD, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, and Occitanie Region.
Registration fees are reduced and all-inclusive thanks to provided financial support. Grants are easily available for students and participants in southern-hemisphere countries.
The event is co-chaired by Patrick Caron, University of Montpellier Vice president for International Relations, and member of the CGIAR Board of Directors and Martin Van Ittersum from Wageningen University.