Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

Comments from: Bronwen Powell, PhD Student Lilly Zeitler

Broad feedback:

  • Congratulations on an excellent V0. We were very excited to read it!
  • Legacy is an idea from social ecological systems theory, and refers to the ways past relationships impact and constrain current options. The ways that the legacies of colonialism impact equity in food systems has been discussed by a number of scholars (Michael Watts, Bill Moseley, Blakie and Brookfield, Kyle Whyte). We haven’t seen the legacies of colonialism addressed in the report and think the report might benefit from considering this scholarship.
  • While this is a report on Food security and nutrition, food has importance beyond  nutrition in that it is central to identity and this is linked to cultural well-being. The accepted definition of Food Security includes access to “culturally appropriate food”. The report might benefit from at least touching on this topic (which we didn’t see on our quick read). For example, Indigenous communities tie Food Sovereignty to access to culturally important foods (asking questions like how can we be “healthy” is we “the people of the salmon” have no salmon) (e.g. Coté, 2016; Whyte, 2016). Many Indigenous scholars are writing on the ways revitalization of food culture is repairing identity and healing Indigenous communities in North America (Chantelle Richmond, Hannah Tait Neufeld, Leigh Joseph, and others). 
  • We hope the report authors will take every opportunity to highlight the need for regulation of marketing / the food industry given the growing body of evidence on the harm done by ultra-processed foods. Perhaps this might fit in the section on “Food Environmental Governance” (Page 107). As much as minority / disempowered groups need better access to healthy foods, they also need protection from uneven targeting by advertising for ultra processed junk food.

More specific feedback:

  • Page 43. There should likely be a separate subheading for “Indigenous” or “Ethnic minorities” which are currently discussed under ”Gender”
  • Page 43. Many groups can also face inequity (and unequal impacts of policy) based on their livelihood strategy. This is most clearly apparent for hunting-and-gathering and pastoral groups where food and nutrition policy is geared towards agriculture (e.g. Gastrocolonialism by Sophie Chao, 2022).
  • Page 48. You cite (Kimmerer, 2013) but her work builds on the work of many Indigenous authors. We suggest you might want to cite a broader selection of academic publications here:
    • Todd, Z. (2018). Refracting the state through human-fish relations. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 7(1), 60-75.
    • Coté, C. (2016). “Indigenizing” food sovereignty. Revitalizing Indigenous food practices and ecological knowledges in Canada and the United States. Humanities, 5(3), 57.
    • Delormier, T., Horn-Miller, K., McComber, A. M., & Marquis, K. (2017). Reclaiming food security in the Mohawk community of Kahnawà: ke through Haudenosaunee responsibilities. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 13, e12556.
    • Lynn, K., Daigle, J., Hoffman, J., Lake, F., Michelle, N., Ranco, D., ... & Williams, P. (2013). The impacts of climate change on tribal traditional foods. In Climate change and indigenous peoples in the United States (pp. 37-48). Springer, Cham.
    • Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Two-eyed seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together Indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2
  • Page 51 to 54 - These sections on inequalities are good to see. There is also a small body if literature looking at the impact of LEGAL ACCESS to forests, bushmeat, wild foods and natural areas (e.g. for grazing livestock) and the ways these impact food security and diet. This work might also fit under sections around page 78?
    • Sylvester, Olivia, Alí García Segura, and Iain J Davidson-Hunt. 2016. The protection of forest biodiversity can conflict with food access for indigenous people. Conservation and Society 14(3):279.
    • McNeeley, S. M. (2012). Examining barriers and opportunities for sustainable adaptation to climate change in Interior Alaska. Climatic Change, 111(3), 835-857.
    • Sunderland, T. C., & Vasquez, W. (2020). Forest conservation, rights, and diets: Untangling the issues. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 3, 29.
  • Page 78 - Very happy to see land grabbing listed, please see these suggested excellent recent publications:
    • Müller, M. F., Penny, G., Niles, M. T., Ricciardi, V., Chiarelli, D. D., Davis, K. F., ... & Mueller, N. D. (2021). Impact of transnational land acquisitions on local food security and dietary diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(4), e2020535118. (This important recent paper finds associations between land grabbing and “transitions from local staples (cereals and pulses) to to cash crops (sugars and oils) with a significantly higher likelihood of export.” Palm oil and sugar cane are ‘flex crops’ that can be a source of either food or energy; however, even if used as a food source, they do not offer reliable sources of nutrition. Key recent findings, such as these, would be worth highlighting in the report.)
    • Rulli, M. C., & D’Odorico, P. (2014). Food appropriation through large scale land acquisitions. Environmental Research Letters, 9(6), 064030.
    • Nyantakyi-Frimpong, H., & Bezner Kerr, R. (2017). Land grabbing, social differentiation, intensified migration and food security in northern Ghana. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 44(2), 421-444.
    • Abdallah, A. H., Ayamga, M., & Awuni, J. A. (2022). Impact of land grabbing on food security: evidence from Ghana. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 1-24.
  • Page 101 - Happy to see the section on Commitment to Publicly Funded Research, which Jodi Harris and others have strongly argued is necessary for improved production and availability of fruits and vegetables