Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Lal Manavado

Norway

Greetings!

As nutrition is a fundamental need of everyone, food security in its general sense, i. e., access to an adequate supply of appropriate food, ought to be a goal of a post-2015 strategy.  There is more than enough evidence to show that millions are severely under-nourished in the world.

I think the Rome Declaration  would have reflected  its appreciation of the 'know-how' mankind has gained through millenia of experience, if it had acknowledged the diversity of food culture in the world.

It would be a mistake to overlook the local culinary traditions, for these have been developed over centuries with reference to not only the human needs, but also to what may be securable with least difficulty within a given geographic and climatic locus.

Attempts  to replace those with the food production and eating habits from elsewhere has often resulted in high production costs, inappropriate eating habits leading to obesity, etc., not to mention the drastic reduction in bio-diversity among crops and domestic fauna.

Even though this may prove a moot point, I believe that it is time to outlaw commodity speculation, and it is time to encourage and support co-operative food production, wstorage and distribution, so that more benefits would accrue to the producers of food and to its consumers than to the middlemen as it does now.

Best wishes!

Lal Manavado