From Farm to Table: Agrifood Systems and Trade Challenges in the Southern Cone

This presentation will be in Spanish. Simultaneous translation to English will be available.

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Food systems around the world face serious social, nutritional, and environmental challenges, and must evolve to meet new, multiple, and interrelated objectives. As public policies are reshaped to support this transformation, two fundamental factors must be considered:  

(1) Technological innovations are required to meet the demand for higher productivity in an environmentally friendly manner.

(2) Smooth international trade flows are essential and require improved trade rules to facilitate flows from countries with the greatest potential for supply growth based on environmentally friendly production systems to countries with the greatest limitations in achieving food self-sufficiency.

Pursuing these objectives can pose a significant challenge for developing countries, which will need to adjust and transform their production and distribution practices, especially those countries that actively participate in food trade. For South America’s Southern Cone, which has become the world’s largest net food exporting region, attention to these issues should be paramount.

In response, IFPRI’s Latin America and Caribbean Program is launching the publication From Farm to Table: Agrifood Systems and Trade Challenges in the Southern Cone. This analytical work, aims to inform the political processes for transforming the Southern Cone’s regional food system.

Speakers will present an analysis of the main challenges faced by national agrifood systems in the Southern Cone, especially in relation to new regulations and barriers that may affect international trade and export conditions. They will also discuss how the regional food system could better contribute to the global food system through trade, investment, the development of value chains, and technology transfer.

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De la granja a la mesa: Sistemas agroalimentarios y retos comerciales en el Cono Sur

Esta presentación será en español. Habrá traducción simultánea al inglés.

Los sistemas alimentarios de todo el mundo se enfrentan a retos sociales, nutricionales y medioambientales graves, y deben evolucionar para cumplir nuevos y diversos objetivos interrelacionados. A medida las políticas públicas que se remodelan para apoyar esta transformación, hay que tener en cuenta dos factores fundamentales: 

(1) Se necesitan innovaciones tecnológicas que permitan satisfacer la demanda de una mayor productividad de forma respetuosa con el medioambiente.

(2) Es esencial allanar el camino de los flujos comerciales internacionales, y esto requiere una mejora en las normas comerciales que permita facilitar los flujos desde los países con el mayor potencial de crecimiento de la oferta —sobre la base de sistemas de producción respetuosos con el medioambiente— hacia aquellos que presentan las mayores limitaciones para alcanzar la autosuficiencia alimentaria.

Ir tras estos objetivos puede suponer un reto importante para los países en desarrollo, que tendrán que ajustar y transformar sus prácticas de producción y distribución, en particular aquellos que participan activamente en el comercio de alimentos. En el Cono Sur de Sudamérica, que se ha convertido en la mayor región exportadora neta de alimentos del mundo, la atención a estas cuestiones debe ser primordial.

Para responder a ello, el Programa para América Latina y el Caribe del IFPRI lanza la publicación Del campo a la mesa: Sistemas agroalimentarios y retos comerciales en el Cono Sur. Este trabajo analítico pretende informar a los procesos políticos para la transformación del sistema alimentario regional del Cono Sur.

Los oradores presentarán un análisis de los principales retos a los que se enfrentan los sistemas agroalimentarios nacionales del Cono Sur, especialmente en lo relacionado con normativas y barreras nuevas que pueden afectar al comercio internacional y las condiciones para la exportación. También debatirán cómo el sistema alimentario regional podría contribuir mejor al sistema alimentario mundial a través del comercio, la inversión, el desarrollo de cadenas de valor y la transferencia de tecnología.

Background and Objectives of the Publication

• Martin Pineiro, Director, Agriculture Committee of CARI (Argentine Council on International Relations)

Environmental Sustainability of Agrifood Systems: Searching for Global Efficiency in Food Production

• Pablo Elverdin, Member of the Group of Southern Producing Countries and of the CEO Group

International Governance of Environmental Traceability and Certification Requirements of Agrifood

• Sabine Papendieck, Member of the Argentine GPS Network and a Managing Partner of ESTRATECO Consultores and General Coordinator of the Argentine Carbon Neutral Program

Challenges of Agrifood Systems and their Impact on Food Trade: An Analysis of Nutritional Quality of Diets in Southern Cone Countries

• Nieves Pascuzzi, Coordinator of the Agricultural Affairs Committee, CARI (Argentine Council on International Relations)

A Balanced Transformation of Agrifood Systems: What is at Stake for Global Food Security Objectives?

• Nelson Illescas, Director, International Agricultural Negotiations Institute Foundation (INAI) (Fundación INAI)

Discussants

• Susan Elizabeth Martins Cesar de Oliveira, Research Fellow (IIS/Trade Hub) and Professor (University of Brasília), International Institute for Sustainability (IIS) and University of Brasília (UnB)

• Paolo Giordano, Principal Economist, Inter-American Development Bank

Moderator

• Valeria Piñeiro, Acting Head of the Latin America and Caribbean Program and Senior Research Coordinator, IFPRI

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