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STORY: UN / AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS
TRT: 03:36
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 FEBRUARY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
16 FEBRUARY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lok Bahadur Thapa, President, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC):
“Hunger today is not born of scarcity or inadequate production, but of injustice, conflict, exclusion, and system that continue to deny millions the means to live with dignity. This is the stark reminder that the world is drifting from our shared promise, that no one is left behind. This is not only a development setback, but a profound moral failure.”
4. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“When food systems are inclusive and resilient, they become engines of opportunity, particularly for young people, small producers, women, and rural communities. Since the 2021 Food System Summit, 130 countries have developed national food systems pathways, translating political commitment into policy reform and action on the ground.”
6. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Mayaki, Special Envoy for Food Systems, African Union (AU):
“The global context is sobering. In 2024, more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories experienced acute anger, an alarming indicator to how exposed food systems remain to conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks. At the same time, the fiscal and financing environment is tightening. This is precisely why the credibility of agrifood system transformation now depends on our ability to move from broad communications, broad commitments, to executing investable pathways with youth employment and enterprise growth as measurable outcomes.”
8. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“Agrifood system transformation is not merely a sectoral agenda. It is an economic agenda, a social agenda and A stability agenda. Done successfully, it can be one of the most powerful levers for broad based, inclusive, job rich growth fuelling food security, reducing poverty, strengthening resilience, assuring peace, and generating opportunities at scale. This is how we can achieve good food for all for today and tomorrow. Today, ensuring the universal right to food and tomorrow ensuring the actions taken now are sustainable so that future generations can also realize the right to food.”
10. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“The world cannot afford to treat hunger, malnutrition, and rural poverty as inevitable. Agrifood systems can become engines of prosperity, resilience, and peace. Investing in agrifood systems transformation will not only ensure good food for all for today and tomorrow, but it will also decrease conflict risk and strengthen peace. Food security is also a security issue, and investments in food systems are investments in stability and shared prosperity. Transforming agrifood systems is not only about producing more food, it is about producing better food and ensuring better jobs, building a stronger and more resilient economies, and delivering better futures.”
12. Wide shot, ECOSOC Chamber
Addressing a special meeting on Agrifood Systems Transformations for leaving no one Behind, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Chief Economist, Maximo Torero, today (16 Feb) said “the world cannot afford to treat hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty as inevitable” and stressed that “agrifood systems can become engines of prosperity, resilience and peace.”
Opening the meeting, the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Lok Bahadur Thapa, said, “hunger today is not born of scarcity or inadequate production, but of injustice, conflict, exclusion and system that continue to deny millions the means to live with dignity.”
Thapa said this was a “stark reminder that the world is drifting from our shared promise, that no one is left behind,” and added that “this is not only a development setback, but a profound moral failure.”
Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, in a recorded message said, “when food systems are inclusive and resilient, they become engines of opportunity, particularly for young people, small producers, women and rural communities.”
Mohammed noted that “since the 2021 Food System Summit, 130 countries have developed national food systems pathways, translating political commitment into policy reform and action on the ground.”
Also in a recorded message, the former Prime Minister of Niger Ibrahim Mayaki, in his capacity of Special Envoy for Food Systems at the African Union (AU), said, “the global context is sobering. In 2024, more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories experienced acute anger, an alarming indicator to how exposed food systems remain to conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks.”
At the same time, Mayaki said, “the fiscal and financing environment is tightening” pointing out that this was “precisely why the credibility of agrifood system transformation now depends on our ability to move from broad communications, broad commitments, to executing investable pathways with youth employment and enterprise growth as measurable outcomes.”
For his part, Torero said, “agrifood system transformation is not merely a sectoral agenda. It is an economic agenda, a social agenda, and a stability agenda. Done successfully, it can be one of the most powerful levers for broad based, inclusive, job rich growth fuelling food security, reducing poverty, strengthening resilience, assuring peace, and generating opportunities at scale.”
He said, “this is how we can achieve good food for all for today and tomorrow. Today, ensuring the universal right to food and tomorrow ensuring the actions taken now are sustainable so that future generations can also realize the right to food.”
To conclude, Torero said, “investing in agrifood systems transformation will not only ensure good food for all for today and tomorrow, but it will also decrease conflict risk and strengthen peace. Food security is also a security issue, and investments in food systems are investments in stability and shared prosperity. Transforming agrifood systems is not only about producing more food, it is about producing better food and ensuring better jobs, building a stronger and more resilient economies, and delivering better futures.”
Today’s meeting aimed to catalyse coordinated and coherent action in support of agrifood system transformations, building on the momentum, insights and commitments from recent meetings, conferences and summits, including the 2025 High-level political forum on Sustainable Development, the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake+4 (UNFSS+4), the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), the 53rd session of the Committee on World Food Security, the Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, and the Second World Summit for Social Development.
