المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Dear HLPE Members,

Please find below and in attachment our comments for your kind consideration.

Best regards,

Zoltan Kalman

The issue of food security and nutrition is very important. This is why the request of CFS to prepare a report on Nutrition and Food systems is timely and appropriate. As various recent international events concluded, the food system is broken, it is mentioned also in page 23 of the zero draft, and it needs to be urgently fixed. A paradigm shift or a new way of thinking is required, to take seriously into consideration all the 3 dimensions of sustainability, because the “business as usual” scenario would further worsen the situation.

It is highly appreciated that a zero draft is provided for first comments also through e-consultation.

The zero draft is well structured; its content is sufficiently comprehensive, although there are areas which require more specific attention or need to be supplemented.

First of all, a clearer reference to the Agenda 2030 and to the interlinkages among SDGs should be the applicable context in which the topic of nutrition and food systems is addressed. Some examples to illustrate this:

The draft provides a comprehensive overview on the various drivers of food systems, including political and economic drivers. However, under this chapter the implication of adequate, nutritious and culturally acceptable food as a human right should be betterintegrated into the Report. In particular, it should be better defined the obligations and responsibilities of states or other actors (for example food industry). Furthermore, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure should be considered as basic references in this regard.

Among the political and economic drivers the role of food prices is analysed from various points of views, including the impacts of price volatilities on food security and nutrition. Not sufficiently addressed, however, the impacts of low food prices on certain segments of the population in some countries. More specifically, there is no reference to the sometimes existing link between low prices and low quality of food. It is a matter of fact that, as an immediate impact, low food prices are advantageous for the poor people. On the other hand, it needs to be considered that low priced food generally means less nutritious, lower qualityfood. This might have serious health impacts, worsening the food security and nutrition situation of affected population. As the UN Special Representative on the Right to Food properly said, “cheap (junk) food products are violating the human right to healthy food”. Low food price policies, in an indirect way, can lead to increased financial burden for thepublic health care. These (and other) externalities should be taken into due consideration and the Report should draw attention to the need for calculating the real costs of food and for more transparency in the whole food value chain. The Report could also refer to the positive social impacts of decent food prices paid to farmers. Furthermore, higher food priceswould help recognising the real value of food and having more respect for it, providing incentives for reducing food waste as well.

Another economic driver could be included as well, namely the profit-orientation. It is a matter of fact that in market economies profit is the main driving force. It is natural that farmers and all stakeholders of the food value chain are and should be interested inmaximizing their profits. However, it is the responsibility of national governments andregional economic integrations to create the appropriate economic environment to provide (positive and negative) incentives. To put it in a simple way, such environment should make food producers interested in fully respecting the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability and in producing healthy food at affordable prices. (Affordability does not necessarily mean cheap food but rather mean decent employment and wages. This is again an example of interlinkages of SDGs.) As part of this “appropriate economic environment” measures such as junk food taxes, bans for advertising unhealthy food for children, promotion of healthy, organic and local food could be recommended for consideration. Local food production and consumption are important elements of a renewed food system. Short food supply chains can assure full transparency and offer a win-win-win-win situation: good for producers (stable market, higher prices), advantageous for consumers (healthy food, affordable prices), beneficial for the environment (zero km, less use of chemicals) and for the whole society (healthier population, more local employment). 

In the process described above the international organisations (UN and others) should have a role as well, including through providing appropriate policy advice.

Finally, it is very much appreciated that documents and reports on nutrition and diets that have recently been released (such as the GloPan Foresight Report,) are being kept in consideration. It would be a value added if related documents prepared by the UNSCN, FAO, IFAD, WFP and WHO or others are considered as well.

More and more specific comments might be submitted at a later stage.