Over the next two weeks, more than more than 50,000 policymakers, government negotiators, scientists, farmers, advocates, journalists, and business leaders are expected in Belém, Brazil for the 30th U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30). This year’s Conference, according to the COP30 Presidency, will prioritize implementation over declarations, promising to address the climate crisis with the urgency it warrants. And central to this work are the world’s food and agriculture systems, framed as one of the six pillars foundational to the COP30 Action Agenda.
For this agenda to be truly successful, “we need to ensure that those who are most impacted by the climate crisis have a voice and a seat at the table,” says Anna Lappé, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.
Lappé, an award-winning author and internationally recognized expert on food systems, is the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working for food system transformation around the world. Prior to joining the Global Alliance, Lappé had published three books on food, farming, and sustainability, including Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It, and contributed to nearly two dozen more. Lappé is also the founder or co-founder of three U.S.-based organizations, including Real Food Media. In this conversation with Food Tank’s Jessica Levy, Lappé discusses the encouraging progress that has been made to bring food and agriculture systems into climate negotiations, the ties between farming and the fossil fuel industry, and the organizations proving that a regenerative food future is possible.