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Food Governance Conference

Exploring how law, policy, and regulation address food system challenges
Everybody eats; it is the key to our survival, but food also has the potential to compromise health.

The global food system is challenged by issues of drought, climate change, trade, malnutrition, and exploited workers. Population growth and the forces of marketization have further compromised the ability of the food system to deliver safe, nutritious and sustainable food to the world's population.

About the Food Governance Conference

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to food system challenges

The 2021 Global Food Governance Conference

In December 2021 the Food Governance Node at the Charles Perkins Centre (University of Sydney) hosted the Global Food Governance Conference, in collaboration with the George Institute for Global Health and the Global Center for Legal Innovation on Food Environments (Georgetown University Law Centre).

The conference brought together lawyers, policymakers, nutritionists, and health scientists to explore how law, policy, and regulation can help address food system challenges at the local, national, regional, and global levels. This includes issues such as:

  • food security, safety, and sustainability;
  • the promotion of healthier diets, addressing both under and over-nourishment;
  • equity and social justice in global food systems, including human rights-based approaches; and
  • Indigenous food systems governance.

Highlighting the interrelationships between the main challenges facing the global food system in the 21st century, the conference also created new opportunities for collaborations that promote access to healthy and sustainable food for all.

Speakers at the 2021 Global Food Governance Conference included:

  • Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
  • Namukolo Covic, Senior Research Coordinator, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  • Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.
  • Amandine Garde, Professor of Law, University of Liverpool.
  • Carlos Monteiro, Professor of Nutrition and Public Health, School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Read the 2021 conference abstract booklet (pdf, 1.65MB)

Read coverage of the 2021 conference on the Croakey Health Media website.