What’s On: The Main Topics at EAT Stockholm Food Forum 2018

At the 2018 EAT Stockholm Food Forum we will explore a range of solutions available for achieving healthy and sustainable diets for a growing global population. Here are the main topics for the Forum.

The Forum will be held on June 11-12, 2018 at Annexet and Quality Hotel Globe in Stockholm.

Informed by research analysed in the upcoming EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems, the fifth anniversary of the Forum will encourage dialogue, engage with the audience through panel discussions, interactive plenaries, interviews and workshops.

We will confront some of the hard questions head on, such as how to feed the world with zero land expansion and ocean depletion, or the benefits of processed foods and clean meat.

In short, we will be stepping out of the comfort zone.

Throughout the Forum, and its six sessions, these are the main topics we will delve into.

For a full overview of speakers and the schedule, click here

The Forum will be live streamed on eatforum.org and on EAT’s Facebook page.

Hashtag: #EATForum18

Session 1:

The Great Food Transformation is here

This year, the EAT Stockholm Food Forum places solutions for food system transformation center-stage. We will showcase innovations, demonstrate economic and political benefits, and define strategies for managing this phenomenal shift. We won’t shy away from broaching the uncomfortable conversations needed to bring solutions to light. Feeding a healthy and sustainable diet to a future population of almost 10 billion will be a monumental challenge. But it is within our reach.

How do we harness the actions that are needed? No single solution gets us there. Evidence shows that massive reductions in food waste and loss are needed. Significant technological progress to make our farms and fields more productive and more sustainable are also part of the solution. Dietary shifts to more efficient and healthy foods combined with strict conservation and management of our remaining wild spaces are some of the many levers for change to pull.

Food has already changed the world. It is time for it to do so again. Change will come from collaborative action, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get the job done. The Great Food Transformation is here!

Session 2:

The line must be drawn here: Sustainably managing land and oceans

If we are to feed a growing population without surpassing the planetary boundaries, we need to manage our land and oceans differently essentially halting land expansion for food. The current land we have for food must produce healthy food, delicious food, and be the staging ground for environmental restoration – capturing carbon, protecting the biodiversity that supports food production, producing clean water and reusing nutrients recaptured from municipal waste streams. Marine fisheries and aquaculture are promising to help to fill the protein gap – but must avoid creating new problems at scale.

The key to sustainably managing this growth rests on ensuring that key environmental dimensions are embedded in practice and in policy. Converting forests to food production only trades food security for climate security – solving one problem by amplifying another. How far can tech take us on this journey and what are the costs? Are the oceans the next farms and what does this mean for marine conservation?

Session 3:

Nothing to spare: How to end food loss and waste

Every ton of food not wasted, corresponds to land not converted, greenhouse gases not emitted, or cubic meters of water not withdrawn from river systems. Every liter of water saved protects the integrity of the water cycle and our oceans. As loss and waste occurs at all stages along the supply-chain, we need context-specific strategies to win the war on food waste.

Increasing investment in harvesting infrastructure combined with improving access to markets and technology, can result in minimizing field losses for farmers in low and middle-income countries. Through improved production, processing and packaging complemented with educational campaigns, businesses can nudge consumers in the right direction. By making better purchasing habits, better evaluations of portion size and improving food preparation techniques, consumers can dive headlong towards a circular food economy. Every pound of food saved from loss or waste will create economic and environmental gains. So, what are we waiting for? And where are we stalling?

Interactive Stage:

Future Bytes: Tech that’s transforming food  

Join us for an interactive showcase of the next generation’s ideas and solutions to the interconnected challenges of food, health, climate and environment.

Session 4:

Growing pains: Recipes for better yields, better nutrition

The bad news is that modern agriculture doesn’t feed us all, and it does not feed us well. The good news is that we have never had a bigger opportunity to fix it. Plant based dietary trends have fueled a rediscovery of countless crop varieties with promising nutritional and environmental profiles. With their abilities to deliver more crop per drop and withstand unpredictable seasonal changes, diversifying what we grow can help meet local and global nutrition needs.

Chefs are opening our palates to unfamiliar flavors and senses that simultaneously bring us home and transport us to new places. In contrast, gene editing or lab grown meats offer to increase productivity, nutrition and tolerance to environmental uncertainties through direct manipulation. But these options are not without controversy. Can smallholder farms increase productivity to meet food security needs? Is gene editing really a promise to take charge of our own futures or the next environmental calamity? Do precision and drone-based agriculture make farming more attractive? Or is it driving the nail in the coffin of farming communities?

Session 5:

Fueling an appetite for change: Healthy & sustainable as the new normal

How and where we interact with food in our daily lives shapes our attitudes and our dietary habits. The complex landscape of economic trade and production markets, advertising, packaging and consumption offers multiple entry points through which to turn our relationship around. Planning regulations can be strengthened to restrict market volatility, restrict the prevalence of fast-food outlets and restrict the marketing and advertising of unhealthy foods.

So, what are the trade-offs, and how can we convince the world that this is where we need to be? Will big business ever really get on board and how much impact can consumer changes in diet really have? This session will highlight pathways for changing food environments and highlight the actions and collaborations needed to drive mindset change.

Session 6:

The future of the food system: Play your part, play it loud

Food systems cannot get “too big to fail” – too much is at stake. Change is possible, positive, and all around us. As a global community, we have committed to eradicating hunger and transitioning to delivering healthy and sustainable food for all through the SDGs and Paris Agreement. To achieve this, we must work differently and across boundaries, borders and practice. Multi-level partnerships mean getting out of our comfort zones. They mean testing working with different sectors and in different styles. Tripping up, stumbling over, dusting ourselves off and continuing with an even sharper focus. It will not be easy, but all signs show that collective action can and must get us there.

By the time this last session kicks off, the delegates at EAT Stockholm Food Forum will have rolled up their sleeves, joined forces, tackled uncomfortable conversations, shared solutions, forged new connections and literally sowed the seeds of change.

Together we are building a new narrative, and together we can define strategies for managing political and economic opinion change: The true success story of the Great Food Transformation.

Let’s get to work!