IPES-Food has released a new briefing, ‘Smoke & Mirrors: Examining competing framings of food system sustainability’, the second of four in a series of briefings on global governance of food systems with funding from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, it looks at recent international summits.

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The briefing can be downloaded via the button below this text.

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In the lead up to the international climate negotiations in Egypt (COP27) and food systems high on the agenda for the first time, IPES-Food is warning that a growing number of green buzzwords are being used to obstruct food system transformation. 

The new briefing reveals that, in the battle of ideas for the future of food systems, one controversial idea, ‘nature-based solutions’, is rapidly gaining traction. But the term lacks an agreed definition, a transformative vision, and is being used to maintain agribusiness as usual. It is often bundled with unproven and risky carbon offsetting schemes that entrench big agribusiness power. 

By contrast, ‘agroecology’ is a term given formal definition through democratic and inclusive governance processes, backed by years of scientific research and social movement legitimacy – but has been much less invoked in international food, climate and biodiversity governance spaces.

‘Regenerative agriculture’, though less used in global policy spaces, is used by many sustainable food system actors to emphasise regenerating natural resources. But it is increasingly prominent in corporate-led sustainability schemes, and risks being narrowed to a limited focus on soil carbon. 
 

IPES-Food is recommending rejecting solutions that lack definitions, exploit ambiguity and mask agribusiness as usual, while ensuring inclusive global processes to deliberate on socially and environmentally sustainable food system solutions.