Takeaways from New York Climate Week 2024
Top 5 Takeaways from New York Climate Week: Fixing the Food System
New York Climate Week gave us powerful insights that show how food, sustainability, and innovation are inextricably intertwined.
These takeaways highlight the complexity and potential of transforming the food system. It’s time for bold moves, collaborative efforts, and creative solutions to ensure food accessibility, dignity, and health for all.
1. The Food System is Broken—But Fixable
The food system is not set up for this level of instability. It will take an enormous investment, especially when the ROI and business model are not behind restructuring the supply chain. But the hard work is getting the culture to care, and whilst we’ve made progress, it's not systemic change because we’ve sidestepped the hard work of changing people's minds, which is hard to measure. On the plus side, Food is no longer a partisan issue. Both sides of the political aisle, including Republicans, are waking up to the monetary and environmental value of fixing the food system. The upcoming release of new dietary requirements and shifts in how people eat due to drugs like GLP-1 has the food industry quaking because it changes how people eat.
Society can't afford expensive drugs any more, and the cheapest, simplest, most affordable solution is encouraging healthier eating habits.
Food, like music, brings people together, and now it’s time to unite behind fixing a system that’s failing us all. Answers have to fit into today's realities.
2. Farming Faces a Drought—Literally and Metaphorically
The farming industry is in crisis: the number of farmers is in decline, mainly due to a lack of career progression, money and land. Young people are interested but can't break into the sector. The solution? Policy reform, investment in training programs, and creating pathways for mid-career and younger individuals.
The rise of community gardens transforming into urban farms could be part of the answer, providing that first step and injecting diversity and representation into a system that desperately needs both.
3. Nutrition Science on the Edge of a Breakthrough
We’re on the cusp of a nutrition science revolution. After 40 years of understanding food at a molecular level, we’re poised for significant breakthroughs—what some call "moonshots"—that could change how we think about food's impact on our cells.
Investing in this knowledge will lead to new ways of thinking about food as medicine and preventive health care.
There are already practical measures in place. Evidence shows front-of-package labelling laws to reduce childhood obesity in the EU and South America. Science may soon inform the future of food more than ever.
4. Innovation Without High Costs
Fixing the food system doesn’t always require expensive technology or complex interventions. Many are looking back to ancient and indigenous cultures for inspiration and advice.
Chobani argues that we want the latest and greatest on our phones, but we are not getting that into our food. ‘Perishable’ changes food nutrition, e.g., picking tomatoes so they are firm enough to ship, not fully mature on the vine. Innovating in that refrigeration and dairy space created "super milk," a nutrient-dense product deployed during natural disasters. They reduced the sugar content in Yoghurt from an average of 43 grams to 15 grams.
A Partnership with Hilton and Winnow, a global AI Leader in Commercial Food Waste Solutions, created the ‘green breakfast’ cutting food waste by 60%
These practical, common-sense innovations show how creative thinking can reshape industries. Whether reducing food waste in partnership with hotels or reimagining staple foods, buying in season, creativity, and collaboration will drive the change we need.
5. Colombia Leads the Way
As one of the world's most biodiverse countries, few countries have matched Colombia’s efforts in halting deforestation and enforcing protections for its vital ecosystems. At the Peace with Nature event, the first Indigenous woman to serve as Colombia’s ambassador to the UN underscored how deeply connected our lives are to nature and how modern science has validated Indigenous methodologies.
Her leadership brings a fresh perspective to global efforts on biodiversity, turning what we once saw as commodities into communities, and reminds us of the wisdom in sustainable living.