Malnutrition, climate change, globalization, and trade patterns profoundly shape the global food system. These challenges, along with rapid population growth, have compromised the ability of food systems to deliver safe, nutritious, sustainable, and equitable foods, in turn impacting the fulfillment of fundamental human rights.

This year, the Food Governance Node at the Charles Perkins Centre (University of Sydney) has partnered with the Global Center for Legal Innovation on Food Environments (Georgetown University Law Center) to organize the Global Food Governance Conference. This conference will be onlineĀ December 13-15, 2021, from 2:00-7:00 p.m. EST (Washington D.C.) / December 14-16, 2021, from 6:00-11:00 a.m. (Sydney, Australia). It will bring together lawyers, policymakers, nutritionists, and health scientists to explore how law, policy, and regulation can help address food system challenges at the local, national, regional, and global levels.

Through a broad and interdisciplinary approach, the Global Food Governance Conference will consider how legislative, regulatory, and policy regimes impede or facilitate access to safe, nutritious, sustainable, and equitable food. The conference will explore issues such as (1) food security, safety, and sustainability, (2) the promotion of healthier diets, addressing both under and over-nourishment, including diet-related risk factors for non-communicable diseases, (3) equity and social justice in global food systems, including human rights-based approaches, and (4) Indigenous food systems governance.