Excellencies, honoured guests, dear colleagues and friends;
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone joining us today.
Thank you to all the panel members, moderators, and speakers for your support.
At the World Health Assembly last week, I said in my opening remarks that we have come to a fork in the road; that if we go on the same old way, we will get the same old result: a world that is unhealthy, unprepared, unsafe, and unfair.
I said that now is not the time for incremental improvements or tinkering at the edges. This is the moment for bold ideas, bold commitment, and bold leadership for doing things that have never been done before.
That’s true for global health security, and it’s also true for transforming our food systems.
We need a new food systems narrative that embraces the interconnectedness of humans, animals and the planet that sustains us.
And this is what WHO is working on: we propose a new “food systems for health” narrative, with five major pathways through which food systems impact health, using a One Health approach.
First, unhealthy diets and food insecurity, with impacts including overweight and obesity, undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and diet-related noncommunicable diseases;
Second, zoonotic pathogens and antimicrobial resistance, with impacts through farmed, ranched, and wild-caught animals;
Third, unsafe and adulterated foods, including those containing hazards such as pathogens, chemicals, and toxicants;
Fourth, environmental contamination and degradation, through pollution of soil, air, and water resources;
And fifth, occupational hazards, including harm to physical and mental health suffered by workers in the food system.
Many of today’s speakers will elaborate on these pathways.
WHO is supporting its Member States to take action.
We are highlighting actions that can help policy and decision-makers deliver impact across food systems for better human, animal, and planetary health.
We provide guidance and tools in different areas of work, including public food procurement and services; food reformulation; fiscal policies; regulation of marketing of foods and beverages, including breastmilk substitutes; nutrition labelling; food fortification; food safety and control of AMR, and many others.
Even prior to the pandemic, the root of many of the world’s most pressing threats to human, animal, and planetary health were unhealthy, inequitable and unsustainable food systems.
As we recover from the devastation of COVID-19, we have to think ahead and build forward.
Now is the time to get our food systems right. This is the year of action on nutrition, and we are halfway through the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.
The UN Food Systems Summit is itself a call to action to prioritize human and planetary health.
Let me leave you with three priorities:
First, we must work with a One Health approach that addresses the intimate links between humans, animals and the environment.
Second, we must work across sectors, to harness the comparative advantages of government, the private sector and civil society.
Third, we must build a new narrative that nurtures health at every stage of food system, from farm to fork.
I thank you.