A closer look at the conference themes

Explore our conference themes below.

  1. Harnessing opportunities: delivery on the promise of new technologies , innovative financial arrangements and adaptive governance
  2. Safeguarding diversity: from soil to plate, from farms to landscapes and across the wider food system
  3. Balancing scales: trade-offs between global markets and localized models in transition pathways towards rural and (peri)urban food and nutrition security 
  4. Stability and climate change: promoting transitions to ensure sustainable and resilient food systems
  5. Agency within the food system: drivers for strengthening the right to food ensuring socioeconomic equity and socio-cultural contributions of food systems
  6. Reflective science: revisiting knowledge theories and power dynamics in food security science and its interface with policy, business and civil society

Harnessing opportunities: delivery on the promise of new technologies , innovative financial arrangements and adaptive governance
Rapid advances in digital technologies, innovative financing mechanisms, and adaptive governance models are creating unprecedented opportunities to transform global food systems. Tools such as precision agriculture, digital advisory platforms, and AI-enabled climate analytics offer the potential to improve productivity, resilience, and sustainability. At the same time, emerging financial instruments - including blended finance, climate-risk insurance, and impact financing- are expanding the range of resources available to support food system transformation.

Despite these opportunities, benefits remain unevenly distributed. Structural inequalities, fragmented institutional arrangements, and limited agency among food system actors often constrain access to technologies and finance - particularly for smallholders, women, and marginalized value-chain actors who are most exposed to climate and market volatility.

This theme examines how technological innovation, financial mechanisms, and governance arrangements can be aligned to support inclusive and sustainable food systems. Contributions may explore pathways for scaling digital and climate-smart technologies, designing inclusive financial instruments, and fostering governance innovation that enable more effective collaboration among public, private, and civil-society actors. Particular attention is given to addressing the power asymmetries that shape technology deployment and financial decision-making.
By integrating sustainability, equity, and agency as core principles, this theme aims to identify strategies that translate technological and financial innovation into tangible improvements in food security, resilience, and adaptive capacity. Ultimately, it seeks to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue on how countries can operationalize technology-enabled and finance-driven solutions while strengthening local ownership and long-term food system resilience.
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Safeguarding diversity: from soil to plate, from farms to landscapes and across the wider food system
Diversity might be a cornerstone of resilient and sustainable food systems. Yet across the globe, food systems have become increasingly similar. Agricultural production is dominated by a small number of crop and livestock species, while diets are becoming more uniform, often characterized by a limited range of staple foods and a growing reliance on animal-based proteins. Corporate concentration and regulatory frameworks favor standardization.

This loss of diversity has far-reaching consequences that warrant further study, along further critical reflection to counter oversimplification and dogmatic use of ecological principles. At the ecosystem level, declining biodiversity threatens the ecological foundations of food production. Within value chains, many neglected and underutilized species remain marginalized despite their potential contributions to nutrition, climate adaptation, and livelihood diversification. Aquatic biodiversity - critical for food security and harvest stability - is similarly under pressure from overexploitation and habitat degradation.

Dietary diversity is also declining, contributing to malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and rising levels of diet-related non-communicable diseases. These trends highlight the need to reconnect production diversity, ecosystem health, and dietary diversity across the food system.

This theme focuses on strategies to safeguard and enhance diversity from soil and sea to plate. We welcome critical contributions addressing agricultural diversification, conservation of agrobiodiversity, sustainable fisheries and aquatic food systems, and innovations within circular and bio-economy approaches. Contributions may also explore dietary transitions, alternative protein sources, and the role of policy, markets, and cultural practices in shaping food diversity.

In addition, the theme invites critical reflections on ethical and epistemological questions surrounding diversity: whose knowledge, values, and food cultures are recognized in shaping food system futures? By exploring these questions across scales- from households and farms to national and global governance - this theme aims to advance solutions that strengthen both ecological resilience and nutritional wellbeing.
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Balancing scales: trade-offs between global markets and localized models in transition pathways towards rural and (peri)urban food and nutrition security 

Food systems are undergoing profound transformations driven by climate change, geopolitical instability, urbanization, technological innovation, and changing dietary patterns. Within this evolving context, the relationship between global and local food systems has become a central issue in shaping pathways toward rural and (peri-)urban food and nutrition security.

Globally integrated value chains can enhance efficiency, expand market access, and increase food availability. However, food insecurity is prevalent in net importing countries of staple foods and farm inputs. Global chains may expose producers and consumers to external shocks, price volatility, and geopolitical tensions. Local and territorial food systems, by contrast, often strengthen independence from global markets, social embeddedness, and access to fresh and culturally appropriate foods, yet they frequently face constraints related to scale, infrastructure, and investment.

This theme critically examines the trade-offs and synergies between globalized and localized food system models and impact on food security and nutrition. Contributions may explore governance innovations, market integration strategies, city-region food systems, public procurement programs (incl. school and canteen meals), digital platforms, and linkages between formal and informal markets. We also encourage analyses of emerging hybrid models that combine global connectivity with local resilience.

By moving beyond simplistic “local versus global” dichotomies, this theme seeks to illuminate multi-scalar strategies that support sustainable, equitable, and nutrition-sensitive food systems. Particular attention will be given to questions of governance and power: who decides the scale at which food systems operate, and whose interests are prioritized in these decisions?

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Stability and climate change: promoting transitions to ensure sustainable and resilient food systems

Stable and affordable food prices are essential for food security. Over the past two decades, the world has experienced an increased volatility in food prices with several price peaks and strong policy responses. The causes generally related to climate-related variation in production, geopolitical developments, and changing demands for biomass. Price volatility has a range of consequences, varying from enhanced food insecurity and malnutrition to changes in investment and production. While global trade is still seen as important for stabilising food markets, there is also a notable increase in attention to regional food self-sufficiency, at least for key commodities.

Ensuring resilient and sustainable food systems requires strategies that build both ecological and institutional stability. Investment in integrated resource management, soil health and diversified production strengthens adaptive capacity and fosters synergies between ecosystems and agriculture. In parallel, improved policy and governance, formal and informal risk management, trade coordination, and regional self-sufficiency enhance preparedness for systemic shocks to safeguard food security.

Interdisciplinary perspectives on these themes are invited. Key aspects covered include: climate risk management (mitigation and adaptation); circular and resource-efficient food systems; policy coherence under trade or supply disruptions; safeguarding food production and biodiversity at different scales; food stocks and reserves and (inter)national policies. Interdisciplinary perspectives and multi-actor experiences- including collaborations among farmers and farm workers, researchers, policymakers, and private actors - are particularly welcome. The goal is to identify evidence-based strategies that strengthen the capacity of food systems to withstand and adapt to an increasingly turbulent global environment.

Ensuring resilient and sustainable food systems requires strategies that build both ecological and institutional stability.  Investment in soil health, water stewardship, and diversified production strengthens adaptive capacity, limits trade‐offs and fosters synergies between ecosystems and agriculture. In parallel, improved governance, inclusive risk management, trade coordination, and regional self-sufficiency enhance preparedness for systemic shocks.

Possible topics under this theme include climate risk management; adaptation, and mitigation strategies; circular and resource-efficient food systems; policy coherence under trade disruptions; integration of biodiversity, soils, and forest ecosystems in resilience planning; livestock, nutrition, and equity in a warming world. Interdisciplinary perspectives and multi-actor experiences- including collaborations among farmers and farm workers, researchers, policymakers, and private actors - are particularly welcome. The goal is to identify evidence-based strategies that strengthen the capacity of food systems to withstand and adapt to an increasingly turbulent global environment.

References

Agency within the food system: drivers for strengthening the right to food ensuring socioeconomic equity and socio-cultural contributions of food systems

Food systems are not only economic and ecological systems but also social, political, and cultural ones. For millions of people worldwide, participation in food systems is shaped - and often constrained- by deep-rooted inequalities linked to gender, race, class, geography, and historical legacies of colonialism and marginalization.

This theme places agency at the centre of food security analysis. Agency refers to the capacity of individuals and groups to exercise voice and make decisions about their food systems - what food is produced and consumed, how it is processed and distributed, and how policies and governance arrangements are shaped.

Strengthening agency is critical for realizing the right to food and addressing structural inequities across food systems. Yet power asymmetries - such as corporate concentration, unequal market structures, and exclusion from decision-making processes- often limit the ability of smallholders, workers, and marginalized communities to shape the systems on which they depend.

This theme explores how governance arrangements, institutional reforms, and social movements can strengthen agency across food systems. We welcome contributions examining power dynamics in food governance, the “missing middle” of food supply chains (including processing, logistics, and distribution), and structural barriers linked to gender, race, and class.

Research that engages with food sovereignty movements, participatory governance models, and pathways for institutional change is particularly encouraged. By examining how agency operates across scales - from individuals and communities to national and global institutions - this theme seeks to identify strategies for building more equitable and inclusive food systems.

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Reflective science: revisiting knowledge theories and power dynamics in food security science and its interface with policy, business and civil society

Food security research has evolved into an increasingly reflective field that critically examines not only what we know about hunger and food systems, but also how knowledge is produced, validated, and used. As food systems face complex and interconnected challenges, the role of science is shifting - from generating technical solutions toward facilitating systemic transformation and inclusive decision-making.
This theme explores the evolving role of food security science in shaping policy, business practices, and civil society engagement. It addresses the epistemological and institutional challenges involved in moving from disciplinary research toward systems-oriented and transdisciplinary approaches that integrate scientific knowledge with lived experience.

A key dimension concerns the need to decolonize knowledge production in food systems research. This involves recognizing diverse knowledge systems - including indigenous and local knowledge - while fostering more equitable research partnerships and addressing power asymmetries in agenda-setting, funding, and data governance.

Contributions may address topics such as epistemic pluralism, participatory research methodologies, science–policy–society interfaces, and reflexive approaches that enable researchers to critically examine their own assumptions, values, and impacts. The theme also welcomes work on transformative education, including curriculum innovations that prepare scholars to engage with complex food system challenges in ethically grounded and socially responsive ways.

By encouraging reflexivity and critical engagement, this theme aims to strengthen the capacity of food security science to contribute to meaningful, inclusive, and accountable food system transformation.

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