Bhutan hosts first ‘conscious food summit’ amid threats to global supplies

A market in Paro, Bhutan. The country’s PM said food ‘lies at the intersection of many of the defining challenges of our time’. Photograph: Robert Harding/Alamy

Mending the broken food system under the threat of climate-driven weather extremes will require more than economic fixes and intensive agriculture, according to the organisers of a pioneering summit this week, who say the world must revive its spiritual relationship with food.

Delegates from more than 60 countries and the UN will gather for the next five days in Paro in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan for the world’s first “conscious food summit”, which will bring together governments and farmers, mindfulness experts and yoga therapists.