Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan would like to provide the following recommendations to the coming draft of the HLPE report on Nutrition and Food Systems.

1. Food Losses and Waste

Food losses and waste are one of the critical issues for nutrition. According to the State of Food and Agriculture 2013 (FAO 2013, p.44), nutrients of food could deteriorate through storage, processing and distribution, which subsequently impairs the value of the food and causes food losses and waste.

Also, vegetables and fruits as well as fishes, which are important sources of micronutrients, are more perishable than staples such as rice and wheat. In order to provide diverse nutritious food to consumers, it is important to prevent food losses and waste by appropriate treatments and infrastructure through the food value chains such as the process of storage and processing as well as transportation.

However, according to FAO (2013, p.45), there are little evidences on the impact of the measures to reduce food losses and waste on nutrition. It would be thus worthwhile for HLPE’s report on Nutrition and Food System to further develop the discussions in FAO (2013) on the linkage between nutrition and reduction in food losses and waste.

2. Public-Private Partnership

Tackling malnutrition requires strong collaboration among stakeholders in the food system, being consisted of producers, processors, traders, retailers and consumers as well as the government. The private sector often has advanced knowledge and research capabilities on nutrition. It would thus be more effective for the government to involve the private sector and further build on their existing efforts than to start everything from scratch. Therefore, analyzing cases and impact of public-private partnership and international platforms (such as Scale Up Nutrition) on nutrition would be valuable in this report.

3. Conclusion

Against the background, we would like to propose to include the following points in the coming draft HLPE report.

・      Impacts of the practices to reduce food losses and waste on nutrition

・      Good practices to reduce food losses and waste through food systems, which contribute to tackling malnutrition

・      Case studies on PPP practices to tackle malnutrition and analyses on their impacts on nutrition

Tout d'abord, je vous remercie de nous proposer ce forum pour partager nos recherches, études et réflexions. Ici-bas, le sommaire de mon document en pièce jointe. Cet essai se consacre sur les problématiques environnementales relativement à l'alimentation et laisse une large place au régime alimentaire ainsi qu'au politique alimentaire. Espérant le tout conforme.

SOMMAIRE

Mots clés : système alimentaire, système alimentaire durable, impacts environnementaux, politique alimentaire, régime alimentaire, agriculture urbaine, circuit court, gaz à effet de serre

Il est possible d’anticiper l’évolution du système alimentaire. D’un stade d’autosubsistance, l’évolution du système alimentaire dirige les pays à haut revenu vers un système où l’agriculteur n’a qu’un rôle secondaire. Cette croissance s’accompagne d’un enchaînement de ruptures alimentaires qui dénature l’aliment et déconnecte le mangeur de son univers bioculturel. Les tendances démontrent que les agglomérations veulent se réapproprier le développement du système alimentaire : la politique alimentaire devient un outil permettant de développer, entre autres, de nouvelles pratiques environnementales. Ces initiatives sont analysées puisque la relation entre l’alimentation et l’environnement est devenue un domaine de recherche. Ces recherches s’accompagnent d’une nouvelle terminologie. Toutefois, il appert qu’il n’existe pas de consensus sur l’utilisation d’un vocable commun, même si certains termes comme « système alimentaire durable » semblent en voie d’être reconnus.

L’analyse des problématiques environnementales démontre que le système alimentaire est responsable d’environ 25 % des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Différentes solutions ont été avancées pour réduire les externalités négatives du système alimentaire, comme : replacer l’agriculture au cœur de la ville; s’attaquer aux problèmes de pertes et gaspillages alimentaires; revoir nos comportements afin de réduire la dépendance aux énergies fossiles; comprendre l’importance du régime alimentaire; et favoriser le développement des circuits courts de commercialisation. Ces solutions deviennent des pratiques que l’agglomération peut canaliser par une politique alimentaire.

Les conclusions de l’essai montrent que l’adoption des politiques alimentaires devient une réponse coordonnée à ces problématiques. La politique alimentaire structure les objectifs, les désirs et, ultimement, la relation entre l’alimentation et la société. Toutefois, des questionnements existent encore, comme : qui est le mieux placé pour diriger et que doit contenir une politique alimentaire? Les recommandations insistent d’abord sur l’adoption d’une politique alimentaire en concordance avec les ressources dédiées tout en favorisant son appropriation par la population. Ensuite, sur l’utilisation des outils d’aménagement, comme le plan d’urbanisme, afin de créer un « paysage alimentaire ». Enfin, sur la promotion d’un régime alimentaire qui vise la diminution de la consommation de protéines animales au profit de protéines végétales, tout en réduisant la surconsommation. 

Thank you to the HLPE for their invitation to add to the discussion on the Issues’ Note on Nutrition and Food Systems.

We are very happy to see the mutiplicity of food systems acknowledged, and, a push to gathering evidence for review on the broad - and ambitious - scope of the intended report.

My feedback/comments to the most critical issues of the undertaking as presented (IMO):

- [sources of evidence: academic and experiential] Including experiential sources of evidence is sure to be a very useful and knowledge-enriching approach, opening the knowledge base out beyond even the multi-disciplinary perspectives to trans-disciplinary (here meaning the inclusion of practice/practitioners). The challenge I see is to find a suitable procedure and scope. For "food and diets" every single one of us 7 billion humans is an expert insofar as almost all of us eat and drink more than once every single day, and, after a few years can be said to be following a diet (i.e. pattern of food and drink consumed over time).

- ['nutrition and food systems'] Before doing anything else those involved need to find and agree on an unambiguous description or definition of a 'food system'. The way I look at it, 'nutrition' is an integral part of a 'food system'. In the Issues' Notes the terms seem to be used differently. Also, it needs to be unambiguously clear, whether, given the use of the term 'food system', an analytical or a systems approach is going to be followed - or both. The way the subject matter under review is framed will definitely and definitively affect what will be seen and found and hence what recommendations for action etc. can be made. I highly recommend following a systems approach, or, both an analytical and a systems approach. If a purely analytical approach is taken, with underlying linear assumptions and the focus on 'drivers' and 'determinants', feedback loops (rebound effects) and the analysis of changes in relationships between elements of a food system and potential strong leverage points may go unnoticed.

- [methodological approach: review of evidence-base] The intended report will be extremely valuableas a summary statement of the status quo of our knowledge of the issues to be addressed. In this sense it is, however, strongly restrospective and will not easily include immediate findings nor necessarily be able to elicit the very best suggestions for action. Thus there will be gaps. The report and the team will need to name and address the gaps as issues for future work/reports.

Comment on "assess[ing] the influence of various types of food systems on diets, nutrition and health":

One food system of value wrt a mounting evidence-base we are currently working on is the organic food system. This offers a history, clear definitions and system boundaries, application of global principles in local contexts around the world, data on sustainability of both production and - recently - consumption and diet, as well as policy, regulation, education and technology issues. We see there is much insight to be gained from studying the organic food system. See our work here: http://organicfoodsystem.net/

The initiative of this report is very timely and I would like to thank the HPLE steering committee for providing the opportunity for comment.

Overall speaking all the topics / issues proposed to be tackled within the report are global issues.

On the other hand, I consider as appropriate the proposed approach (meaning issues) of the report.

The differences between diets, food habits, food chains and health problems are considerable and depend on various cultural, geographical, national, economic or social aspects.

Since the issues proposed by the report are extremely generous in terms of amplitude my opinion is to try an approach as focus as possible and possible to outline several case studies or examples of good practices.

Of course the sustainability is a key aspect that has to be taken into consideration, and the issues of food security and sovereignty should also be tackled.

Multiple burdens of malnutrition persist globally. In addition to feeding the world healthily and sustainably, the global food system is increasingly called upon to play a more active role in economic and social development throughout the developing world. Hence, a new global food system is needed to deliver multiple-win outcomes. The HLPE report on Nutrition and Food Systems should include the following considerations in order to advance a food system revolution:

- We need a new food system that is inclusive, nutritious and healthy, climate-smart, sustainable, business-friendly, and productive. A food system that covers these dimensions can allow for the attainment of multiple SDGs (see IFPRI et al. 2015)

- A value chain approach must be considered in order to ensure increased availability, affordability, acceptability, and quality of nutritious foods (see Fan and Pandya-Lorch 2012)

- The food system and nutritional outcomes are linked beyond agriculture. More attention should be given to the post-harvest segments of the food chain (e.g. processing, transportation) to preserve nutrition content and reduce food loss (see Reardon et al. 2012)

- A data revolution needs to be mobilized to improve data collection, quality, reliability, and timeliness, and to monitor and track progress (see Barrett and Headey 2014)

- Closing the gender gap is critical. Women have an important role in mediating agricultural pathways to nutritional outcomes (see Meinzen-Dick and Quisumbing 2013)

- Innovations in policies, technologies, and institutions are needed to for a multistakeholder approach to addressing global hunger and malnutrition (see Fan, Menon, and Brzeska 2013)

- Countries that have made great progress in transforming their food systems through context-specific strategies (e.g. Brazil, Vietnam, Rwanda) should be highlighted, as these provide lessons learned and can pave the way forward for other countries to make similar, or greater, progress in achieving food security and nutrition (see “Country case studies” in Compact2025 weblink)

Suggested resources:

Barrett, Christopher B. and Headey, Derek D. 2014. A proposal for measuring resilience in a risky world. In Resilience for food and nutrition security. Eds. Fan, Shenggen; Pandya-Lorch, Rajul and Yosef, Sivan. Chapter 20. Pp. 187-194. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/128457

Compact2025. 2016. http://www.compact2025.org/resources/

Fan, Shenggen; Menon, Purnima; and Brzeska, Joanna. 2013. What policy changes will reverse persistent malnutrition in Asia? European Journal of Development Research 25(1): 28-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2012.47

Fan, Shenggen, and Pandya-Lorch, Rajul. Eds. 2012. Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://www.ifpri.org/publication/reshaping-agriculture-nutrition-and-health

IFPRI et al. 2015. Global Food System Index Concept Note. http://www.compact2025.org/files/2015/12/WEF_NVA_GAC15_Global_Food_Systems_Index_Concept.pdf

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, and Agnes Quisumbing. 2013. “Closing the Gender Gap.” In 2012 Global Food Policy Report. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/gfpr2012_ch04.pdf.

Reardon et al. 2012. The quiet revolution in staple food value chains. Washington, D.C.: Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/127312

Here are my responses to the questions posed. I do not pretend to bring any new information, but it is sometimes valuable to go back to the bascis.

1. How and why do diets change?

Diets change when there are changes in the determinants of food choice:

• Food supply – types of food, variety, extent of processing
• Economic condition
• Food prices
• Health condition
• Preferences, under the influence of advertising primarily
• Environmental, ethical and other types of social concerns
• Information on health and on food
• Social norms
• Lifestyle, including urban living, lack of facilities and limited time for cooking
• Migration
• ….

1. What are the links between diets, consumption and consumer habits and food systems?

Eating patterns are influenced by, and impact on, food systems. And therefore, consumers have an important role to play in shaping food systems. They would have to be more vocal.

1. How do changes in food systems affect changes of diets, and therefore health and nutritional outcomes?

Food systems impact on the food supply – food variety, quality, safety, nutritional value, extent of processing, prices…., and the food supply is one of the drivers of food choice. See also above, question 1.

1. What are the determinants of the changes in consumption?

The relative forces of the various determinants of food choices and changes will determine the nature and extent of the changes. Again, refer to Question 1.

1. How do the dynamics of food systems drive consumption patterns?

This question is  somewhat redundant with the previous ones.

1. How to shape and to address pathways to healthy nutrition?

Eating for health cannot be dissociated from eating for enjoyment (influence of advertising), eating as a social and even political deed (culture, beliefs, social concerns), eating according to what is available and affordable (food systems), and eating according to one’s needs and lifestyle (psycho-social factors). All these facets have to be addressed, and common sense for variety and moderation may be a better guide than science, which evolves. Consumption of eggs, for instance, used to be encouraged only in small quantities, which is no longer the case.

1. What is the role of public policy in promoting healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food for all?

This describes in essence food and nutrition security, which operationalises the right to food. States have to promote and defend this right through regulations and guidelines regarding food systems including advertising, nutrition communication and social safety nets.

Food sovereignty has to be regarded as a national goal.

1. How to build on the diversity of the existing food systems?

Various food systems coexist and this is healthy (much like biological diversity). Sustainable combinations should be sought and for this, the criteria are health of the people, of the environment and of the local economy. The optimal mix is location-specific and requires national sovereignty over food and food systems for its determination.

1. What is in practice the range of actionable solutions from farm to fork that enable better nutritional outcomes of food systems?

There are opportunities for nutritional value improvements all along the food value chains. Nutrition- sensitive production, transformation, marketing and distribution is central. Some examples are given to illustrate this:

• Production: Vegetable consumption is oftentimes insufficient for health: to promote local gardens, or subsidise large producers. In Benin (West-Africa), surveillance for cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk was coupled with producers’ markets. In Burkina Faso, the production, distribution and consumption of non-refined palm oil was promoted as a strategy to fight against vitamin A deficiency, while providing additional income for women and as a means of stabilising soil along rivers (however, external funding needed to implement this was not sustained, so that vitamin A capsules continue to be distributed).
• Transformation: In Mali, parboiling of locally grown rice was advocated as a means of preventing thiamine deficiencies in producing areas where diet is not diversified (but we do not know whether this process is now routinely implemented).
• Marketing: social marketing should be strengthened in order to posit healthy weights, physical activity and consumption of local foods as desirable and even social norms.
• Food preparation: Cooking with less fat, teaching one’s children how to prepare traditional foods, and reducing cooking time, for instance for vegetables are among the messages conveyed in the Food Guide that was developed in Benin.

1. What action should different stakeholders, including governments, civil society and the private sector, take?

• Large transnational corporations now rule the agro-food system worldwide. If states are to counteract such forces, they need to join in regional alliances to impose their food and health policies, for instance the ban on the introduction of GMOs in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In the private sector, we tend to lump together small producers, large companies and international corporations. Small producers, women in particular, need to be supported and oriented toward producing diversified nutritious foods that the population needs for nutritional health. More farmers’ markets should be encouraged, and particularly in poor neighborhoods of cities. Large corporations are governed by profit and therefore, any value added may be meaningful to them. They are not the ones to recommend eating less food, less processed foods, less sugar, less salt, less saturated fat… The best that can be expected is for food processors to reduce the amount of salt, sugar and fat in their processed foods.
• Governments may impose tax on ultra-processed foods, but results up to now have been mitigated. The process and likely impact have to be carefully analysed beforehand for increasing the likelihood of positive impact on diets.
• Health and nutrition professional associations have an important role to play with governments (giving advice) and the population (nutrition and health communication for behaviour change; pressure on companies for more wholesome, nutritious and cheaper food [meaning less profit for them]).
• More nutritionists as health professionals are needed to help governments with their agro-food and health policy as regards nutrition, to act in the health as well as food system, to communicate with the population, to train other agents, and to plan and assess programmes.

The nutrition is one of the major set to the changing climate and cost effective manner.

particularly refering to the developing countrues it  had to address including the  public distribution sustems and nutritional values.

Hence a brief facts were raised for further intensification

World Animal Protection submission to HLPE report on Nutrition and Food Systems

E-consultation on an Issues Note. January 2016

World Animal Protection strongly welcomes the attention of the CFS HLPE to the issue of food systems and nutrition. In general, the questions to be addressed are comprehensive and we would recommend that the focus of the report addresses both issues of undernutrition and over-nutrition (excess consumption), as well as malnutrition, within its remit. We live in a world where diets are rapidly changing, particularly in developing regions, and suffer simultaneous challenges of over- and under-nutrition within populations. This dynamic environment offers significant scope for reshaping food systems to deliver healthy diets for all. As incomes, production bases and food cultures change, the potential for countries to leap from under-nutrition to excess consumption is growing, so clear policy signals are needed urgently.

The extent and role of animal source foods within diets is a priority for scrutiny as livestock are a major part of important food systems, some of which deliver important micronutrients and protein to impoverished diets, others being associated with major health issues of over-consumption and other sustainability impacts. This work should link to the current HLPE report recommendations on sustainable agriculture with reference to livestock. The report should also focus on mechanisms to counter over-nutrition through healthy, sustainable diets, including the balance between animal and plant source foods in sustainably securing nutrition security.

World Animal Protection particularly welcomes the holistic approach of the report to all aspects of the food system, starting from farm level. Animal health and welfare has a major role to play in maximising the achievement of productive and sustainable food systems, especially for small farmers, and its role in delivering these should be explicitly addressed. Definitions of sustainable livestock production systems now routinely include animal welfare as a core, integrated component. Indeed, this is reflected by the Guidelines for Responsible Agricultural Investment adopted by the Committee on World Food Security. Sustainable agriculture is at the heart of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 addressing hunger. The report should emphasise the need to underpin any relevant food system with sustainable livestock agriculture which considers economic, social, environmental and animal welfare components of the food production system.

While the report addresses all aspects of the food system from production level, through processing, marketing and food accessibility, a key focus should be the ability of small scale farmers to deliver local nutrition security and better diets, as their potential to increase efficiency may provide the most effective route to increasing food and nutrition through increased productivity, food safety and quality, and market accessibility. In so doing, it should highlight effective mechanisms for strengthening small scale production so that it survives and prospers, including the transformation of markets to empower small farmers to both invest and benefit from their role in increasing nutrition availability at the local level. This approach is preferable to further maximisation of the most intensive forms of animal agriculture where gains from increasing productivity tail off beyond an optimal level and which can bring sustainability challenges in the form of environmental impact, natural resource use and worse animal welfare.

The role of the food industry in shaping market signals at all points in the food system should also be explored, particularly where the food system (production, processing and retail sectors) is dominated by major national and multinational interests with significant influence on dietary behaviour. Furthermore, the role of consumer concerns in shaping diets should be included. Consumer attention to farm animal welfare concerns is one mechanism to engage people with dietary choices: clear examples include the increased priority placed on farm animal welfare as seen from consumer signals in Europe via the recent 2015 Eurobarometer survey and corporate responses to similar consumer concerns in North America, which have driven concrete action on sustainable food system development.

The report should address the need for policy approaches to achieving healthy diets to cohere with policy signals from other processes that effect the food system. These include those focused on economic development and protection of livelihoods, trade, strengthening human and social rights, environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaption, biodiversity conservation and natural resource use. This reflects the policy-making environment fostered by agreement and future implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

I believe that an important task of the consultation is to come to grips with a clear definition on what we are talking about when we refer to “a food system.”  Recently the FAO provided this far-reaching definition which is a good benchmark:

“A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education.”

There are many investigations in the literature on each of these aspects as applied to food, diets, health and food and nutrition security.  The HLPE has a lot of work cut out for them to address the state of the art for each of these components within any one food system, whether it is in a developed or developing country, not to mention creating an overarching framework on the various types of food systems.

Thank you for making the consultation available.

Sincerely,

Harriet V. Kuhnlein, PhD, LLD (hon.), FIUNS, FASN

Professor Emerita of Human Nutrition, McGill University, Montreal

Adjunct Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Hawai’i, Manoa

Founding Director, Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE)

http://www.mcgill.ca/cine/about

http://www.mcgill.ca/nutrition/staff/professors/kuhnleinwww.indigenousnutrition.org

Bonsoir à tous

J'espère que ce message avant minuit. Nous avons des coupures de connexion.

Mon étude vise à orienter les décideurs vers les réelles possibilités des pays de L'Afrique Centrale de devenir des bases de l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire tout en participant à la gestion durable des écosystèmes forestièrs.

Les idées majeures illustrées par le projet que je vous ai fait parvenir par Serge, adhérent de notre Association ADESA, à savoir:

- Créer des exploitations multiactivités dans les de savanes humides et fertiles (Congo, RDC, Cameroun..)

- Transformer certaines données négatives en atouts

- L'Afrique détient le plus grand gisement de déchets urbains, source inépuisable d'énergie renouvelable (Biomasse)

Facteurs de succès:

- Acceptation des habitants de la Forêt de travailler hors de leur territoire

- Aides promises (COP21)

- Infrastructures nationales et continentals

- Commerce équitable intracontinentales..

Nutrition

Il est difficile de supprimer les coutumes nutritionnelles (facteur organoléptique notamment)

Quelques propositions:

- Utilisation le Wild Game farming et ranching pour la consommation de la viande de Brousse

- Assurer une conservation des denrées

- Partenariat avec des grands Chefs des pays comme la France

- Organisation de rencontres dégustatives à travers le Continent

Le système basé sur le traitement des déchets que notre équipe à conçu pour la banlieue de Yaoundé répond à la plupart des critères édictés par la FAO.

Apport de l'emploi localement et à distance.

L'extension du Chemin de fer vers le port de Kribi permettra le transport des denrées de la zone de savane vers la zone des forêts à préserver.

Il en est de même de la route goudronnée Cameroun-Tchad.

Dieu voulant je préciserai ces propositions par les films en cours d'écriture.

Ce type de système est réalisable partout.

Vous troverez ci-joint le document "Integrated Clean Development By Waste Treatment".

Soyez bénis pour votre engagement à l'amélioration de la Qualité de Vie de l'Humanité.

Lien au document: http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/cfs-hlpe/sites/cfs-hlpe/files/resources/STRUCTURE%20PROJET%20ADESA%20-FAO.pdf