Agribusiness Interests Hijack 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

This World Food Day (October 16) amidst the ongoing pandemic and the devastating impact of the climate crisis, a Food Systems Summit is being planned a year from now by the United Nations, to fulfil the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. As the Summit takes shape, it is obvious that it does not intend to trigger the deep systemic changes necessary to address the massive challenges that we face. The Summit will do more of the same – green and poor wash – to preserve and perpetuate interests of agribusiness and agro-chemical corporations at the expense of people and the planet.

The key reason for that is its leadership. The deeply problematic appointment of Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), as Special Envoy to the Summit, has been challenged by hundreds of organizations, academics, and social movements, via letters sent to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, to deter the event’s leadership coming from an organization promoting industrial commercial agriculture.