FoodAgFest Overview

Over 200 participants - policymakers, academics, students, NGO’s, farmers - from more than 50 different organizations joined us in multiple broad-ranging conversations on current trends and potential pathways for more environmentally sustainable and socially sound food and agricultural systems. While we saw that there was general agreement on these overall goals, among the diverse group of participants there were a broad range of approaches to framing the problems and potential solutions, including both practical methods and policy ideas. Bringing these many viewpoints together in one room was successful in two ways - first it provided fertile soil for inspiration and exploration of innovative policy ideas, and second, in so doing, it confirmed our original assumptions about the value and effectiveness of this type of group process.

The workshop raised a variety of key questions regarding agriculture in the 21st century - “what are the barriers that prevent the adoption of more sustainable methods and systems?” and “what can be learned from different parts of the world, from indigenous knowledge, from scientific research, from farmer-based research?” to “how can we achieve new climate change policy initiatives that take advantage of what we know to change food and agriculture systems from major contributors to important solutions to this long-term challenge?” among many other critical questions.

Topics (for more details see workshops: March 12, March 13, March 14, March 15)

• Introduction to the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD)
• Lessons of Industrial Agriculture
• Can sustainable agriculture feed the world?
• Land tenure and its impact on sustainable agriculture
• Biodiversity and Agriculture
• Sustainable Agriculture Technologies
• Lessons of Global Food Trade
• Food security and food safety
• Climate change and agriculture