{"id":35693,"date":"2023-12-11t17:53:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-11t17:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/?p=35693"},"modified":"2023-12-13t14:33:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13t14:33:08","slug":"youth-role-systems-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/youth-role-systems-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"essay | world food forum: assessing the youth role in food systems transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
in october 2023, the food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao) hosted the world food forum (wff) in rome, italy. i attended the forum as one of six graduate student delegates from the george washington university. as someone who is passionate about transforming food systems for the benefit of racial justice and animal protection, i was eager to connect with other young advocates globally on these issues. while the forum provided opportunities to share ideas with other young people engaged in bettering food systems, i was disappointed by the lack of acknowledgement of the role that systemic factors play in the transformation of food systems. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n this year\u2019s theme was \u201cagrifood systems transformation accelerates climate action.\u201d through this theme, the fao acknowledged that the systems that produce, store, transport, and distribute our food affect climate change and that meaningful climate action requires that we change the systems. the wff participants were each part of one of three sections: science & innovation, investment, and youth. delegates from each section participated in panels and discussions to develop policies and strategies to achieve climate-friendly food systems transformation. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n despite the theme\u2019s focus on systems transformation, the sessions in the youth track centered around actions such as entrepreneurial ventures, home gardens, and backyard composting and lacked substantive conversations on how to reform regulatory schemes or incentivize corporate entities to change their practices. changing any system inherently entails action at the individual <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> systems level, requiring a change in the context in which individuals act.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n despite many countries having government representatives present to attend the other two tracks of the wff, these representatives were either absent or silent in all of the policy sessions that i attended. as we (students and policymakers) were all delegates to the forum, i expected to have the opportunity to engage with the actual policymakers from our respective countries to exchange ideas and learn about each others\u2019 priorities. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n the main policy sessions for the youth delegates were the six regional assemblies\u2019 discussions of their policy priorities, selected by their respective youth policy board members. each regional assembly represented a different area of the world: near east and north africa, north america, latin america and the caribbean, asia and the pacific, europe, and africa. youth delegates from each region were invited to attend their specific regional assembly, where they would engage in round-table discussions about their regional priorities with their fellow delegates and youth policy board members. <\/p>\n\n\nroom for improvement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n