Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Beginner : Eliminating Food Insecurity and Advancing Agricultural Productivity

Committee Description

SSUNS 2024’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will be designed as a beginner committee focusing on access to food and sustainability in agriculture. With intensifying climate change, there is an ever present need to refocus agrarian goals and discover new ways to continue feeding the world. This committee will specifically focus on three subtopics. The first subtopic, centered on food deserts, will have delegates examine how socio-economic disparities and marginalization interact with access to food. Food deserts can exist in a variety of forms, but are widely defined as regions in which residents face a pervasive lack of access to affordable and nutritionally valuable food. As food deserts manifest in both urban and rural areas, delegates must come up with creative solutions to improve access to food without encouraging unsustainable practices and exacerbating carbon emissions. The second subtopic will have delegates research smallholder farmers. Delegates must find solutions to improve access to sustainable technical and financial support, establish eco-friendly farming inputs, and empower marginalized communities in agriculture. The third subtopic focuses on genetically modified agriculture. Delegates must weigh the potential costs of genetic modifications to crops to the potential rewards of improved efficiency and capacity. Additionally, this committee will address the issue of access to farming technology, as uneven access to modern technologies can create even more global disparities in wellbeing. Proposed solutions may look like more efficient shipping processes, usage of mixed-land use systems, conservation of waste, farmer empowerment, and making new farming technology more available. These subtopics cover a large breadth of the current challenges that agrarians are facing all over the world. However, the dais of this year’s FAO presents one last task to the delegates. In keeping with the UN’s definition of sustainability, resolutions presented in committee must accomplish two things: allow the present generation greater capacity to meet current goals, while not hindering the ability for future generations to fulfill their own needs.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Rose Cioffi at gaecosoc@ssuns.org