UN News: Nutrition, ecosystems and livelihoods at risk, despite age of plenty

The way we produce food today is damaging ecosystems around the world and threatening biodiversity, despite being more abundant and of better quality than ever before.

That’s a paradox highlighted by former top UN official Dr. David Nabarro in an interview with UN News this week, after he’d taken part in The Future of Food International Symposium in Rome, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

He said that around 35 per cent of all the damaging greenhouse gases driving climate change are due to modern food production, while low food prices are pushing some farmers into bankruptcy and even suicide.

Dr. Nabarro who is now Professor of Global Health at Imperial College, London, and Strategic Director for social enterprise, 4SD, told Liz Scaffidi why it was so important to talk about food production.