Food systems are coming under increasing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss, economic instability and widening inequality. At the same time, questions of food security and food sovereignty are becoming ever more urgent, not only whether people have access to food, but who holds power within the systems that shape how it is produced, distributed, valued and governed.

Yet across farms, cities, landscapes and communities, signals of a different future are already emerging. From regenerative farming models and local food networks to community gardens, indigenous knowledge systems and women-led agricultural initiatives, people are reimagining more resilient, equitable and locally rooted approaches to food. The question is no longer whether alternatives exist , it is why they remain at the margins, and what it would take to change that.

In recognition of the International Year of Women Farmers 2026, this session will pay particular attention to the women who sustain food systems, protect biodiversity and build resilience at the frontline of climate change, despite frequently holding the least economic and political power within the systems on which the world depends.

Hosted by Project Dandelion, Commonland, Kite Insights and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, with welcome remarks from Mary Robinson, the session brings together global leadership, frontline practitioners, scientists, community voices and system innovators. Rather than a traditional panel, it is designed as a participatory gathering, drawing on Donella Meadows' idea of dancing with systems, that complex systems shift not through top-down prescription but through relationship, proximity and the recognition that those closest to the problem often hold the clearest understanding of the path forward.