Over 100,000 young people from across the globe have engaged in consultation processes as part of the UN Food Systems Summit and the Act4Food, Act4Change movement. What came out, loud and clear, is that the top priority of youth is for everyone, globally, to have access to healthy and sustainable diets.
This open letter from youth and youth advocates represents an urgent call to leaders at COP26 to address the impacts of food systems on human and planetary health. The letter calls on businesses and policymakers to act on the following items:
- Inclusion of healthy and sustainable diets at forthcoming global fora, including COP26, the Biodiversity COP and the Nutrition for Growth Summit - with a strong focus on developing a global approach to measuring progress on healthy, sustainable diets.
- Governments should support the scaling of regenerative and agroecological production of health-promoting foods through agricultural subsidies.
- Governments and businesses should include commitments and strategies on healthy, sustainable diets at the heart of 1.5 degree climate and nature commitments;
- Governments, businesses and academia should adopt frameworks that use true cost accounting of food and measure agricultural success according to quality (nutrients produced), not only quantity (the calories and yield) of food, and;
- Governments and businesses should invest in sustainable future foods, including alternative proteins, while ensuring a just transition for vulnerable sectors so that workers’ rights and livelihoods are protected.
Read the full letter here: An open letter to COP26, businesses and policymakers from global youth and allies