Global leaders tackle interconnected challenges at the 2016 EAT Stockholm Food Forum

From 13 to 14 June 2016, the EAT Stockholm Food Forum took place in Stockholm, Sweden. The event brought together global leaders and experts in food, health, and sustainability to help develop goals, strategies, and guidelines to meet the interconnected challenges of consumption and production patterns, cities, accountability, technology and innovation across the food industry.

As the keynote speaker, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and member of the SUN Movement Lead Group, spoke on why the Sustainable Development Goals make business sense. Corinna Hawkes, co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report urged political leaders to learn from the successes of countries such as Brazil and Kenya. The 2016 Global Nutrition Report launch at the event highlight that 44 percent of countries included in the report suffer serious levels of both undernutrition and obesity.

“Small farmers everywhere are battling to be profitable. Yet they are our champions in the fight to improve nutrition and counter environmental degradation.” Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development

Mary Robinson, Climate justice advocate and member of the SUN Movement Lead Group, called for climate policies that are people centred and respect human rights, to avoid unintended consequences. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and a speaker at the 2016 EAT Stockholm Food Forum, explained why investing in small-scale farmers and rural development can improve global food production and safeguard the environment. Jamie Oliver, Chef and Campaigner also attended the event, building on his urge to Ministers of Health at the World Health Assembly, to invest in nutrition and to make children a priority.

“Currently 41 million children under the age of five are overweight, while another 159 million are too undernourished to grow properly. We’re in the middle of a global health crisis and we urgently need a food revolution so we can reverse the tide. I believe that every person on the planet should be able to access, understand and consume nutritious, delicious food, every day. The good news is that the Food Revolution is well underway and we have an army of people fighting for meaningful, lasting change.” Jamie Oliver, Chef and Campaigner

About EAT

The EAT Foundation builds on the work of the EAT Initiative, created by the Stordalen Foundation and Stockholm Resilience Centre in 2013. Together with the Wellcome Trust they launched the EAT Foundation in March 2016 with the ambition to reform the global food system. The three organisations use their unique range of experience in health, science, policy and sustainability, to convene experts and decision makers who together can transform the way we eat, including the annual high-level forum, the EAT Stockholm Food Forum.