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We talk a lot about storytelling here at Food Tank, and for good reason: The stories we tell matter. They shape how we approach interacting with our neighbors, transforming systems, and building a better world.
The question of who tells our stories matters, too!
Here at COP29 in Azerbaijan—and also in our day-to-day food system work at home—we need to make sure that stories about the food system are being told by people within the food system, people with deeply rooted community knowledge.
“Journalists need to know what farmers are facing. You can’t tell the story if you don’t understand it,” Dizzanne Billy, the Caribbean Regional Director at Climate Tracker, told us yesterday during a roundtable at the Action on Food Hub Pavilion. “Exposure is very important for journalists, especially in the Caribbean.”
If people are unable to tell their own stories, they’ll disappear—metaphorically, yes, and also quite literally due to the climate crisis.
“There is no place to run when you’re a small island nation. If we are not here at COP, we can’t advocate for what our countries need,” Carol Franco, Agricultural Negotiator for the Dominican Republic, said during our morning breakfast discussion series at the IICA Pavilion.
At COP29, lobbyists for industries like coal, oil, and gas outnumber the size of nearly every country’s national delegations, according to The Guardian. (The only exceptions, interestingly, are Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Turkey.) Lobbyists for carbon capture and storage, a practice that calls for trying to offset or “clean up” emissions rather than eliminating them, have particularly strong access to high-level negotiations, The Guardian also reports.
And to be clear: Shutting out industry from negotiations like this is not the solution. For better or worse, major corporations play a huge role in shaping our world—which means they can be extremely powerful when they do the right thing.
But we know that “business as usual” is broken, and those leaders and their lobbyists cannot be the ones telling the stories that’ll define our future. The stories of the future need to be directed by Indigenous folks, by farmers, by youth advocates, by women, by community organizers and local experts.
Today is a Rest Day here in Baku, as the first week of COP29 comes to a close and we enter the second half of the conference. And to be blunt, progress so far has not been nearly as aggressive nor visionary as we—and the planet—need.
How do we turn stories into actions at COP29?
“What I see is a lot of talk and very little action. We must face these challenges with a true sense of urgency and sincerity. We are dragging our feet as a planet,” Panama environment minister Juan Carlos Navarro told ABC News.
Of course, we know what’s needed here: Investment. Real, significant, meaningful financial investment directed to the people and places who need it most. We need to translate these stories into action, which, as panelists discussed yesterday at the Food and Ag Pavilion, takes cross-sector partnerships.
I really like the phrasing that Jack Bobo, from the University of Nottingham Food Systems Institute, used yesterday during our discussion at the IICA Pavilion: Radical collaboration.
“The problems we face are big and solutions cannot be achieved without radical collaboration,” he said. “We need to stop collaborating to take others down. We need to start collaborating to lift each other up.”
I’ll take up that call for the second week of COP29: Let’s collaborate to lift each other up!
News Stories/Reports I’m Reading Today:
- Global Action Drive For Food Loss and Waste Reduction — A new report from WRAP reveals that just 12 percent of participating countries at COP29 have committed to reducing food loss and/or waste.
- From Cali to Belem: Subnational Governments Leading Nature Actions to Adapt to Climate Change — Regions4 lays out 12 case studies demonstrating the benefits of integrating biodiversity into climate adaptation.
- The False Economy of Big Food — The UK’s unhealthy food habits cost £268 billion a year, research from the Food, Farming and Country Commission shows.
- Building Resilience: Spotlight on Poorest, Rural Communities Amid COP29 Competing Priorities — The International Fund for Agricultural Development is calling for support for smallholder farmers, arguing it’s “not only the right thing to do—it’s an investment with a business and social return,” IPS reports.
- Fair Shares, Finance, Transformation — The 2024 Civil Society Equity Review shows the devastating costs of climate inaction by the Global North.
Powerful Quotes From Recent Discussions:
- “These missing dollars are not abstractions on a balance sheet: they are lives taken, harvests lost, and development denied.” — UN Secretary-General António Guterres (via Climate Home News)
- “Prioritize cereal crops for carbon sequestration, embrace weed diversity as a driver of soil health, and ensure that both soil and farmers remain at the heart of every decision.” — Sieglinde Snapp, Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program Director, CIMMYT (via @CIMMYT on X)
- “Climate adaptation in agriculture is non-negotiable—lives and livelihoods depend on it.” — Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director, CGIAR (via @CGIAR on X)
Ways To Take Action:
Educate yourself:
- via Action Against Hunger: “A hotter world means a food-insecure world. 🌡️ This is especially true in Central America, where extreme weather events have left 7 million people without enough food. That’s why we’re launching innovative solutions to save lives.” Learn about Action Against Hunger’s initiatives to build climate resilience HERE.
- via International Organization for Migration: “The Barwaqo Pilot Irrigation Project is improving food security in the face of climate change in Somalia through drip water piping, distribution of quality seeds and enhancing the capacity of farmers in Barwaqo.” Read more about the Project’s inclusive approach and focus on female-headed households and marginalized communities HERE.
Focus on Blue Foods:
- via FAO Climate Change & Biodiversity: “Blue or aquatic foods are increasingly recognized as a priority for #climateaction. FAO is committed to supporting countries with their planning through Int’l & nat’l processes.” Learn more about integrating blue foods into national climate strategies HERE.
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Photo courtesy of Zinko Hein, Unsplash
