Tamsir Sallah is a member of the global coordination team of YOUNGO (UNFCCC). He served as a youth party delegate for SB58, SB60 and SB62, respectively as a Gambian youth delegate. He has been a campaigner under the World’s Youth for Climate Justice, an organisation that co-championed the ICJ Advisory opinion on climate change and he was a task force member of the Global Youth Statement 2025 under YOUNGO . Tamsir was the former Exchange Coordinator of International Association of Students in Agriculture and Related Sciences (IAAS) Netherlands 2024. He was also the co-host of the first edition of the Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) in The Gambia in 2022 and a co-organiser of LCOY Netherlands 2025. He’s also a member of the climate justice steering committee to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), a UK-based organisation advocating for the welfare and rights of immigrants, which provides policy recommendations on the human mobility aspect. He’s also a volunteer at SCI-Netherlands, the Dutch branch of Service Civil International.

Senni Alho is an Innovations Officer at Clim-Eat, a think-and-do tank bridging food and climate to advance a just transition in low- and middle-income countries. Through foodsystems.tech under the Bold Bets for the Future of Food initiative, she explores and communicates breakthrough innovations in plant nutrition, low-emission livestock, and next-generation crops. With a background in Economics and Business Administration from Aalto University, and experience across consultancy and civil society, Senni brings a multi-perspective approach to linking evidence, innovation, and stakeholder engagement for transformative change in food systems.

Sigrid Wertheim-Heck is associate professor in global food system sustainability at the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University, and professor Food and Healthy Living at the Aeres University of Applied Sciences both in The Netherlands. With a master in history, a master in Russian and Eurasian Studies, both from Leiden University, and a PhD in sociology from Wageningen University, Sigrid is interested in processes of societal transformation. As a consumption sociologist, Sigrid takes an ‘everyday fare’ perspective on advancing global food system sustainability. Her research departs from situated perspectives on socio-technical transformations in which evolving practices and arrangements locally are tightly interlinked with the national and global scale. Her interest in urban food systems informs her agenda on the relationship between urbanization, food provisioning and food consumption. Projects across Asia, Africa and Europe bring together three areas of research, namely sustainable food consumption, governance practices and global-local dynamics.

Jillian Student (moderator) is a knowledge integrator and researcher on inter- and transdisciplinary research and learning at Wageningen Institute for Environment and Climate Research and the Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research. Her research integrates different scientific disciplines, forms of knowledge, and approaches to explore human-environment interactions in the context of environmental change (e.g. environmental degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss). Gaming and simulations are some of the ways she co-creates understanding of complex systems, develops experiences of potential future trajectories, and unpacks future-looking decision-making (e.g. dependencies, differing capacities, uncertainties).

As COP30 approaches, questions about the role of food systems in global climate negotiations are more urgent than ever. Despite being responsible for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions and being especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, food systems have long remained on the margins of COP discussions, sidelined to external pavilions and parallel sessions rather than featured on the main stage.

In this TABLE event, we ask our panelists to envision a gathering of world leaders and decisionmakers in the near future that adequately weighs the role of food systems in climate change and understands the measures needed to shift diets in a sustainable way and scale back food systems’ impact on the environment. We’ll explore how food systems could gain stronger recognition at COP30 and beyond. What would an ambitious, food-centered climate agenda look like? Drawing on their expertise and the most recent evidence, such as the EAT-Lancet report, our panel will discuss how rethinking food could reshape these international conversations.

On Tuesday October 21st 2025, TABLE hosted the event "Where is Food on the COP menu?", which addressed the sidelining of food systems in major Conference of the Parties (COP) discussions, despite their significant environmental impact. The event used a dinner table setting to envision a future COP agenda where food was at the metaphorical COP table. Facilitated by Jillian Student (Wageningen University), the core question posed to the panelists was: What would an ambitious, food-centered climate agenda look like, and what changes would be necessary to achieve it? The recently published EAT-Lancet report emphasizes the essential nature of these questions, which highlights the fundamental link between healthy diets and a healthy planet.

First, several crucial issues were identified as now lacking at the Table:

• Healthy and Context-Specific Diets: The EAT-Lancet report describes the ideal diet—one needed both nutritionally and climate-wise. However, fewer than one percent of the world population is estimated to follow the ‘ideal diet’, presenting a challenge for just, healthy and environmentally friendly diets. (Senni). Sigrid importantly emphasized how making diets important also needs a shift from a focus on production and provision of food, to the consumption of culturally appropriate foods, and the role consumption plays in the food system. This connects climate change to our everyday choices, habits, and plates. 
• The right incentives for change: Senni offered a tangible example from Finland, where growing cereals for animal feed can be more profitable than their production for direct human consumption, illustrating the need for the right incentives to drive change.
• Localized Value Chains (VCs): Tamsir argued that shorter VCs are more resilient. By sourcing food more locally, emissions can be reduced, and the resilience of local food systems—especially in Global South countries like the Gambia—can be built. Furthermore, Tamsir pointed out the need for reflection about what is consumed and where it originates, where the food often served at COP events itself contradicts the negotiations on climate action.

Second, to address these issues properly, who needs a seat at the Table?

The panelists agreed that inclusivity is paramount – we need more seats. The conversation must move beyond nation states - with Global North countries overly represented, and involve diverse perspectives, prioritizing those most disadvantaged by climate change.

• All speakers stressed the need for voices representing localized perspectives, those who know how to deal with shocks and stresses. COP negotiations need to include the lived experiences of people dealing with climate shocks and stresses - people "with their feed in the mud", who hold real-world solutions (Sigrid). This can for instance be farmers working on more sustainable farm practices, as well as small medium entrepreneurs, providing consumers with healthy foods under protracted crises of climate and conflict.
• Tamsir strongly emphasized the inclusion of youth, noting their lived reality of climate change. In the Gambia, for instance, 60% of the population is young, yet they face low hopes for success in agriculture due to climate change. Youth "should be given the opportunity to participate in their country delegations and show their own stories" to keep them invested in the food sector.
• Sigrid importantly added that, instead of including only nation states, urban spaces are crucial; city authorities are vital in addressing food, mobility, and climate issues, requiring a "zooming in" on local ecosystems.

 And thirdly, what should this Table look like? Who determines who is invited?

• A future COP discussion on food must adopt a more holistic perspective. Sigrid described how farmers, particularly in Global South countries, are hit hard by climate change and lose harvests, often leading them to quickly replant and use more agro-chemicals. This immediate response, while aiming to stir growth, depletes soil health and jeopardizes food safety—a level of complexity often excluded from the main COP discussions.
• Senni argued for more democratic spaces, pointing at alternative formats like citizen climate assemblies—a more direct democracy approach featuring different "dinner guests" and leading to potentially more ambitious results. These spaces are needed to foster learning, exchange, and genuine listening.
• Crucially, any reformed discussion must account for power relations and create more space for smaller member countries. Government policies are often conflicting with how farmers work on the ground, suggesting that less top-down approaches are necessary.
• However, consensus was clear: too much pressure might be placed on COP to solve everything. Solutions do not need to be "one size fits all". COP negotiations do however serve an important function in setting an agenda, and can act as a catalyst for protests or for voicing critical issues in other spaces. The ultimate goal is to keep "open doors" and ensure that "every knowledge" is brought to the Table.