Dear HLPE Colleagues,
Kindly find below and in the attached documents WFP’s inputs to the V0 draft of the report “Food Security and Nutrition: Building a Global Narrative Towards 2030”:
- While the HLPE framework includes the food environment and economic access (affordability) of diets as part of the food systems, in the “current trends and challenges section” of the draft report this concept is not reflected. We believe the chapter on current trends and challenges would benefit from including a section on cost and affordability as important determinant of food choices. Language for this new proposed section can be found in the attached Word document and we remain at disposal to exchange with the writing team or support with any information may be needed.
- In addition, the V0 draft of the report does not clearly explain the role of external food environments. It explains the role of personal food environments such as accessibility and affordability, but not so much the role of retail and commercial markets and the role of marketing and advertising, particularly to children and the influence this has on dietary choices and subsequently nutrition status. Section 3.6 does mention the expansion and disruption in food and agriculture markets, but this is mainly from the angle of international trade and industrialisation of the food supply, and does not really discuss/touch upon the other drivers and influences of food systems.
- Another aspect that is only briefly discussed is the role that dietary changes, as a result of the nutrition transition, has on climate change and vice versa. Perhaps, this has not been included due to the lack of evidence in this area.
- The sections “Climate change” (page 19) and “Changing demand balance between food/feed/fuel” (page 22) mention agriculture and food systems having a crucial role to play in mitigating climate change and the increasing demand for meat, which leads to use of land for feeding of livestock rather than of humans. This is however not reflected or tackled in the section ‘POTENTIAL POLICY PATHWAYS FORWARD (starting on page 32). We believe that if we are serious about having sustainable food systems we need to look at them from a global point of view, understanding that meat mass production is very resource-heavy and already having an impact on our environment (e.g. Brazil soy/beef example). Beyond a question of justice in terms of use of resources and emissions by the developed vs the developing worlds, we cannot expect countries to develop sustainably (with continuously growing populations) if we foresee them taking the same traditional pathway that moves out of agricultural production for humans to serve a growing demand for meat (as is happening in China). Ideally, advocacy at the global level should help developing countries leapfrog to a state where they do not need to pass through that phase to learn the lesson that agriculture should not be abandoned and instead prioritized (this is dealt with a bit in section “Declining public sector investment in agriculture”, page 27), but they are already (as they increase their meat production to a sustainable level) looking at other ways to feed an increasingly growing population in a way that does not strain local and global resources (pulses, alternative protein sources, less water-intensive meat production).
- Finally, the V0 draft of the report appears to be written in a very academic style, with lots of repetition throughout that could be condensed.
Many thanks and best regards,
Jacopo
Jacopo Valentini