UN Sponsors Competition for Redesigning World Food Systems

February 12, 2021

(WP) - The United Nations is convening a Food Systems Summit this year as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Claiming that today’s food systems require an urgent upheaval, the EAT Foundation, BI Norwegian Business School, and a consulting firm called Kearney are supporting the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021 by hosting a virtual global case competition for academic institutions and the public. The goal is to generate game-changing solutions to challenge the status quo in the world’s food systems.

Citing Food production and waste as being the main causes behind severe environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and up to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, the UN supports radical, system-level changes that will shift to what they see as healthier and more sustainable consumption patterns while optimizing environmental resource use in food production, processing, and distribution.

Its unclear what changes to these systems might be coming, but there has been buzz about eating less meat, substituting animal proteins for plant-based varieties, and even adopting certain worms as food staples.

“We all have to eat and everyone on this planet is a stakeholder in the global food system. Yet today, the food system is failing both our health and the environment, and the science shows that we cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals nor the Paris Agreement without fixing it,” says Dr. Gunhild Stordalen.

In a press release announcing the Food Systems Summit, emphasis is placed on the need to improve the world’s food for the sake of global health. The organizations supporting the food systems competition claim that unhealthy food is now deadlier than alcohol drugs and tobacco combined.

“We believe that today’s students, which represent the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders, can be a driving force in finding solutions that may provide long term economic, environmental and societal value at a large scale. This case competition is a call to action for students and people worldwide to put their skills to the test to solve one of the most pressing challenges facing society, namely our food systems and the need for system transformation," says Inge Jan Henjesand, President at BI Norwegian Business School.

The competition will be held in March, with cash prizes of $20,000.

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