In four weeks (11-12 May) experts will join forces in London and online to respond to the growing global climate and food crises, to urgently find more sustainable means of food production that work for people, animals and the planet.
The global food system is the main driver of biodiversity loss and soil degradation has been sped up by intensive farming practices, and yet 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. In addition, over the past year, the war in Ukraine has increased food insecurity. To find new solutions to these urgent, complex and interconnected issues, the Extinction or Regeneration conference will hear from speakers ranging from social activists Vandana Shiva and Lyla June to the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutter and Food and Agriculture Organization’s Corinna Hawkes.
Alternative approaches to providing sufficient nutritious and sustainable food for everyone are due to be discussed, including agroecology, regenerative agriculture and the importance of focusing on equity and social justice. Speakers and delegates will join online and in person at London’s QEII Centre at the conference organised by Compassion in World Farming, alongside the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and other partners.
Professor Melissa Leach, Director of the IDS, who is speaking at the conference, said:
“Our food systems and the economic and political systems shaping them are causing tremendous damage to the environment, accelerating climate change and increasing inequalities and the risk of disease. In addition, millions of people are still at risk of hunger globally every day. Clearly, our global food systems are not fit for purpose and we urgently need to seek better, more sustainable alternatives.
“Next month’s conference is a vital opportunity to pool knowledge and share experiences of how we can achieve change and create the sustainable and equitable food systems desperately needed.”
Stephen Devereux, IDS Research Fellow, speaking at the conference on food justice, said:
“The problem isn’t one of supply – we produce enough food to feed everyone on the planet. The problem relates to inequities across our food systems that are causing disproportionate disadvantage to those who are the most marginalised and excluded. The conference is a significant opportunity to understand how to make our food systems fairer and more just, and to recognise the inequities beyond access to food and good nutrition, such as poor working conditions within the agriculture sector or the denial of land rights for producing food.”
The Extinction or Regeneration Conference will address issues such as:
- How to feed 10 billion people with nutritious, healthy food in a more equitable, sustainable, and socially just way.
- How we protect the fertility of the precious soil we have left and restore its life and depth.
- How to avoid future pandemics due to changes in human interactions with wildlife and the keeping of animals in industrial farming systems.
- How we can restore plummeting biodiversity through nature-friendly approaches to food production and innovative nature-friendly science.
- How to respect animal sentience and provide good animal welfare in farming.
The full two day conference programme is available to view online.
