Wageningen University: WUR launches online youth platform Future Food Heroes

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP) took the initiative to set up an online platform: Future Food Heroes. The goal is to enable youth to connect and convene in order to find answers together on food systems transformation. With the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) announced for September 2021, WUR hopes youth worldwide will start using the platform in order to be heard.

The ultimate aim of Future Food Heroes is to facilitate the organization of youth-led action towards the UNFSS and related summits. The platform facilitates the creation of a transcended network and multi-disciplinary dialogue for the transformation of our food systems. Moreover, the platform allows youth to inform themselves on the UNFSS, on relevant (youth) organizations and networks active in the field of food system transformation, and events, initiatives and activities related to this theme. Above all, this platform offers youth the opportunity to discuss the transformation of our food systems and make themselves heard at the UNFSS, as Evi Vet and Eva Koffeman, the Dutch UN Youth Representatives on Biodiversity and Food, will use this platform to gather input for the summit.

WUR wants to help raise the voices of young people through this platform, not just because it’s this next generation that will shoulder the burden of feeding a growing global population, but also because we still don’t know how to do it; food systems are complex and trade-offs between social, environmental and economic prioritizations are an inevitable consequence of this. A debate that is inclusive, robust and ongoing, during and beyond this year’s events, will help shape the minds, actions and opportunities of young people for years to come.

Future Food Heroes is officially launched on June 1 by WUR, Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP) and several partner organisations from civil society, private sector, knowledge institutes and UN representatives Evi Vet and Eva Koffeman.