In his opening address at the 11th Sustainable Food Summit, organized in cooperation with the Turkish Food Industry Employers’ Union (TÜGİS) and the Sustainability Academy, TÜGİS Chairman Kaan Sidar said: “Today, one out of every four people working in agriculture is employed informally; meanwhile, investments in agricultural technologies have increased fourfold over the past 10 years. On one hand, there are opportunities and technology; on the other, there are inequalities. One out of every three food products produced globally ends up as waste. The economic cost of this amounts to approximately USD 1 trillion, while its climatic impact corresponds to 3 billion tons of carbon emissions every year. That is why we address waste as a management issue.”

TÜGİS Chairman Kaan Sidar

Held this year for the 11th time with the aim of developing a shared vision and strategy for redesigning the food value chain, the Sustainable Food Summit, themed “Transformation for the Future of Food,” served as a platform where ideas, collaborations and innovation for a more just, resilient and healthy food system were brought to the agenda. The summit brought together all stakeholders of the sector, including academia, finance, industry, the business community, media, SMEs and NGOs.

“If we manage food properly, we can also manage the future”

Delivering the opening speech of the 11th Sustainable Food Summit, TÜGİS Chairman Kaan Sidar stated: “The world produces enough food today; yet one out of every nine people is still hungry. This picture makes it necessary to rethink how the food system operates. This year, when we say ‘For the Future of Food,’ we are talking about the future that awaits us. As the world population approaches 10 billion, we will live with less water, more limited land and greater risks. Moreover, approximately 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from food systems. Therefore, we cannot consider the climate agenda separately from the food agenda.”

Sidar continued: “As TÜGİS, we do not see representation alone as sufficient; transformation must also be managed. Today, one out of every four people working in agriculture is employed informally; meanwhile, investments in agricultural technologies have increased fourfold over the past 10 years. On one hand, there are opportunities and technology; on the other, inequalities exist. In addition, one out of every three food products produced worldwide is wasted; the economic cost of this is around USD 1 trillion, while the climatic cost corresponds to 3 billion tons of carbon emissions annually. That is why we address waste as a management issue.”

“Healthy soil can increase yields by 20 percent”

Stating, “We are bringing regenerative agriculture, the circular economy and digitalization to the agenda,” Kaan Sidar said: “Because healthy soil can increase productivity by up to 20 percent, and a farmer who works with the right data can achieve 15–20 percent higher yields from the same field. The ideas emerging from the Sustainable Food Summit, shaped by the contributions of valuable representatives of the sector, will not remain confined to reports; they will be implemented in the field. Because if we manage food properly, we can also manage the future.”

“We must move from rhetoric to action”

Sustainability Academy Chairman Murat Sungur Bursa, stating that “With the Sustainable Food Summit, we grow our hope for a sustainable future every year,” said: “For a period, the business world was merely an observer of sustainability and could not reflect this approach in its internal management. Our Academy was founded with the aim of creating change and transformation in the business world along a path that extends from rhetoric to action. In this context, together with our stakeholders, we address the sustainability of food alongside the sustainability of human existence, and we remind ourselves that we must move from rhetoric to action.”

Eker: “700 million people are facing hunger”

Mehdi Eker, former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and Chairman of the Board of the Agricultural Strategy and Policy Development Center (TARPOL), said: “The global and regional problems we face today show that we are approaching a ‘beyond-crisis’ stage. For this reason, we must build an approach that does not settle for good intentions but produces practical solutions. The dominant approach of the past two hundred years has put significant strain on our world. We have entered a period that requires accurate diagnosis and urgent action in response to a picture that erodes natural resources.”

Recalling that the world has sufficient resources to meet humanity’s needs, Eker emphasized that the real issue lies in curbing excessive ambitions. He stated: “In a world where hunger, obesity and waste are growing simultaneously, it is unacceptable that one-third of the food produced is wasted. Approximately 700 million people are facing hunger, while the number of obese people exceeds 1.2 billion. In our country, waste is said to be at the level of 102 kg per capita. We can only reverse this picture through a new system approach in which stakeholders work in coordination and establish coordination, operations and communication together.”

Emphasis on the waste-free company

Ülker CEO Özgür Kölükfakı, speaking as a panelist during the event, emphasized the importance of the waste-free company, stating: “For us, sustainability means creating value and delivering benefits simultaneously to the environment, society and the economy. From production to the supply chain, from R&D to packaging design, we act with this understanding in every area. While growing since 2014 without an increase in carbon emissions, we use resources in the most efficient way and carry out production that respects nature and people. By developing our ‘More Than Hazelnuts,’ ‘Regenerative Agriculture in Wheat,’ and ‘More Than Cocoa’ projects, we continue to support sustainable agriculture. At Ülker, with our ‘Waste-Free Company’ culture, we work tirelessly to deliver happiness in every bite, while preparing for a future we are building today for the world of tomorrow—without waiting for anyone—by expanding our social impact through our sustainability projects and performance.”