Sustainable Ireland National Conference: Small-scale Food producers and the SDGs. 

11^th April 2019

Croke Park, Dublin

Our current food system is profoundly flawed. Large-scale industrial agriculture damages biodiversity and significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers struggle to earn a decent income, both within the Global North and the Global South. Access to sufficient food and adequate nutrition is a key challenge. Every year, malnutrition claims the lives of three million children under the age of five. In Ireland, this lack of quality food and poor nutrition manifests itself in rising obesity levels. Meanwhile approximately one third of all food is wasted.

Sustainable Food and Agriculture

It’s time to rethink how we grow, share and consume food. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals provide a transformative roadmap for sustainable development, in which food and agriculture, people’s livelihoods and the management of natural resources are addressed not separately, but as one. Small-scale food production is at the heart of this vision.  However, we need to empower and support these food producers and ensure an enabling environment to provide safe and nutritious food, to generate decent incomes, while supporting people-centred rural development and protecting the environment.

Opportunities to Engage

This conference seeks to engage government representatives and stakeholders in dialogue on the role of small-scale and community food producers in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This will examine both the challenges and enabling factors for small-scale food producers locally and globally, to ensure farming and food production is economically viable, environmentally sustainable and community supported.