FAO DG Outlines "Four Betters" as Strategy to Transform Agri-food Systems

A comprehensive transformation of the global agri-food system can significantly contribute to attaining worldwide targets including ending hunger by 2030, said Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Director-General QU Dongyu during a virtual keynote lecture at Italy's Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

"Agri-food systems are the world's largest economic system, measured in terms of employment, livelihoods, and planetary impact," Qu said, emphasizing that four billion individuals are directly and indirectly in food systems, wherein poverty and hunger are rampant. He further promoted "system thinking", to be applied in a wide array of disciplines such as policies, entrepreneurship, and culture.

He outlined a strategic approach, which he referred to as the "Four Betters":

• Better production: ensuring efficient sustainable consumption and production patterns, inclusive food and agriculture supply chains at local, regional, and global levels.
• Better nutrition: ending hunger, promoting nutritious foods, and increasing access to healthy diets, which can be buoyed by tackling food loss and waste and making sure that markets and trade are accessible and open.
• Better environment: protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, promoting a good environment for farming systems, and combating climate change through reduction, reutilization, recycling, and residual management approaches.
• Better life: reducing inequalities - between urban and rural areas, rich and poor, and men and women - and promoting inclusive economic growth.

Read the media release from FAO.