COLOMBO (Lakbima News): Despite advances in science, technology and agricultural production, millions still face hunger while food systems place growing pressure on the environment and on those who produce food.
Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay said this at the Global Conscious Food Systems Summit 2026, urging countries to rethink how they approach food production, sustainability and human well-being.
Addressing leaders and policymakers, Tobgay said humanity now has greater scientific knowledge, technology and production capacity than in previous decades.
He said global food production has increased and food moves more easily across continents, yet hundreds of millions still go hungry and many families cannot access healthy diets.
He listed several contradictions in modern food systems.
“We produce more food than ever before, and yet hundreds of millions of people still go hungry,” he said.
Tobgay said agricultural productivity has risen over recent decades, but many countries degrade natural resources such as fertile soil, clean water and biodiversity.
He also pointed to another challenge in the global food economy.
Although farmers and food producers feed populations, many still struggle to earn a living.
“Something does not add up,” he said.
While he acknowledged the need to raise agricultural productivity through science, technology, infrastructure, finance and market access, Tobgay said the global discussion must go beyond output alone.
He urged policymakers and institutions to consider what food systems should aim to achieve.
Tobgay said each technology, investment, policy and market decision reflects choices about priorities and values.
He said food systems are shaped by knowledge and capacity as well as the principles guiding decisions.
“Consciousness must guide those decisions,” he said.
Tobgay said the debate should focus on how food is produced, who benefits from current systems, what costs are incurred and what future outcomes these choices create for coming generations, not just on production capacity.
He said conscious food systems cannot be defined only by productivity or by environmental sustainability in isolation.
He said they must recognise the interconnected nature of development challenges.
He said productivity and sustainability are linked; innovation and tradition, prosperity and responsibility are also connected.
He warned decisions in one part of the food system often create consequences beyond their immediate location or purpose.
He said a conscious food system must be more than productivity or environmental improvements alone.
He said governments, businesses and communities must adopt a broader perspective that recognises the complexity and interdependence of food, agriculture, the environment, livelihoods and economic development.
Tobgay’s message was a recurring theme at the summit.
“We must learn to see the whole,” he said.
His remarks come as countries contend with rising food insecurity, climate disruptions, resource pressures and questions about the long-term sustainability of global food systems.
By putting values, responsibility and human well-being at the centre, Tobgay called for measuring food systems not only by output but by the lives they affect, the environments they protect and outcomes for future generations.
