Delegates from more than 60 countries and the United Nations have gathered in Paro, Bhutan (a small Buddhist kingdom nestled in the eastern Himalayas), for the world's first "conscious food summit," a five-day event aimed at reforming global food systems by combining policy reform with a spiritual reconnection to food. Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay convened the summit amid mounting threats to food security, including climate-driven harvest failures, biodiversity loss, and warnings from the World Food Programme that a "super El Niño" could push 50 million people close to starvation this year and next. Tobgay argued that technical and economic solutions alone are insufficient, stating that transforming food systems requires changes in human values and mindsets — including the revival of practices such as conscious eating and Indigenous agricultural knowledge — alongside shifts in policy, markets, and finance.