"Sustainable and Resilient Food System: Turkey Analysis" Report Released

A report titled "Sustainable and Resilient Food System: Turkey Analysis," prepared by Fikret Adaman, Senior Researcher at Mercator-IPM, under the partnership of Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative and Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), has been released. The report addresses how a better food system could be achieved in Turkey and globally. The findings of the report titled "Sustainable and Resilient Food System: Turkey Analysis," prepared by Senior Researcher Fikret Adaman, were shared with the public through a hybrid meeting. Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Sabancı University Vice Rector and IPM Director Fuat Keyman emphasized the importance of the report "Sustainable and Resilient Food System: Turkey Analysis," stating "This report was a beginning. We wanted to launch this project with such a strategic paper, what we call a 'white paper.' We will continue our work on this subject with Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM)." Fikret Adaman, Senior Researcher at Mercator-IPM, presenting the findings of the "Sustainable and Resilient Food System: Turkey Analysis" report, said that with this report they attempted to create a roadmap to understand what is happening in agriculture and food in Turkey and globally. According to the report presented by Adaman, the beginning of problems in the food system is marked by increasing hunger and obesity. Food waste, climate crisis, impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and disruptions in agriculture are among other factors. In light of these factors, key objectives in the food system include access to adequate and safe food, ensuring food is free from physical, biological and chemical risks, giving societies the right to determine food policies, and preventing food security from being compromised due to economic, ecological and other reasons. The report further emphasizes that it is necessary to examine in detail how a food system is affected by and affects changes in the fields of energy, health, urbanization, industrialization, technology, demography, social relations and policy. Fazilet Vardar, Director of Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), who participated in the meeting, noted that agriculture should be regarded as a crucial field as a prerequisite to food, and continued as follows: "Our country is in a highly advantageous position in terms of climate zone and biodiversity, and this needs to be supported with a national policy. Besides this, our greatest weakness is the unconscious use of technology. We cannot use technology wisely enough in areas such as pesticides, seeds and fertilizers. We are also dependent on external sources both in terms of raw materials and different elements of technology. However, the emerging threats are also creating various opportunities such as the green deal and the circular economy that reintegrates waste back into the system. Although conventionality and technology present a dilemma, the only way to meet growing demand is through conscious use of technology." Ümit Şahin, Climate Change Studies Coordinator at IPM, emphasized the need for a systematic approach to the issue, stating "One of the approaches showing this holistic perspective is the planetary boundaries approach, where one of the 9-10 boundaries is climate change, but boundaries such as reduced biodiversity, water scarcity, nitrogen-phosphorus pollution stemming from unconscious fertilizer use, and chemical pollution (from pesticides and food packaging) are also directly related to the food system." Ümit Şahin noted that the points drawing attention in the second part of the 6th Assessment Report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are directly linked to food policies, and said that the report clearly stated that if climate change cannot be stopped, adaptation to a world warming at this pace is not possible and existing vulnerabilities will increase exponentially, with the most pronounced disruption occurring in the food system.