Paro (Bhutan) (AFP) – To help farmers facing financial pressures, the consequences of climate change and soil depletion, experts meeting this week in Bhutan are calling for bringing consumers closer to producers.

Published on: 03/09/2026 - 07:41

A group of farmers, scientists and development specialists are advocating "conscious food systems", arguing that people today are too distant from nature and producers.

Current production methods "aren't really fit for purpose," says Andrew Bovarnick, head of food systems at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

“This creates enormous environmental problems,” he continues. Furthermore, "we have more food in the world, but there are more people than ever suffering from malnutrition and starvation."

Mr. Bovarnick has spent years researching technical solutions, but he believes technology alone cannot solve the problem.

This week in Bhutan he is meeting with farmers, scientists and development specialists, all members like him of the Global Conscious Food Systems Alliance. They defend food production focused on protecting the environment, producers and consumers, rather than maximizing profits or yields.

Intensive agriculture, chemical use and extreme weather events linked to climate change have degraded up to 40% of land globally.

Ashish Gupta faces difficulties of this nature on a daily basis. He cultivates, within a cooperative, a small farm in Himachal Pradesh, in the north of India.

“The markets are really ruthless,” he explains to AFP on the sidelines of the conference, deploring the obstacles faced by small farmers who produce organic food.

Of course, these foods may seem more expensive. But Mr Gupta urges consumers to be aware of the environmental and social impacts of industrial agriculture.

As soon as a flood ruins a harvest, his community struggles to survive, he says. He also laments "the new generation (which) is disinterested in agriculture".

“Link to the earth”

What is a “conscious” eating system? For Gupta, it starts with consumers caring about who and how they produce their food. It seeks to create a link in order to encourage buyers to pay a fairer price.

He wants “young people to be able to feel this connection with the earth in their hearts, and not just the economic aspect,” he explains. “Without that, the status quo will remain in place.”

Concretely, what could such a system look like?

In the town of Paro, several hundred advocates of this idea implement different practices, from walking meditation to mindful eating – a practice aimed at paying full attention to the sensations caused by the act of eating.

The group also discusses different examples, such as that of an Egyptian project which encouraged 50,000 farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture, which seeks to restore degraded soils.

Bhutan offers fertile ground for these reflections, as the country has committed to ensuring that 60% of its land remains forest and has a negative carbon footprint.

But the country faces serious challenges. “Our agricultural workforce is aging and we have a problem of migration, from the countryside to the cities but also abroad,” Bhutan's Minister of Agriculture, Lyonpo Younten Phuntsho, told AFP.

He hopes to be able to take advantage of the country's preserved environment to offer products with high added value, and therefore sold at a high price.

© 2026 AFP

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