Food Day arrives as sector faces crisis

NEW YORK: Farming is feeling the heat from climate change like no other sector and so this was the moment many food folks had long hoped to see. For the first time in the history of climate talks, a presidency devoted a full day to the topic.

The Adaptation and Agriculture Day kicked off against the backdrop of a global food crisis. Extreme weather is pummeling crops, food inflation is raging around the world and the war in Ukraine strains access to a key breadbasket.

Egypt is feeling all of it. The Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation initiative it just launched is promising to boost climate finance for agrifood systems that desperately need to adapt to a changing climate.

As always, it comes down to money. Food systems account for about a third of emissions, yet only 3% of climate finance has gone into them, a recent analysis from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food shows.

Most of the Us$655bil (RM3 trillion) in agricultural subsidies have “insidious effects on either the climate or nutrition goals” so they need to shift, said Sara Farley at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Farm funding announcements have trickled in over the past week.

On Friday, a United States-united Arab Emirates-led initiative pledged Us$8bil (Rm37bil) into greener farming research and development projects.

Several philanthropic and governmental institutions have made multi-million-dollar pledges.

“Patient” investment is needed to support food production and smallholder farmers’ needs should be at the centre, said Jacqueline Novogratz, who heads the Acumen Fund. — Bloomberg