Sustainable Food at COP30: What Delegates Ate and Why It Matters?

When the 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change concluded in Belem, Brazil, in November last year, attention largely remained on the outcomes and familiar negotiating deadlocks. Yet beyond the conference halls, a quieter but significant shift in climate action was already unfolding—on the plates of COP attendees.

According to a report by Down To Earth, the summit marked a first in the history of the UN climate process: food for a COP was sourced at scale from family farmers, Indigenous communities, and agroecological producers, with family farms formally included in the United Nations budget as official food suppliers. Around 30% of the food served during the conference came from Brazil’s smallholder and agroecological networks, representing a deliberate move away from the carbon-intensive, industrial food systems that have traditionally sustained global climate summits.

In an unprecedented move, all restaurants at COP30 were asked to source a minimum of 30% of their food from family farms and agroecological producers. This change was a result of sustained pressure from civil society, led by the campaign 'Na Mesa da COP30', also referred to as COP30 Food Initiative, added the Down To Earth report.  

“We strongly believe food systems need to be discussed at COPs, but those conversations remain abstract unless negotiators see tangible examples,” said Fabrício Muriana, co-founder, Instituto Regenera, while talking to Down To Earth during the conference.

Instituto Regenera, which was central to making the initiative happen, works with farmers in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest and has been working in Belém since 2020.

“If we have some negotiators going there (restaurants) and seeing agroecology is possible, then there will be more room for agroecology to feature more seriously in agriculture-related discussions and documents,” he said.

From Policy to Plate

Over 80 cooperatives, associations and producer networks — representing around 8,000 farming families across the State of Pará — supplied food to COP30’s official catering system.

While all restaurants were mandated to meet the 30 per cent threshold, some went far beyond it. The largest of these was the Restaurante da Sociobio, a restaurant catering to COP staff, volunteers and later delegates, which sourced nearly 100 per cent of its ingredients from family farming and agroecological producers, emphasized the Down To Earth report.

Over the course of the summit, the restaurant served over 70,000 meals, priced at R$40 per plate (40 Brazilian Real), amounting to a R$2.8 million operation (around $525,000), informed Muriana.

“This was delicious, nutritious and culturally rooted food, for less than €7 a full plate. The food came from 60 cooperatives, associations and networks, and all that money was shared by the operators. No financial services were available, so they took all the risks,” he said.

Another key food partner, Lacitata, also worked closely with local family farming networks. Its menus highlighted ingredients sourced from Brazil’s diverse biomes. Indigenous produce took centre stage, with açaí and Brazilian nuts harvested by the Kayapó people featured as core ingredients. These were selected not only for their cultural importance but also for their ability to be sustainably supplied at the scale required for an international conference.

“We never imagined our food would reach so far. It brings joy to know that our work is part of something so significant,” Ana Cláudia Souza, a farmer associated with the Agricultural Cooperative of Producers of Belém do Pará (Copabel), was quoted by COP30 in a statement.

The Road to 30%

The initiative set a new benchmark for how large international events can reshape their food systems—one that civil society organisations hope will become the norm for future climate conferences. However, achieving this outcome was far from easy. It began with a sobering realisation at another major event.

In August 2023, Belém hosted the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization Summit, which brought together heads of state from eight Amazon nations and drew between 25,000 and 30,000 participants. Yet when attendees went looking for lunch, the options were strikingly limited: a handful of fast-food outlets, one restaurant struggling to serve even 500 people, and just three food trucks.

“It was clear that nobody took care of that. We had to leave the venue for lunch. Simply, there were no good options for people to eat,” Muriana recalls.

During one such lunch break, he was speaking with a local farmer leader who posed a question that would catalyse the entire Na Mesa da COP30 campaign: “We have catering services of our own, and we could serve local food — why didn’t they ask us?”

That question resonated deeply. When COP28 took place in Dubai later that year, Muriana and his colleagues began asking a pointed question of their own: “When will COPs ever offer low carbon emission foods?”

Expecting scepticism from government authorities, Instituto Regenera and its partners launched an extensive mapping exercise across Pará state in 2023, which continued for a year and a half. The initiative identified more than 80 producer networks, documenting what farmers grew, their production cycles, unused capacity, infrastructure requirements, certification status, and access to transport and storage. It also outlined the support farmers would need to supply food at scale, ranging from advance purchase agreements to technical assistance.

Nicole Pita, a food systems scientist with the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), described the food served at the conference as COP30’s lasting legacy.

“This is a real life story of bringing food of local producers and serving it to the world and it shows showed that feeding a global event can align with climate action, public policy and social justice,” she says while talking to DTE.

For campaigners, the significance of Na Mesa da COP30 extends beyond a single summit. The challenge is to make sure this does not remain an exception, at COPs or anywhere else, Muriana said.