The last Vijverberg session of 2022 was a hybrid event on 14 December 2022. FoodFIRST invited two guest speakers, professor Ruby Rabbinge and professor Mohammed Hassena, to discuss the importance of systems thinking in agri-food development.

FoodFIRST organized a Vijverberg session on 29 August 2022, in response to the current African food security concerns, particularly the effects of rising food and fertilizer prices since the war in Ukraine. According to Prem Bindraban of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), this is a wake-up call regarding the need for a rapid increase in African food production and the promotion of soil health through the efficient use of fertilizers, which is currently extremely limited in the majority of African countries. Jan Willem Molenaar of AidEnvironment presented the essential components for sustainable sector transformation and how to achieve them through the development of coordinated and inclusive processes.

Socires organised her first Socires Lecture on June 27th, 2022 in the House of Europe in the Hague, the Netherlands. The lecture was hosted as one of the Vijverberg Policy Dialogues. Pieter van Geel, chairman of Socires introduced the lecture. Hans Bruning, acting director of Socires, moderated the afternoon. Professor Haroon Sheikh of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) delivered the lecture followed by a dialogue with participants on "Geopolitics and the War in Ukraine: The Weaponization of the Economy and Food."

It is the first session of the year 2022 and, for the time being, the final session of our series on the external perspectives of the EU's Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy – a major component of the EU's larger Green Deal transition to combat climate change. Professor Alan Matthews of European Agricultural Policy in the Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland is the speaker for this virtual Vijverberg Policy Dialogue. He has authored numerous publications on agricultural policy, international trade, and food security.