What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?

23 July 2025. What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?

9:30 – 11:00 am (America/New_York)
3:30 – 5:00 pm (Europe/Amsterdam)
7:00 – 8:30 pm (Asia/Kolkata)

This event marks the launch of a collection of short chapters that synthesize current knowledge about different aspects of the future of food systems. Written by more than 100 scientists from around the world with expertise in a wide range of related disciplines and regions, these chapters provide accessible overviews of the latest foresight research on each topic, guide readers toward more detailed information, and offer insights into how our knowledge of future trends can be improved.

The launch will present an overview of the book and highlight key findings from select chapters, followed by a panel discussion featuring speakers from country partners, regional organizations, and donor agencies.

• Moderator Welcome - Elisabetta Gotor, Principal Scientist, Performance, Innovation and Strategic Analysis, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
• Opening Remarks - Sandra Cristina Kothe Milach, Chief Scientist, CGIAR
• Overview - Keith Wiebe, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

Selected Chapter Highlights

• Impact area: Poverty – Karl Pauw, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI 
• Driver: Innovation – Daniel Mason-D’Croz, Senior Research Associate, Department of Global Development, Cornell University 
• Region: West and Central Africa – Dolapo Enahoro, Senior Agricultural Economist, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
• Commodity: Aquatic Foods – Chin Yee Chan, Scientist, WorldFish

Panel Discussion 

• Vanessa da Fonseca Pereira, Advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) and analyst at Embrapa 
• Kindie Tesfaye Fantaye, Head, Climate Adaptation and Resilience, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) 
• Ruben Echeverria, Senior Advisor Agriculture Development, Gates Foundation

Closing Remarks

• Clemens Breisinger, Program Leader for the Kenya Strategy Support Program; Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI
• Elisabetta Gotor, Principal Scientist, Performance, Innovation and Strategic Analysis, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

Resource

Wiebe, Keith D.; and Gotor, Elisabetta. 2025. What do we know about the future of food systems? Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. 244 pp.

This book presents a collection of short chapters on the current state of knowledge about different aspects of the future of food systems, written by a diverse group of scientists from around the world with expertise in a wide range of related disciplines and regions.

Each chapter examines a particular aspect of food systems, describes recent trends and challenges that highlight the importance of the topic, summarizes the latest available foresight research on that topic, and identifies key gaps in existing foresight research that merit further attention. In a world of complexity and uncertainty, the goal of this book — and the purpose of foresight analysis, more generally — is not to predict the future with precision, but rather to carefully consider and present what can be known about possible future pathways in order to inform choices today.