UN chief says world must change food priorities to save planet

‘Human rights catastrophe under military rule in Myanmar’

FE Team | Published: September 24, 2021 21:22:40

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (Agencies): United Nations (UN) chief Antonio Guterres urged nations on Thursday to revamp their food priorities, saying the world needed food systems that safeguard the environment.
"The war on our planet must end and food systems can help us build that peace," the Secretary-General told a UN summit in New York.
Guterres said food systems "can and must play a leading role" in meeting the UN's sustainable development goals by 2030.
The goals include ending poverty, protecting ecosystems and ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns that limit waste.
Guterres told delegates of the food systems summit, taking place on the sidelines of the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, that the world needed "nature-based solutions."
He noted that food systems currently generate one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions.
"It is possible to feed a growing global population while also safeguarding our environment," he said.
"It takes sustainable consumption and production methods and nature-based solutions. It takes the smart, sustainable management of natural resources-from farms to fisheries," Guterres added.
The United States heeded Guterres's call, announcing it would invest more than $10 billion over several years to promote a transformation of food systems.
The world's top diplomat said the international community was "waging a war against nature-and reaping the bitter harvest."
He cited "ruined crops, dwindling incomes and failing food systems."
Guterres added that the world needs to "ramp up" emergency food and nutrition systems in areas affected by conflict or climate emergencies and invest in early-warning famine prevention systems.
Meanwhile, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has warned of a human rights catastrophe under military rule in Myanmar and urged the international community to do more to prevent the conflict in the country from getting worse.
"The national consequences are terrible and tragic - the regional consequences could also be profound," Bachelet said in a statement on Thursday.
"The international community must redouble its efforts to restore democracy and prevent wider conflict before it is too late."
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in a coup on February 1, ending 10 years of tentative steps towards democracy and prompting outrage at home and abroad.