GPS PARTICIPATES IN THE REGIONAL ARTICULATION OF POSITIONS IN FRONT OF THE UN FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT

1. SOME BACKGROUND ON THE FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT

The World Summit on Food Systems, convened by the UN for September 2021, has been organized with a governance scheme that includes an Advisory Committee, a Scientific Group, technicians for the preparation of documents and consultations for five selected topics (5 Action Tracks) and other consultation and dissemination mechanisms. They can be consulted at this link

All of them have been designed with almost no presence of the Latin American region, both in terms of the problems and the realities of local development in our region. Nor do they adequately reflect issues related to agri-food production and trade.

For this reason, it was necessary to develop joint actions with the MERCOSUR and American countries so that the Summit considers our realities, our objectives, our opportunities and challenges to contribute to economic and social development, especially in the interior of the country. 

We understand that a fluid global trade, without barriers that are not supported by scientific information, is crucial to make viable the transformations of unsustainable food systems (of the EU and Asian countries), as well as to meet the needs of the countries. that do not have sufficient natural resources to satisfy their demand for food and need to import at the lowest possible cost. Currently world trade constitutes a significant percentage of world consumption and OECD-FAO projections for the next decade indicate that food imports will continue to be a critical component for consumption by net importing countries, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Likewise, a generic criticism is made of the global food system, without recognizing the transformations that have already been made in countries of the region, with the approach of "sustainable intensification", which allows increasing production with conservation systems; In other words, it contributes to food security with efficient and environmentally friendly production systems. 

Nor is sufficient importance assigned to R&D developed without ideological limitations and to international cooperation in the matter, to contribute to increases in efficiency and resilience in developing countries. For this reason, it is considered necessary that the Summit incorporate the following aspects:

• Importance of a global trading system without trade barriers not based on scientific support, to enable the change in the production systems of the countries that require it and to attend to world food security.
• Importance of R&D and international cooperation aimed at promoting: productivity increases, efficiency in the use of resources and their improvement, resilience, environmentally friendly technologies and the development of the circular economy.
• The regulatory systems of the countries must have scientific bases, to avoid that for other reasons the technological developments that will contribute to increase productivity and global food security are limited.
• Importance of the Region for increasing net exports with sustainable systems. Possibilities of international cooperation for other regions to incorporate the sustainable intensification systems developed in Argentina. 

2. THE ROLE OF THE REGION AND THE DOCUMENTATION FOR THE SUMMIT

GPS actively participates in the coordination and harmonization of private sector actions at the regional level. The articulation of regional actions with a view to participation in the Summit is developed by IICA. Likewise, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with those of Agriculture, in the different countries have promoted and articulated the mechanism of national dialogues envisaged by the Summit to survey and consult the positions of private actors.

From GPS, a consultation process was carried out with private entities of the agricultural sector in Argentina, Brazil, USA and Canada. North American entities are also developing an agenda and preparing documents. The Presidents of MAIZALL, ISGA and ICTC are involved in these issues and in fact in the USA a national platform has been developed.

GPS and its members have participated in the preparation of a series of events and documents, as well as in the events and national dialogues convened by the Ministries of each country in order to contribute to the strategic positioning of the region.

Below we include the list of documentation of interest for the Summit.

IICA documents and events

Government documents and declarations

Documents, events and declarations of regional institutions

Documents available for the dissemination of the sustainability of regional and local food production systems

Documents on the link between trade and food security

a. IICA DOCUMENTS AND EVENTS

• EARLY FOOD SYSTEMS: THE COUNTRIES OF THE AMERICAS GIVE A STRONG SAMPLE OF UNITY IN A GLOBAL FORUM ON THE FUTURE OF FOOD PRODUCTION (IICA, July 2021)

• “Main messages on the way to the United Nations Summit on Food Systems, from the perspective of agriculture in the Americas” (IICA, June 28, 2021)

• Webinar organized by IICA with the participation of GPS. THE ROLE OF CEREALS AND OIL SEEDS IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS: THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE OUTLOOK TOWARDS THE 2021 UNITED NATIONS FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT (April 2021)

• “The Bioeconomy and Food Systems Transformation” (Food Systems Summit Brief prepared by Research Partners of the Scientific Group for the Food Systems Summit, IICA-CABR, February 2021)

• “IICA in the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit” (IICA, 2021)

b. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS AND STATEMENTS

• The contributions of the national dialogues on the different topics can be accessed at

• Presentation of the Ministers of Agriculture of the region at the Pre-Summit in Rome (July 2021)

• Video of the Session on Trade of the Pre-Summit "Harnessing the Contribution of International Agriculture Trade for Sustainable Food Systems"

• Declaration of Ministers of Agriculture in the Southern Agricultural Council (May 2021)

• Joint declaration of food producing countries to the WTO (May 2021)

c. DOCUMENTS AND DECLARATIONS OF INSTITUTIONS OF THE REGION

• MAIZALL contribution to the UN Food Systems Summit (mayo 2021)

• NAEGA Statement on the United Nations Food Systems Summit (June 2021)

• International Seed Federation - Declaration in front of the Summit on Food Systems (December 2020)

d. DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR DISSEMINATION ON SUSTAINABILITY OF REGIONAL AND LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

• “Making Better Policies for Food Systems” (OECD, January 2021)

• "ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES IN ARGENTINE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION" (Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange, February 2021).

• "The potential of plant breeding in the search for food security sustainability" (Organization of Ibero-American States, February 2021)

• "Evolution of Argentine extensive agriculture towards a sustainable production system" (AACREA-AAPRESID-GPS, July 2021)

• "Atlas do Agronegócio Brasileiro: Uma Jornada Sustentável" (Croplife Brasil, June 2021)

• "Argentina: Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Potential National Map" (FAO, 2021)

• “Agricultural Development. New perspectives in a changing world ”(IFPRI, 2021)

• “Diagnosis and environmental megatrends of the agricultural sector in the MERCOSUR Region” (E. Viglizzo, June 2021)..

• “Policies are crucial for food system transformation” (Johan Swinnen, IFPRI, 2021)

• "The United Nations Conference on food systems: a challenge for Mercosur" (Martín Piñeiro, June 2021)

• Presentations by Marcelo Regúgana (GPS), Gustavo Idígoras (CIARA-CEC) and Marcos Jank (INSPER) (AAPRESID Congress, August 2021)

e. DOCUMENTS ON THE LINK BETWEEN TRADE AND FOOD SECURITY

• El sistema alimentario global. Una perspectiva de América Latina (Piñeiro M. y otros, TESEO-CARI-GPS, Septiembre de 2021)

• “How Could Trade Policy Better Address Food System Shocks?” (J. Hepburn et al, IISD, Marzo 2021)

• "Trade as a means to enable the transformation of food systems" (N. Illescas, M. Regúnaga and A. Tejeda, INAI, May 2021)

• “FOSTERING ECONOMIC RESILIENCE IN A WORLD OF OPEN AND INTEGRATED MARKETS. RISKS, VULNERABILITIES AND AREAS FOR POLICY ACTION” (REPORT PREPARED FOR THE 2021 UK PRESIDENCY OF THE G7, OECD, 2021)