The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine says food must be produced in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner.
Charlie McConalogue is in Rome for a UN summit on sustainable food production.
He said that Ireland is ahead of the curve in that regard and will be the first country in the world to have a national strategy about a food systems approach.
He said that agriculture accounts for just under 35% of the country's emissions profile but that Ireland is quite different to other European countries because it is the leading sector in its national economy.
Efforts now, he said, will be focused on how that footprint is reduced in the future.
