Joachim von Braun give a lecture entitled Overcoming Food Crises: science, global policies and Europe’s Role at the iASK on 22 May at 2 pm in the institute’s Bibó room. His lecture is part of the project The Future of Europe in a Global Context – 2023. On the same day, we will also host the Land quality, food security and food safety: biophysical and socioeconomic aspects conference and workshop, the detailed programme of which is available on the poster.
Joachim von Braun is Distinguished Professor for Economic and Technological change at Bonn University, in the Center for Development Research (ZEF). His research is on economic development, science and technology policy, poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, agriculture, resource economics, climate, and trade. von Braun is President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, and member of German National Academy of Science Leopoldina, the German Academy of Engineering, the Academy of Arts & Sciences of North-Rhine Westphalia, the World Academy (TWAS), the African Academy of Sciences, academies of science. In 2020 and 2021 he served as Chair of the Scientific Group for the Food Systems Summit 2021 of the UN Secretary General. He is Vice President of the NGO Welthungerhilfe and was director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) based in Washington DC. He was elected as President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), serves as adviser in various national and international organizations, and received several national and international honors and awards. He published more than 250 peer reviewed publications.
Abstract of the lecture:
Joachim von Braun: Overcoming Food Crises: science, global policies and Europe’s Role.
Food systems are impacted by a new set of multi-dimensional problems that have accumulated toward a serious crisis. The lecture will delineate the the set of problems and their combined effects for people and planet, including Covid19 disrupted food value chains, wars create hunger where they occur, divert resources from human development, and – some like the Russian attack on Ukraine – have global impacts through hindering food and fertilizer trade, accelerated inflation and especially food price inflation make healthy diets unaffordable for about 3 billion people, accumulated debts curtail social protection and nutrition programs, directly impacting the poorest and children, climate change results in acute climate stress and undermines food systems’ and peoples’ resilience, destruction of nature, erosion of biodiversity and agro-biodiversity undermine food security in the long run. Moving to solutions, a food systems perspective – as adopted by the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 – will be outlined to identify and prioritize the actions needed to achieve transformation toward sustainable food systems. In this complex crisis policy makers are confronted with hard choices to address the challenge of food systems’ transformation toward sustainability and resilience, while also managing the acute food crisis. At the center of solutions to this challenge are innovations, that is, policy-, technological-, and organizational innovations. These must be based on science, some must be international, and many must be adapted to the national and local levels. Europe’s role for playing an important role in overcoming of the food crisis will be assessed in a global context.