This year's World Food Day pays tribute to one of the most precious resources on the planet: water. It is essential for life on Earth. It covers most of the planet's surface, makes up more than 50% of our bodies, helps feed us, supports livelihoods and is essential to meeting the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. So how should we address the complex challenge of protecting our freshwater resources and aquatic food systems from pollution and the effects of the climate crisis, while ensuring that people have equal access to water? With about 70% of fresh water going to agriculture, the most crucial task is to change the way we produce our food, fiber and other agricultural products. Fresh water is not infinite and we need to stop assuming that it is. Given our planet's growing population, we are on track to increase our global water consumption by more than a third by 2050. This means that, collectively, we are at risk of reaching a point of no return. Rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization, economic development and the climate crisis have taken their toll on our water resources. Increasing extreme weather events, drought and flooding are putting pressure on our ecosystems, with dire consequences for global food security. Small farmers, especially the poor, women, youth, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees, are the most vulnerable. At the heart of finding a balance to address these combined challenges must be ensuring sufficient water for agriculture, while reconciling the water needs of other competing economic activities, especially as global warming accelerates. urbanization.