Meeting took place during 67th Regular Meeting of Procisur. Global Panel presented new report on diets in the planet. Embrapa's President Celso Moretti defended closer ties between the organizations Procisur and the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition towards strengthening public policy to promote food security worldwide. He proposed that during the 67th Regular Meeting of the Cooperative Program for the Development of Agricultural Technology in the Southern Cone (Procisur), which happened online on December 10th. Some of the meeting's goals were to share the activities and results of 2020 and to discuss a Work Plan for 2021. One of the aspects discussed was the formulation of new strategies for healthy eating in the planet. Procisur is joint initiative of agricultural research institutions of Southern Cone countries and aims at strengthening the technological and agro-industrial integration of the countries that compose the block, including Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. Meanwhile the Global Panel is an independent international group of leaders who hold, or have held, high office and show strong commitment to improving nutrition. The Panel works with foods, agriculture and nutrition, bridging gaps and examining food systems in a wider socio-political and economic context. Brazil is the only country of the Southern Cone to have a seat in the Global Panel. Introduced as the largest agricultural research company of Brazil, Embrapa has been deemed fundamental by the Global Panel, since its inception in 2013, for the definition of the global and regional impact of the work of the institution. Global Panel Report As a guest member of the Global Panel and member of Procisur's Executive Committee, representing Brazil, the president of Embrapa brought the two international tiers together by inviting representatives of the Global Panel to come to the 67th Procisur meeting to present their most recent report: Future Food Systems: For people, our planet, and prosperity, launched in September. The document, which is based on evidence and prospection studies, offers policy solutions to improve the quality of diets using a food systems approach through promoting availability, accessibility, affordability, desirability, and sustainable, healthy diets for all. John Beddington, former UK government chief scientific advisor and chairman of the Global Panel, presented the main conclusions of the report to the members of Procisur. Such conclusions include the assertions that: (1) diets have continued to harm human health on a vast scale; (2) one in ten people in the world are chronically undernourished, most countries will not reach the World Health Organization's global nutrition targets; (3) obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (N-NCDs) and their impacts on public health and financial systems have been growing quickly; (4) low- and middle-incomes countries are impacted by poor nutrition in every way; (5) covid-19 exposed the fragility of food systems The report points to sustainable production as one of the ways to deal with poor diets worldwide: need for changes in agricultural subsidies; reorientation of lines of Research and Development to include the promotion of sustainability in food systems (e.g. diverse cultivation systems, agroecological systems, complex crop rotation); promotion of the production of foods that are rich in micronutrients, and biofortification and food diversification programs; research that contributes to bridge the gaps between innovative technology and farmer adoption, including market payment for beneficial agricultural approaches. The report also underscores the importance of new technologies to ensure sustainable food production: seed breeding and genetic improvement, irrigation, fertilizers, mechanization, digital technologies for agriculture that consider soil data, use of agrochemicals, use of sensors for animal health and climate, precision agriculture. The report highlights examples of new technologies to promote sustainable systems: the use of genetically modified seeds and the gene editing of seeds and animal breeds. More resistant fruit and vegetable varieties and vertical farms were also recommended as solutions for healthy diets. The report recommended urgent investment in public policy. Access the full report here According to the Global Panel, today there are 690 million chronically undernourished people in the whole world. Nearly 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, and low quality diets are associated with 11 million deaths per year. Reducing food waste was pointed as a way to increase food availability in the world. To offer sustainable and healthy diets for all, food systems have to be transformed, as they have remained deeply dysfunctional. Most countries are not on track to meet the nutrition targets set for 2025 by the World Health Assembly. Much more needs to be done, including a change in global food consumption patterns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on biodiversity. “Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are large producers of meat, but we also produce fruit and vegetables. Brazil is the third largest producer of fruits in the world, but we participate in the international market with only 1%. This means that most of the fruits that we produce stay in the domestic market. Chile, a large fruit producer, exports a lot to the United States, such as peaches and vegetables, for instance, with high quality”, exemplified Moretti while mediating the debates after the presentation of the report. “We produce much more food that the world needs, however, there is a difference between producing more and producing better. We need to produce more quality foods”, underscored José Bonica, president of the Procisur's steering committee. “Climate and foods have to be considered to ensure international trade, quality and nutrition are not disconnected”, said the chairman of the Global Panel, John Beddington. According to FAO, about 1 billion people suffer from hunger in the world, especially in Africa, but also in Asia and Latin America. “We need to discuss different strategies to provide healthy food for everyone”, stressed Moretti in a video sent to the Global Panel, as he commented the findings of the new report by the institution. For José Bonica, the dialogue established between Procisur and the Global Panel is a chance to combine the efforts of the two institutions toward the development of public policy that can contribute to change in the current context of the world diets. Procisur Created in 1980 with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Procisur is an integrating part of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is an integrating part of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and is a joint initiative by agricultural research institutions of Southern Cone countries. Since 1998, the institution's main goal is to boost agricultural technology integration among member countries and thus strengthen the block's competitiveness in the world market. One of IICA's important branches, Procisur is currently formed by five organizations: Embrapa, on Brazil's side; the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (Inta); Chile's Institute of Agricultural Research (Inia); Paraguay's Institute of Agricultural Technology (IPTA) and the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Uruguay (Inia).