The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – and the future of our planet and its people – depend on well-functioning food systems everywhere. They should be sustainable, produce foodstuffs that are affordable, safe and nourish people. The next Food Systems Dialogues will be held in Luxembourg on May 22, 2019. 

Efforts to encourage rapid and joint actions that transform food systems have been hampered by deep disagreements among different stakeholders. These can be reduced through greater interaction between the different actors working for sustainable food systems. Interaction helps different actors to reach a better understanding about reasons behind their different positions and enables them to identify ways to align. There are insufficient mechanisms presently available that encourage all stakeholders to have opportunities for meeting, talking, agreeing and acting together. Such mechanisms are necessary for more rapid transformation to sustainable food systems in local and global (“glocal”) settings, across all nations.

Effective joint action usually involves a common vision about what is a working food system, an understanding of where positions on the vision diverge, and increasing degrees of agreement on how to realize the vision. Achieving a common vision is easier of different actors use the similar scientific analyses of what people need to be well nourished, and of the boundaries to the safe use of planetary resources. They will also want to take account of power relations, to understand how markets work and to appreciate the range in capabilities for producing, processing and purchasing food.

FSDs sessions will build on each other. There will be FSDs sessions whenever possible in the margins of international meetings that focus on sustainable development and food systems: results will be shared between FSDs in ways that encourage both continuity of debate and the evolution of positions. Dialogues will also be encouraged and advanced at local, national and regional level. Results will be threaded among FSDs and between the different levels.