Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Dear Colleagues,

Attached, I will make some comments to your VO Draft to the V0 draft of the report „Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition“:

•  I miss the term food safety in the title of the draft (e.g.: „Reducing inequalities for food security, food safety and nutrition“) 
•  There is no sense of enough food, if the food is not safe (e.g. it contains some toxic or undesirable substances, e.g. contaminants etc.). Food safety needs a certain attention in your paper.
•  The term „Human edible Fraction“ of all animal feeds should be also mentioned or considered in the adequate text or in tables; see some selected references, such as:

 CAST (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, 1999) Animal agricultural and global food supply. Talk Force Report No 135; July 1999, CAST, Ames. IA, USA

Ertle, P., Klocker, H., Hörtenhuber, S., Knaus, W., Zöllitsch, W. (2015) The net contribution of dairy production to human food supply: The case of Austrian dairy farms. Agricultural Systems 137, 119 - 125

Wilkinson, J.M. (2011) Re-defining deficiency of feed use by livestock. Animal 5, 1014 – 1022

•  In general, the food/feed competition between men and animals should be mentioned and if possible, the feed/food competition between men and animals should be avoided.
•  Did we show/mention enough activities to improve/increase the food production (such as  plant production incl. plant breeding etc.).

 Best regards

 Prof. Dr. G. Flachowsky

Institute of Animal Nutrition, Germany

It is a right time to debate on inequality in food security and nutrition level in economic and other related crises in the world. In general, there is a huge disparity in the economic development and benefits in the economy. The economic slowdown and covid-19 pandemic further increased the disparities in social and economical aspects; millions of people were entered into the poverty and extreme poverty level in developing economies. In the case of food, the FAO’s The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 pointed out that around 828 million people in the world faced hunger in 2021, including 425 million in Asia. Present COVID – 19 give a lesson to us, particularly developed societies, in terms of how the food, food security and nutrition are important to meet and get out from the health issues during the pandemic times. Physical fitness and nutrition are the basic and essential parts of a human being and are necessary for human life. Further, nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining food necessary for physical, mental, and emotional health and growth. The world must ensure physical, social, and economic access to food security and nutrients for all people at all times. Access to food is the closest thing to skills and employment. Against this background, I am submitting some of the policy implications for reducing inequalities in food security and nutrition.

1. With the support of local governments, implement a subsidy food and nutrition scheme and create centers in rural areas to reduce food and nutrition inequalities.
2. We must ensure decent work with a decent wage in the informal sector and try to reduce income inequalities in the bottom of formal and informal sectors.
3. Over the years, the food price index has shown increasing trends in many countries.
4. Make more effective mutual agreements between food and nutrition supply and demand countries.
5. Adoption of low-cost, environmentally friendly farming technologies as well as crops with high nutritional value.
6. By protecting the interests of small and medium farmers by providing low-interest institutional credit, providing subsistence prices for crop production, eliminating middlemen, and increasing productivity, these farmers must remain involved in agriculture for production and to feed future stomachs.
7. Fend off voluntary or forced food insecurity and give food freedom to all.
8. Linking academia, research, and society to ensure food security at all levels, from schools to society.
9. Create a global integrated food feeding scheme and a global integrated food financing scheme with the support of international agencies to meet future outbreaks.
10. Create more awareness about "stopping food wastage" and "eating right" at all levels.
11. Give educated and single-mother families employment opportunities and ensure their rights to work and nutrition.
12. There has been a steady increase in the prices of essential commodities in recent times, particularly COVID-19. Lockdown and raising the general price level affect the purchasing power and adversely affect the middle and lower class households.
13. Ensure food security for children and elderly through a integrated public food distribution program, and establish an elder pension programme for people aged 60 and up in low-income households.
14. Ensure that developed countries help less developed countries in terms of providing food security and removing supply-side constraints. The UN FAO supports the changes in stock and imports of food products in less developed economies.
15. Ensure 3A to everyone on (Availability, Accessibility and Affordability) food and nutrition rights at global level particularly in developing and less developed countries.

Greetings, Évariste Nicolétis and Paola Termine.

Reducing inequalities in food security and nutrition has long been a global challenge addressed by prophets, philosophers, and social scientists. Nonetheless, it is a significant issue that causes polarization and unrest. The following are a few ideas that you might find helpful.

1. Previously, during the medieval period, religion could indoctrinate certain beliefs that were accepted according to the current logical understanding, even in the absence of evidence, and could even deliver food to those who could not access it. People could access resources to produce food because the population was smaller.

2. At the moment, scientific farming has increased food availability and accessibility to a larger population. However, a large population lacks access to resources for food production.

3. The Extension Systems developed by higher education institutions, universities, technical departments, voluntary organizations, private organizations (engaged in input and marketing), public distribution systems, and associated ethical issues are the only institutions that need to be strengthened to make it happen.

4. As a result, there is a need to develop a comprehensive extension framework to address the issues of "increasing inequality and food insecurity," particularly when there is a food, fuel, and fertilizer crisis caused by pandemics, conflicts, and climate change.

Regards

From my own observation in Ethiopia, the following points are the major peculiar causes but not given the required attention from the development actors for food security and nutrition inequalities particularly in rural areas

a. Poor awareness among the community members on nutrition friendly dietary practices: The odd thing is event the surplus produced areas in agricultural products are found less nutritionally poor/low nutritional status than the food shortage areas. This is not an availability of food issue but it is gap of food utilization which lacks to maintain balanced diet. Therefore, this requires a tailored awareness creation on keeping balanced diets to reduce nutrition inequalities. Hence, this report should include nutrition awareness program would reduce nutrition inequalities.

b. Insufficient supply of agricultural labor at the right time of agricultural activities: The female headed households and the poor households are highly affected with the lack of labor at the required time since most of them could not afford to pay for labor cost and/or could not handle the reciprocal labor arrangement. Therefore, they usually harvest poor agricultural production in terms of quantity and quality. Therefore, this draft report should assess the impact as well as propose the workable recommendation.

c. Limited awareness on the wild edible plants food security and nutrition effect: There are wild edible plants which are nutritionally rich , but not yet explored in comprehensive manner, have different utilization in different areas. In some areas, they serve as supplementary food for instance. Moringa (stenopetela) for the whole year while in other they are used only for compound fencing or shed. Therefore, this needs an effort to make awareness, promotion and demonstration. This is particularly useful for moisture stress areas. Therefore, this report should include the potentials of wild edible plants as a means for filling the gap of food security and nutrition inequalities.

d. Mono-cropping Crop Production System: This production system is one of the causes for nutrition inequalities in some areas particularly where accesses to market of other agricultural products are limited and/or high transaction costs due to long value chain from source of production.

e. Consumption seasonality pattern: The consumption pattern of rural areas in Ethiopia varies across seasons for some food items. In relative terms, in the harvest seasons there is a tendency of consumption of diversified foods while in the non-harvest seasons the consumption is keeping up with the limited food items which have less nutritional value. Therefore, this report should at least suggest how food stocks can reverse the food security and nutrition inequalities.

Diversify food basket, include traditional foods that are highly dense in nutrients and resilient to climate change.  

Policies, investments and programmes related to agriculture and food systems can play a strong role in preventing and reducing malnutrition, provided that they are conceived in a nutrition-sensitive way. Being nutrition-sensitive means incorporating nutrition objectives, concerns and considerations to enable communities to achieve food and nutrition security - avoiding negative impacts on nutrition. Food production; food processing and storage; food trade and marketing; consumer demand, food preparation and preferences reduces the inequalities for food security and nutrition.

Food production encompasses a range of activities - and relevant actors - including rural and urban crop production; livestock rearing at small, medium and large scale; fisheries; and forestry reduces the inequalities for food security and nutrition.

 Food production also requires managing the underpinning natural resource base (land, water, soil, plants seeds, animal breeds etc.) and supporting infrastructures. Food production is critical for sustaining rural livelihoods and shaping - positively or negatively - natural environments and landscapes.

Here is some information on GMO seed policies in response to the comments made by Prof. MADHURA SWAMINATHAN

Here is an argument for not using GMO seeds

https://grain.org/article/entries/427-twelve-reasons-for-africa-to-reject-gm-crops

Here is an argument for using GMO seeds

https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/10-things-everyone-should-know-about-gmos-in-africa/

Here is my understanding of why African nations are reluctant to use GMO seeds

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/why-is-africa-reluctant-to-use-gmo-crops/

COMMENTS ON HLPE REPORT

Overall. Report is too long and confusing. Earlier HLPE reports were about 100 pages of text.

Trying to take on too many issues, be it WTO or GMOs, and some issues are neither dealt with comprehensively nor in a balanced way.

Chapter 1 and 2.

Not having a section on inequality by caste is a major omission. Race, ethnicity, religious minority and disabled have separate sections but not caste.

Why is this important? By any of the indicators of food insecurity used, the largest absolute number of food insecure persons are in India, and caste discrimination remains an impediment to progress in India.

Minor point: avoid the term “low” caste.

Chapter 3

pp 48.

There are multiple references in this study to Huambachano (2020) on the indigenous world view. This study is based on data from New Zealand and Peru, hardly representative of the tribal and indigenous people of the world.

More importantly, is this Report pushing for “indigenous world view” and attacking GM crops or gene-edited crops even such as the nutritive golden rice? As the report notes, “use of GM…is dangerous to their self-determination”. Is the use of GM crops worse for indigenous people than logging or fracking?

Either the Report has a full discussion on pros and cons of GM (probably not the purpose of this report) or this section is dropped as it comes out as an anti-science report.

Pp 58.

Geographical inequalities seems too weak a term for North-South inequalities. All the major agricultural companies are in the North.

Pp 61.

Wrong fact. WTO did not make substantial progress in bringing down subsidies in HIC. The form and name of subsidies changed, but subsidies have risen (at least in the US).

Chapter 4, pp 89

Once again, increase in yield of food grain, new seeds, etc. are being attacked. See the meaningless sentence “biology of traditional seeds was altered.” Even nature did that over time as did traditional breeding.

Why do we not have enough consumption of millets and pulses? One reason is low production on account of low yields.

The Report is very one-sided on this issue.

There would be many more hungry people in this world were it not for the Green Revolution. Of course, new crops, new technologies, solutions to new problems like climate change have to be addressed now, but not acknowledging the contribution of the past doesn’t help.

Chapter 5

Box 5.2. Does this apply to global policy making also or is it for local (context-specific) policy.

Table 51. Why not say land reform or asset reform instead of “equalize access to food production resources."

Chapter 6, pp 125

Agree that climate equity is a very important issue, but in the section on structural reform there is no word on the role of the developed countries in mitigation to keep within a goal of 1.5 or 2 degree rise. This is the core of climate equity.

All other things are actions by developing countries. If this report is taking a global view, the call to action has to be for the North also, not just for local policy in food insecure countries.

Conclusion. The inequalities in food security cannot all be resolved by developing countries themselves, but require action in the North (be it aid or transfer of technology or change in subsidies). This doesn’t come out in the present format.

La réduction des inégalités dans la conduite des actions de sécurité alimentaire et nutrition nécessite l'implication concrète et réelle des bénéficiaires aussi bien que les différents partenaires techniques et financiers. Il faut nécessairement une mise en place des comités de veille et de contrôle durant tout le processus de planification et de mise en œuvre des politiques, programmes et projets. Cela permet une vue d'ensemble sur ce qui se fait concrètement du laboratoire de recherche ou de réflexion au terrain de réalisation. 

The FAO needs to help small farmers implement the Chinese economic growth formula in their countries in order to reduce inequalities in food  security and nutrition..  In particular, the FAO needs to identify "cash crops" for small farmers. Here are some examples of "cash crops" for small farmers in Uganda

How to grow sunflowers (in Uganda)

https://www.bukedde.co.ug/agric.%20%26%20environment/114205/how-to-grow-sunflower#:~:text=Sunflower%20seeds%20should%20be%20planted,procedures%20provide%20optimum%20seedling%20establishment.

How to grow Onions in Uganda

https://www.flawlessconsultsug.org/how-to-plant-and-grow-red-onions-in-uganda.html

https://www.newvision.co.ug/news/1521373/grow-onions-taste-money

Kaduru and his American wife find fortune in Uganda Passion Fruit Farming (note business decisions)

https://www.africa-uganda-business-travel-guide.com/kaduru-and-his-american-wife-find-fortune-in-uganda-passion-fruit-farming.html

If you are not familiar with the Chinese Economic Growth Formula Joe Studwell's book, "How Asia Works" describes the basic ideas. (see https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/How-Asia-Works )  Here is a short book review of Studwell's book by Bill Gates in which Mr. Gates describes how he is trying to implement the Chinese Economic Growth Formula in African countries. From Japan to Djibouti - Can the Asian miracle happen in Africa? Can the lessons from Asia’s rise apply on another continent?

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/How-Asia-Works

Mr. Gates summarized the Chinese economic growth formula in the following manner:

1. Create conditions for small farmers to thrive.
2. Use the proceeds from agricultural surpluses to build a manufacturing base that is tooled from the start to produce exports.
3. Nurture both these sectors (small farming and export-oriented manufacturing) with financial institutions closely controlled by the government.

China had greater corruption, poverty, and starvation than many countries before 1979.  China recovered between 1979 and 1992 by having many farmers grow crops on 1/2 hectare of land using highly labor-intensive household farming techniques. Small farmers can implement the same techniques that were used by the Chinese.

Studwell (p. 329) noted that China’s average GDP growth rate was 9.9 per cent in the twenty-eight years from 1980 to 2008. In addition, Kroeber in “China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know” (p 248) noted that two African countries, Rwanda and Ethiopia, have adopted a more or less explicit policy of imitating the Chinese growth model. Over the past decade, Ethiopia has been the fastest growing economy in Africa, with an average GDP growth rate of 11 percent since 2004.  Rwanda is not far behind, at 8 per cent. Kroeber (p 34) also noted that between 1981 and 2011, the number of people in China living in what the World Bank describes as absolute poverty sank from 840 million to 84 million. Here is how Deng Xiaoping implemented these economic reforms in China https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub7/item79.html

One reason the Chinese economic growth formula has not been implemented in other countries is the difficulty of implementing the first objective that creates conditions in which small farmers will thrive. The policies used by the Chinese to implement the first objective depended heavily on land reform and highly labor-intensive household farming.  These policies are described briefly in the following reference http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub7/item347.html . More detail about the policies used by the Chinese to implement highly labor intensive household farming can be found in the following references (Studwell, “How Asia Works”, Kroeber “China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know”, and Naughton “The Chinese Economy - Transitions and Growth”).  These references also describe why it is difficult to implement the Chinese economic growth formula in other countries.