Food security is a human right, and its provision is a common responsibility. Recognition of this fundamental right by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) has been marked by a progressive evolution.

After 20 years, the Global Agreement on Food Security has reiterated this common responsibility of humankind as well as the need for both moral engagement and cooperation. The World Declaration on Nutrition adopted by the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition laid out clearly problems of hunger, of malnutrition, and of nutrition-related diseases; and it highlighted the import of poverty, ignorance and lack of education as significant drivers of global hunger and malnutrition.

A focus on agriculture raises other political and scientific debates on land use, technology, redistribution mechanisms, public health, biodiversity, sovereignty and collective security. Exacerbation of the current world food and energy crises and the human and environmental impacts of globalization and climate change (especially on the world's poor) call for a rethinking of development in an holistic manner—and agricultural and rural development in a particular way. There is no question, there is need for an holistic approach—addressing problems with all their recognizable complexity, in a spirit of economic, social and environmental sustainability, equity and solidarity. This calls for a new paradigmatic approach to address the multiple dimensions of the issue area, interrelated with the overarching theme of this international scientific meeting.