Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
Nelson King, Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, NOVEMBER 5-11, 2021
By Zoltán Kálmán
Gödöll , Hungary, Nov. 4
2021 (IPS) – UNSG Antonio
Guterres convened the
first-ever UN Food Systems
Summit, which took place
on Sept. 23-24. The Summit
preparation had a welldesigned
structure with
remarkable and appreciated
leadership of Amina Mohammed,
UN DSG. Due to the
hard work of the UN Special
Envoy, Agnes Kalibata, and
her whole Team, the organisation
and logistics of the
Summit was excellent.
The Summit’s main outcome
is the Secretary-General’s
Chair Summary and
Statement of Action, “calling
on the world to keep its
promises for a better future
through food systems that
work for people, planet and
prosperity”. This Statement
was not negotiated in an
inter-governmental process
and it is not legally binding.
Still, it has a series of powerful
messages trying to orient
stakeholders in their policy
decisions.
In order to involve the
broader public and to bring
together a diversity of stakeholders,
Food Systems Summit
Dialogues were proposed.
National Dialogues were
organized by governments,
but also regional and global
dialogues were held in order
to align with global events
on major issues like climate,
environment, health, economies
and jobs, humanitarian
aid and water. The Synthesis
Reports analyse the outcomes
of 850+ Dialogues, in
which 100,000 people from
around the world participated.
In spite of its virtual setting,
the Summit gathered
37,000 registered delegates
and was viewed by more
than 50,000 people from
193 countries. 165 Member
States delivered statements,
78 of which were delivered
by Heads of State or Government,
clearly confirming
that the Summit was very
much timely and relevant.
To share an overview of the
engagement process and the
richness of findings, knowledge
generated in the lead up
to the Summit, a Food Systems
Summit Compendium
was posted online.
Considering these impressive
figures, the Summit
seems to be a huge success.
In fact, it had a number of
positive outcomes, but the
most important achievement
is that the Summit
took place and generated a
lot of insightful discussions
at local, national and global
level.
Was the Summit a real
success? Was it a Breakthrough
or a Missed Opportunity?
It was undoubtedly
a success from the above
perspective, but looking at
some details below, the picture
is more complex and
nuanced.
1. The Summit was not
sufficiently inclusive, important
stakeholders were not
around the table, such as
organisations representing
hundreds of millions of the
rural poor, including smallholders,
family farmers,
indigenous peoples’ groups
and many others. The
Summit had a “Top-down”
start and the whole process
remained influenced by
powerful groups’ interests.
2. A Scientific Group was
created with a number of
outstanding professionals to
provide inputs and advice to
the Summit process by channelling
in a wide range of relevant
scientific knowledge.
It was unfortunate that the
composition of the Scientific
Group was unbalanced with
mainly natural/technological
scientists and economists
and almost completely missing
social scientists.
3. The Summit has not
clearly identified and adequately
addressed the root
causes. For example poverty
and inequalities, along with
the rights-based approach,
have not received sufficient
attention during the Summit
process.
4. As a matter of fact, corporations
control an increasing
share of resources and
use their power to influence
policy decisions. (Although
Jeffrey Sachs eloquently
said at the Pre-Summit: “…
behave, pay your taxes, and
follow the rules. That’s what
businesses should do.”…).
This conflict of interest, and
the existing power imbalances
in favour of multinationals,
are major obstacles
to transformation. Still, this
has not been addressed at all
at the Summit.
5. The most important
missing element is the
absence of a call for an overall
sustainability assessment,
based on evidence and neutral
science. These assessments,
following the principle
of True Costs Accounting,
could cover all positive
and negative externalities of
all food systems and quantify
them. Results of these
assessments should be given
due considerations by policy
makers while preparing
appropriate incentives for
sustainable solutions and for
repurposing subsidies (currently
provided mainly to
unsustainable models).
6. As a great achievement,
a series of local and national
commitments and various
coalitions of action have
been launched, but the Summit
has eventually failed to
provide global guidance.
Even if a single corporation
wished to transform its food
systems to become sustainable,
it will not put at the risk
its competitiveness.
By Hank Sheinkopf
Serious political consultants
just finished the last road trip of
the season. Eleven months like
club-fighters, traveling from city
to city to fight in small venues,
clubs, sometimes for crumbs
and when lucky, for gold.
It feels good to stretch your
legs, feels better to know you
won’t be sitting in that middle
seat, that you’ll sleep in
your own bed. And that your
hands will stop shaking, your
ear will stop vibrating–caused
by screechy voice sounds your
earbuds can’t kill.
There’s not much healthy
about airport food. Or about
airports either. You think you
caught a break when you had
the miles to trade or the cash to
buy entry into an airline club.
But it’s always filled with people
like you who slightly tremble
like they’re midpoint through
the rinse cycle.
That was your life. About
300,000 miles worth. Get off the
plane. Hop in a cab–if there are
cabs because they don’t always
exist–or rent a car or wait for
your ride to get to the meeting
where you help decide the fate of
someone you hardly know.
It’s a strange business this
world of political consultants.
Some on the road see themselves
as warriors, armed with
their brains, experience, computers,
and command of the
greatest weapon we have, the
word.
You got to help organize
unions, use your brains to get
more people into voting booths,
give people on the bottom whatever
part of your hand that you
still had.
The adventure. Fly into a
Latin American nation and find
out that two bodyguards for
the guy you’re working for got
whacked at an ATM just yesterday.
The Southern rainy season
has you stuck with no way
out for two days and a schedule
that can’t be rescheduled. The
red-eye delay means you’ll lose
part of the day on the other side
of the nation. Europe’s cold in
October, and it takes four hours
in the air to cross Texas, and
two to cross Germany. Speak
at a conference in Brazil, meet
20 hours later in Philadelphia,
finish there, and then onto the
west coast and back.
Tell people the stories? They
don’t know what to say. They call
themselves consultants but you
come from a place where there
is no guaranteed campaign
finance board public taxpayer
payday. You get fired a couple
of times a year. Win a lot. Get
to see America and the world.
And lots of bars in lots of places
where even if you were interested
you wouldn’t want love to
walk through the door at 3 a.m.
No one pats you on the back.
There are no atta-boys for real
warriors, and no guaranteed
paychecks from races where
there are no races, from candidates
whose toughest job is to
smile while taking public bucks
to take care of friends.
You see there is a difference
between letting them think
you are a sucker while they call
themselves progressives as they
progressively beg for more to
stuff their brokerage accounts.
Big difference. The founder
of the profession, Joseph Napolitan,
said the job was to spread
democracy. He was no sucker,
no siree.
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United Nations Food Systems Summit:
Breakthrough or Missed Opportunity?
Sheinkopf Speaks: A Political
Consultants’ Life & Times
/schnepsmedia.com
