While the draw of authentic cacio e pepe just might be strong enough to pull some of us from D.C. across the Atlantic, it was the 2023 World Food Forum (WFF) that brought us to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy.
Our group of six graduate students from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., represented the GW Global Food Institute as a youth delegation to the WFF. The six of us also share the belief that the policies that currently govern agrifood systems uphold the interests of governments and powerful industry groups at the expense of human health, social justice and the future of the planet.
As collective first-timers to any United Nations convening, we want to provide you with our insights as six individuals with diverse, yet often overlapping, reflections on our time and the opportunities we see to make the WFF more inclusive and action-oriented. Although this year’s WFF did an amazing job of bringing together compelling voices and actors from across the globe for important discussions, there were also a few key areas of improvement that would have made the event that much more successful.
Here are our “sweet” (our favorite parts) and “sour” (our not-so-favorite parts) reflections and our suggestions to strengthen the WFF experience for future youth food systems advocates.
What is the World Food Forum?
The WFF is a global platform to transform agrifood systems with the 2023 theme of “Agrifood systems transformation accelerates climate action.” The forum was composed of three interconnected events—the WFF Global Youth Forum, the FAO Science and Innovation Forum and the FAO Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum.
These were intended to facilitate intergenerational and cross-sector conversations about the transformation of agrifood systems at the local, regional and global level. The WFF Global Youth Forum was specifically designed to change the conversation around food and agriculture by giving young people a seat at the table and fostering youth-to-youth connection through open dialogue and a series of cross-cutting events.
Opportunities to attend the Global Indigenous Youth Forum
At the same time as the World Food Forum event, the FAO also held the Global Indigenous Youth Forum. Although they were separate events, they both took place at the FAO headquarters allowing us to attend several sessions of the Indigenous Youth Forum.
Although we appreciated being able to attend the sessions within the Global Indigenous Youth Forum, we were disappointed that the Indigenous youth event was separate from the WFF because Indigenous youth are an integral part of any youth-focused agrifood system discussion. While recognizing the value of having a separate space for Indigenous youth, it was off-putting to have the event at the same time and place as the WFF, as if to silo the two groups and create a false dichotomy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth in agrifood systems.
Limited opportunity for open dialogue and minimal action items
The Sour: The sessions we attended were valuable for continuing to think about actions to implement for agrifood systems transformation and environmental protection. However, the panel sessions lacked the opportunity for meaningful insights from panelists. We appreciated the efforts of the panelists to convey their messages in a very short time, but the lack of time limited panelists’ contributions to their pre-prepared speeches, inhibiting any dialogue between speakers.
Room for improvement: We suggest the organizers:
- Decrease the number of panelists
- Ensure higher-level policy- and decision-makers are in attendance
- Keep an open mind and a positive, solutions-oriented mindset
- Increase the structured participation of decision-makers at roundtables
- Open all WFF sessions to youth attendees
Misalignment of the 2023 WFF theme
Unfortunately, the forum theme this year of “agrifood system transformation to accelerate climate action” seemed like an afterthought during many of the forum’s central deliberations.
Our policy deliberation at the WFF was only centered around changing behavior at the individual level in schools through education. Despite the importance of childhood education around food and agriculture and the need to connect students with how their food is produced and prepared, we felt this hyperfocus on education significantly inhibited our ability to propose policies that could drive “agrifood system transformation” and led to a lack of disruptive change policies.
Policy actions should not only facilitate the consumer’s ability to make healthy and sustainable food choices, but also incentivize the producer’s participation in an economically rewarding and just transition and empowering workers through stable livelihoods and protections.
Room for improvement: We suggest the organizers:
- Provide more time for deliberation around larger systems-level challenges
- Democratize the process of choosing data and policy priorities
- Ensure transparency in the agenda setting process
Looking forward, we need the guidance and insight of those with experience in the critical topics being discussed at the WFF and more seats at the table for diverse agrifood system perspectives. We believe that together, across generations, we can do more “to move the needle.” We appreciated the opportunity to listen, engage, be inspired and critically reflect on the urgency of transforming our agrifood systems and moving from conversation to action.
(This letter was edited for space. Read the students’ full open letter on the Planet Forward website.)
Individual Reflections on the World Food Forum
Read the students’ full reflections by clicking on the links below.
“As someone who is passionate about transforming food systems for the benefit of racial justice and animal protection, I was eager to connect with other young advocates globally on these issues. While the forum provided opportunities to share ideas with other young people engaged in bettering food systems, I was disappointed by the lack of acknowledgement of the role that systemic factors play in the transformation of food systems.”
Assessing the youth role in food systems transformation
Kailey McNeal
GW Law ’24
“People from all over are thinking about the impact of our food production and consumption on the environment, on livelihoods, on our future—and advocating for an agrifood system transformation that is healthy, sustainable, and socially just.
“Thinking about how best to communicate this urgency, how to hold governments and corporations accountable, how to empower communities. People are calling for innovation, and not just the start-up kind, but innovative pathways for preserving, scaling and repurposing traditional knowledge and practices to our urgent crises. But how do we better address this question?”
The dichotomy of plant-based diets vs livestock
Sydney Pryor
Milken Institute SPH Ph.D. candidate in Health Policy
“We youth, as a group, are more than just a category defined by age. We are intersectional and multi-faceted in our identities. Our struggle overlaps with other marginalized and undervalued groups in society, such as Indigenous peoples, women, gender and sexual minorities, people with disabilities, poor people and more.”
An open letter to my fellow youth and our future leaders
Nick Smaldone ’23
CCAS M.S. candidate in Geography
“Each session I attended, and every interaction I had, was a vivid tapestry of insights. Voices ranged from smallholder farmers to academics, from private sector mavens to policymakers, each contributing to a rich mosaic of perspectives. The diversity underscored the multifaceted nature of our quest for food security—a challenge demanding nothing less than collaborative ingenuity.”
Passionate young voices come together
Angela Tarana
Elliott School M.A. candidate in International Development
