Food for All Talk 01 “From Production System to Food System – What Does it Take?”

Early February, the first Food for All Talk (#FFATalks) under the WBG-Netherlands Partnership took place. Chair was Juergen Voegele, Senior Director, Agriculture Global Practice at the World Bank Group. Panelists John McDermott (IFPRI) and Inge Brouwer (Wageningen University and Research) urged participants from WBG, Netherlands, and beyond to flip our thinking: from “Farm to Fork“, to “Fork to Farm”.   

Consumer demand for healthy diets and nutrition outcomes have to drive the value chains, influencing what the private sector delivers and what farming systems produce. However….What is a healthy diet? Can the food system provide adequate, affordable and acceptable food? Where adequate is based on calories and micronutrients; and acceptable is determined by local food culture/preferences. Does the private sector produce what people need or what they want (which is not the same)? How can we change consumer behavior? The event illustrated that partnership can move the agenda – WB’s economic expertise and high-level entry points together with CGIAR/ Wageningen University research could influence public spending in client countries, potentially leveraging consumer demand and private sector supply.

Take a look at the PowerPoint presentation used during the event, or CGIAR’s Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) program. Pilot countries are Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria and Ethiopia.