Right to food for all!

This year, Policies against Hunger, organised by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH) and held in the German capital of Berlin from June 23^rd to 25^th, addressed the realisation of the right to food. The event, the ministry’s largest international conference, was not just another policy gathering – it became a space for exchange for the realisation of the right to food, driven by the intense engagement and passionate interventions from social movements, peasants, Indigenous Peoples, women’s groups, urban activists and NGOs.

In preparation for these critical discussions, members of the Forum on Environment and Development (FUE) organised a workshop for the numerous civil society participants from around the world, developing strategies on crucial topics of the conference like access to land, gender equality, bioeconomy, sustainable agricultural supply chains and the right to food in the Global North. This collective mobilisation helped to set the tone for a lively and fruitful conference.

Gaza – the catastrophe that must not be ignored

The elephant in the room was powerfully addressed right at the very beginning of the conference by civil society as members of this group felt it impossible to hold a conference on ending hunger without addressing the situation in the Gaza strip, where the entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation. Taking the floor, a civil society speaker denounced this crisis as a result of the systematic violation of the right to food and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. In response, the BMLEH spontaneously put Gaza on the conference’s agenda and opened a space for discussion. While participants very much acknowledged this gesture, they criticised Germany’s role in the conflict. A statement published after the conference gives details of their criticism.

Justice in every corner of the food system – civil society offers clear pathways

In the session on land rights, civil society condemned the continued land concentration and grabbing by corporations as well as financial actors and called for redistributive agrarian reforms. The protection of collective and customary land rights was emphasised as key, as it is central to the UN’s Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT). Civil society therefore welcomed the explicit commitment expressed by the German government to support the second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development ICARRD+20 in Colombia in February 2026.

The discussion on gender equality further exposed the need for transformative change. Strikingly, only one man participated in this working group – demonstrating the persistent tendency to treat gender equality as a “women’s issue” rather than a shared responsibility. To ensure that women’s leadership in food systems is no longer sidelined, the UN has declared 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer. It was in this special context that FUE members urged the BMLEH to continue its commitment on the enhanced practical implementation of the UN’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS) policy recommendations, particularly highlighting the Guidelines on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls.

The bioeconomy, meanwhile, sparked fierce debate. Civil society rejected the model as a means of ending hunger and sustainably transforming food systems, denouncing it as a false solution that only drives extractive activities and biomass trade rooted in land grabbing. Instead, civil society called for strong support for agroecology based on the 13 principles endorsed by the CFS. FUE members emphasise that the bioeconomy must be in line with the right to food, agroecological integrity and planetary boundaries.

Adressing corporate power and influence in global supply chains, civil society stressed the need to hold companies accountable for human rights violations and enhance justiciability – calling for stronger state engagement in the development of a binding UN treaty on transnational corporations currently under negotiation at the Human Rights Council.

Attention then turned to food insecurity in the Global North – a crisis ignored all too often by political decision-makers. Civil society called for national policies to address this issue. Such policies include increasing social security to a level that allows for the purchase of nutritious and culturally appropriate food, implementing an inter-ministerial dialogue on the right to food and free and agroecological sourced school meals for all children and youth.

What comes next: from the conference to global action

These outcomes paint a clear picture. The German government, particularly its ministries for agriculture and development cooperation, are strongly called upon to carry the conference’s impulses forward – to CFS 53 in October, the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in January 2026 and the ICARRD+20 in February 2026. Since the FAO has just issued its plan to mainstream the right to food and affirmed its support for the CFS, the German government can build on a powerful momentum in the global fight for sustainable food systems transformation.

Jan Dreier is policy advisor on the right to food in Germany and on agroecology at FIAN Germany.
Contact:  j.dreier(at)fian.de

Tina Marie Jahn is policy advisor on global agriculture and nutrition at INKOTA-network.
Contact: jahn(at)inkota.de

More information: 

Civil society organizations’ statement on the Conference “Policies against Hunger 2025“

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Agroecology"

Rural 21 Dossier on "Bioeconomy"