On Thursday, September 23, the United Nations will host a one-day summit meeting in New York on food systems. You would think they had it all — a great topic (who does not eat?) and great timing, too, as the collective failure to halt the pandemic continues to push the number of people living with food insecurity higher, while unprecedented experiments with social protection programs and universal income point to the potential for transformative change and a redefinition of the social contract that binds citizens and their governments.