Food for Life by the Emirates Nature-WWF is an engagement drive to increase awareness of links between a healthy diet and sustainable food ecosystems. Meanwhile, Goumbook's FoodWise Challenge is designed to get high school and university students involved in tackling and solving global challenges. 

Food For Future Summit and co-located Global Agtech Innovation Expo – held this week (23-24 February) at the Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC) at Expo 2020 Dubai – will serve as the launch-pad for two major sustainability campaigns, designed to foster a global movement.

 

Hosted by the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) as strategic partner, the summit and expo will unite world leaders, industry innovators, influential minds, start-up, and food revolutionaries – galvanising all sectors of the agriculture and food supply chains for profound discussions and innovative outcomes for a sustainable food ecosystem.

 

Two UAE-based change-makers are seeking to capitalise on the fact that the global industry’s eyes will be firmly fixed on Dubai, as they strive to set sustainability wheels in motion. 

Food for Life

 

‘Food for Life’ – a first-of-its-kind public awareness and engagement campaign – will be launched by partners Emirates Nature-WWF, the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The campaign seeks to promote a healthy and mindful relationship with food and build awareness of how interconnected a healthy diet is with the sustainability of our food systems through an exciting calendar of events and outreach programmes.

 

The Food for Life campaign will have activations on the side-lines of the summit – and will foster conversation on what, why, and how we eat. There will be an exciting roll-call of learning and engagement events and activities that the UAE community can sign up to from the launch of the campaign up until April.

 

“We are looking to mobilise UAE society, to take control of our collective health and food security. This summit provides us with a real opportunity to work through the challenges of food security and nutrition, analyse them from all different perspectives, and come up with solutions together,” noted Laila Mostafa Abdullatif, Director General at Emirates Nature-WWF. “We want to change the way we think about food and raise awareness of how important a healthy, balanced diet is to the sustainability of our food systems,” they added.

 

“We envision the UAE as a global leader in the shift to a healthy diet based on sustainable food systems,” added Abdullatif. “In keeping with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we want to be ‘Nature Positive’ by 2030. To accomplish this, we must first comprehend the present hurdles and forces that influence people’s attitudes and behaviours when it comes to eating a nutritious diet. Abdullatif added the campaign would effectively raise awareness about what makes a good diet and a sustainable food system, how diet affects nutrition and wellbeing, and how critical it is for human and planetary health.

The FoodWise Challenge

 

Meanwhile, Goumbook, the UAE’s leading social enterprise promoting sustainable living and green practices, will launch The FoodWise Challenge – a campaign aimed at schools and universities to instil behavioural mind-set changes among the country’s youth surrounding sustainable, healthier food choices and the undeniable connection with food security.

 

As part of the campaign, school students were invited to propose campaigns, and university students will work on solutions to food security challenges, sharing their ideas, and working to address current and future problems facing the planet.

 

“The FoodWise Challenge gives our younger generation, who are increasingly conscious of global food waste challenges, a chance to make a difference. They are important to reforming our current food systems and addressing a wide range of issues posed by modern life,” stressed Tatiana Antonelli Abella, Founder & Managing Director at Goumbook.

 

“In 2019, Goumbook launched the ‘Eat or Save It’ campaign. However, food waste is only one aspect of the food chain that must be addressed. Climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and water depletion are all exacerbated by food production, distribution, transportation and consumption,” continued Abella.

 

“The goal of The FoodWise Challenge is to achieve a behavioural shift that leads to more sustainable and healthier food choices, as well as to understand issues linked to food security and the relationship between food and sustainability, aligned with the UAE's National Food Security Strategy 2051,” they added.

 

Abella stressed that young people are critical to transforming our current food systems because of their creative, imaginative minds and ability to think outside the box.

All must play a role in creating sustainable food ecosystems

 

“The Food For Future Summit and Global Agtech Expo, which brings a first-ever strategic partnership between a government ministry from this region and the UN FAO, reinforce Dubai’s status as a driver of global food security change, so it is fitting that we have two home-grown changemaker leading the charge with the launch of these interactive campaigns,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Executive Vice President, Exhibitions and Events, Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), organisers of the Food For Future Summit.

 

“The thought-provoking, action-oriented campaigns are a timely reminder to the world that we all have a role to play in creating sustainable food ecosystems, with the latest FAO data stating that one third of the food produced for human consumption,” she added.

 

For more information, visit: www.foodforfuturesummit.com