Greetings from sweltering Rome. I’m coming to you this week from the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters, which is hosting the United Nations Food Systems Summit stocktaking event. The event has brought together an estimated 2,000 delegates who have swarmed the multibuilding complex two years after the last UNFSS was hosted in New York.
Climate is top of mind here — more on that below — with multiple people telling me there’d almost certainly be more urgency at climate summits if they were held during summer, with temperatures like this. The other elephant in the room is Russia’s pullout of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said means “the most vulnerable will pay the highest price.”
When it comes to progress on food systems transformation since 2021, there’s a sense that while not enough has happened, it’s too soon to tell. The scale of the change that’s needed is so massive, a mere 24 months isn’t enough time to turn such a gargantuan ship. But as both the climate crisis and the collapse of the grain deal demonstrate, action could not be more urgent.
About the author
Teresa Welshtmawelsh
Teresa Welsh is a Senior Reporter at Devex. She has reported from more than 10 countries and is currently based in Washington, D.C. Her coverage focuses on Latin America; U.S. foreign assistance policy; fragile states; food systems and nutrition; and refugees and migration. Prior to joining Devex, Teresa worked at McClatchy's Washington Bureau and covered foreign affairs for U.S. News and World Report. She was a reporter in Colombia, where she previously lived teaching English. Teresa earned bachelor of arts degrees in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of Wisconsin.
