Johan Swinnen and Purnima Menon were interviewed for this new episode of the VoxDevTalks podcast, where they discuss IFPRI’s landmark 2025 Global Food Policy Report, which reviews 50 years of progress and setbacks in global food systems.
“In 2025, the International Food Policy Research Institute is 50 years old, and its 2025 Global Food Policy Report is a blockbuster…It covers the last five decades of progress in improving the worlds food systems, also the challenges that remain and the need for policy to keep evolving if we are going to build food systems that are healthy and sustainable,” said VoxDevTalks host Tim Phillips.
The discussion explored how food systems have evolved, the meaning of ‘agrifood’, and what must be done to build resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability in the decades to come, as well as a historical perspective on food systems and agrifood research.
“We see four decades, really, from the middle of the 1970s until about a decade ago, of unprecedented improvements in food security, reductions in poverty. What we also see is the last decade has been seeing a reversal of that.” Swinnen said. “We should not diminish the major strides that humanity has made in this area of food security. But at the same time, the numbers of the last decade are really worrisome.”
Menon discussed how new innovation systems in emerging economies, combined with international collaboration, offer hope.
“Our best-case scenario is really when people are engaging with the knowledge community, with the researchers, saying: tell us what the best things are that we can do here,” Menon said.
Listen to the podcast here.
Read the 2025 Global Food Policy Report here.