Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Dear colleagues,

Please find below some comments from the Sustainable Diets Taskforce, linked to the International Union of Nutrition Sciences. Comments are mainly in the context of the type of food system we should be striving for. Sustainable food systems that are resilient to shocks. It seems that the current proposed scope only looks at food systems as a whole as a second thought. It focused on supply chains, which is okay to a certain extent, but when looking at the entire food system(s) it may be beneficials to rely less on certain (types of) supply chains and more on others. It seems the current scope does not debate this. So overall we emphasize the need to look at the resilience and sustainability of the (entire) food systems instead of just some value chains, especially if there is no tendency to move away from the over reliance on the three main crops ( maize, wheat and rice). More (agro-) biodiversity is needed for a more resilient and sustainable system. Needless to say that resilient food systems need to deliver healthy and sustainable diets as well, considering that levels of malnutrition are at unacceptable high levels and overweight/obesity is increasing. In low-income settings, e.g. in Sub-Sahara Africa this is related to higher frequency of cimate-induced shocks.

While looking at the food system, it becomes apparent to also take into account the measures that can be taken to improve food environment ( where people meet the food system) to support healthy lifestyle choices. Food environment are a good entry point to transform systems. Examples are the food environments in schools are in the work setting, supported by nutrition education and awareness (nutrition litereacy).

1. One way to so this is : To investigate and reform food standards programmes around the world, starting with Codex, so they are more fit for purpose for promoting healthy and sustainable food systems. For example, re-orienting their conventional mandates, governance and risk assessment processes, such that they are more relevant and responsive to contemporary food system problems. It seems that the substantial influence of food standards programmes on food systems often flies under the radar of researchers and policymakers. A paper by Dr Mark Lawrence about this will be published in the coming two months.
2. Related to this, there is a need to reform the metrics that are used for measuring a food’s ‘healthiness’ and ‘sustainability’ in the design of food-based interventions such as front-of-pack labelling. Currently we are witnessing reductionist approaches (narrow LCA methods, nutrient profiling) dominate food policy interventions and these could be leading to unintended consequences.

3.       Also in the food environment, it would make sense to look at how we deal with ultra-processed foods which are eroding traditional food systems and contributing to unhealthy and unsustainable diets (including the packaging issues) and contributing to diet-related non-communicable diseases

Zooming out (from food environment to the food system:

There is also a need to reform how evidence quality is assessed in informing policy and practice to build resilient food systems. We need to be investigating the application of non-GRADE evidence synthesis methods, such as traditional knowledge of indigenous foods and dietary patterns, in sustainable food systems research and policy practices ( publications by Dr B Barbara Burlingame and others).

Kind regards

Stineke Oenema ( co-chair of the Sustainable Diets Task force)