THIS year's World Food Day celebrates one of the planet's most precious resources: water. It's essential to life on Earth. It covers the majority of the planet's surface, makes up over 50 percent of our bodies, helps keep us fed, supports livelihoods, and is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). So, how should we approach the complex challenge of shielding our existing freshwater resources and aquatic food systems from pollution and the impacts of the climate crisis while ensuring that people have equal access to water?

With about 70 percent of all freshwater going to agriculture, changing the ways we produce our food, fiber, and other agricultural products is the most crucial task. It is also where failure to act will have the gravest consequences.