Honorable Dr. Nathanael Pingault, coordinator of HLPE
My best regards to you
I hope you a nd a ll of your collea gues in steer ing com m it tee of H LP E a re hea lthy a nd ha ppy R efer r ing to your contr ibution in D AD -Ne t @ f a o .o r g under the t it le of :
HLPE Report on:
Nutrition and food systems + call for Experts, published in Dec 10 2015
Hereby, I pr esent m y view points a bout the ten (10) questions with the em pha sis (Ta king in to m y consider a t ion) on the th r ee ba sic points include: A –Under -nutr it ion B-O ver -nutr it ion
C -M icr onutr ient deficiencies.
M y g en e r a l vie w p o in t s:
Important Note :I write my view points with this mentality th at the First link of all food systems , kind and change of diets ,Sufficient or deficien t nutrition of human being is SUST AI NABL E F O O D P R O DUC T I O N , which is output of cr op pr oduction or animal breeding in farms in a safe and comprehensive stable conditions.
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I ,personally, deeply, believe that nutrition and all subjects which by a way are r elated to nutrition of human being can n ot be appraised and studied solely .on the contr ary , it must be considered as a component of a combined phenomenon in our planet , very particularly , in the fir st decades of 21st century which food production as the final output of all agriculture and animal husbandry activities in the world depends on many social(Dynamic universities and r esearch centers) , economic ,climatic , cultural ,environmental ,training and extension services in rural areas (status of human resources) and political conditions .I n th is con n ection , the best and the clearest examples are:
Unfortunately , the ominou s phenomenon of t er r or is m has shadowed a vast r egion of planet, the r egion where is very r ich and suitable for ood pr oduction but we cannot deny the ter r ible effects of this ominous phenomenon , because surely , will a ffect all socio- economic activities ,mainly agriculture activities , accordingly , food pr oduction for all age categories of people specially , b abies and children.
Con tinuous drought or decrease of useful r ainfall in a vast area of planet which , surely, affect the food pr oduction , accordingly ,will directl tly affect the diet of world people which ,No-doub t, will cause nutritional deficiencies mainly under-nutrition and micro-nutrient deficiencies.Climate change , which ,In turn, affects the biologic efficiency of soil and water , productive and r epr oductive performance of animal and plant genetic r esources , accordingly , food pr oduction and food system and finally will affect diets of people , particularly poor and weak people who are more vulnerable , specially , babies and children.
Imposed and Un-wanted wars in some r egion of planet. Unfor tunately , continuous wars
(The m ost of them are Imposed) , which surely , or iginates from:
A-Ignor ance (Nescience) of people, for example, tr ibal wars in some r egions of planet, and fanatical wars which is very destructive.
B-Self –interest and mentality of invasion to other countries. No-d oubt, every kind of war will affect directly the cultivation of lands, social and economic and spiritual conditions of farmers so that will cause vagrancy ,hunger And adversity ,accordingly , will affect the food p roduction.
And finally , all of these above- mentioned areas will be adversely effective on the food production ,compulsory change of diet ,disorders in food systems , will create nutritional ,mainly pr otein and micro nutrient deficiencies.
How a nd why do diets cha nge?
O n the whole , in a normal and quiet condition, people of each country are well ad apted to their conventional diet , the diet which during centuries parents have presented to their next generation , therefore , those people love to their common diet and are well ad apted to it. Considering that, kind of diets completely or iginate from ecologic and climatic and economic and somewhat cultur al and even r eligious characteristics of each community(The best example vegetarians in India, banning of pork among Moslems and fish eating in water bounded countries).So, ever y changes in above-mentioned conditions , cer tainly will cause the changes of diet more and less .In some African countries which are in dry zones with no or lit tle r ainfall , anim al breeding is difficult because food of people is prefered to animal feed.in such condition people ar e con tent and happy with carbohydrates for surviving , I n con t r a s t , in south America like Br azil and Ar gen tin a because of sufficient r ainfall and good pasture for grazing of their animals, their diets include more meat(pr otein) in compare to carbohydr ates ,Likewise ,meat and milk in European countries .Complex of oppor tunities have caused different diets in different p ar ts of planet. M u tu ally, any disorder in each of mentioned par ameters will make the people ch ange their diets unwillingly (based on their fin ancial power and availability of diet).
Wha t a re the links between diets, consum ption and consumer s ha bits a nd food system s?
The diets are r esult of accep ting the comm on nutritional h abits which children have learned fr om their p arents based on different before-mentioned conditions .sustainable production of food stuffs (availability) and financial power of consumers (To buy the
proper diet)are the most important links between diets and consumption. It is clear th at food p roduction is fir st necessity but not sufficient because processing and compatibility with consumers interest is something else. Therefore, r sustainable production of dominant diets, processing, packaging , marketing and man agement of wastes are the m ost important links of a food system.
How do changes in food system s a ffect cha nges of diets, a nd therefor e hea lth and nutr it iona l outcom es?
We h ave accep ted th at food system includes an consecutive links such as: Sustainable food production (animal source food or plant source food) , processing. Packaging ,distr ibution ,marketing and m anagement of wastes .Now ,In case of any disorder or ch anges in each of these links ,Surely , diets will be hurt, and accordingly , the health and nu tr ition al status of people will be hurt. In this connection , I say an clear example :In any area of planet, where differen t kind of war occurs , provision or car rying of feedstuffs becomes difficult or impossible .Such a condition for long period(one year or m ore) will cause the involved people be deprived of suitable diet ,so that .m aybe they eat for a long time only carbohydrate to survive, which will be r esulted in under nutrition , par ticular ly ,deficiency of micr o-nutrient .Another example : with pr ogressing of science and ar r ival of new technology in life of m ankind ,processing of foodstuffs (As a link of food system)also has improved so that different hygienic product of pr ocessed milk or meat which have m ore sustainability ,more oppor tunity for distr ibution to r emote areas ,more availability to consumers and meeting the nutritional requirements.
Wha t a re the deter mina nts of the cha nges in consum ption?
In my opinion, depends on socio-economic ,cultur al and environmental conditions ,There are many different determinants of the changes ,but some of them (At a glance) are as follow:
A-Incremen t of different kinds of diets consumed by people (Entr ance of new foods which mostly are man aged by medias and somewhat because of globalization (Which is inevitable).The best example the entr ance of fast foods in the diet of mainly developing countries, so that, symbol of them is pizza, up to three or two decades ago ,maybe five percent of people(In developing countries) knew and wer e interested in eating pizza or other fast snacks. But , now , the young members of families are too much interested in eating pizza or other fast foods.
B-Changes in life style . In this connection, the best example which unfortun, is seen in planet is dwindling the rural population ,and increment of urban population .Surely ,diets which are common between urb an and rural population is completely different ,and this is inevitable because of the life style .In urban areas not only the ingredients of diets differ ,but , methods of cooking and even processing systems are different.
C -Financial power of people which depends on economic performance of governments. No-doubt , r ich people will buy full nutrient feeds to meet their body r equirements (protein, minerals , vitamins etc..)
But when they become poor they must change their diet to buy only some less nutritive diets and are deprived to eat fr esh and delicous fruits and……
D-Some imposed events , make people ch ange their diets .some of these events are: Imposed wars , drought ,famine and……
E-Scarcity of feed stuffs ,which will make the people ch ange quantity and quality of their
diets.
F-Improvement the awareness level of people abou t the role of diet in their health , body fitness ,obesity and prevention of diseases , surely they will change the qu ality and qu antity of their diet.
How do the dyna m ics of food system s dr ive consum ption patter ns?
It is clear that(Doubt-less) food systems(Which I told about in answering question 3) in communities governs the majority of people in each community .An Persian proverb says: No body can swim contrar y to the rou te of water. In this connection , impor tant point is that wh atever different links of food systems are full and well-functioned, Mutually , the consumption patterns will be improved .For example, if the pr ocessing of foods is hygienic and nutritive ,the people will not face diseases and meet their nutritional r equiremen ts, without deficiencies or obesity ,Vice-versa .Likewise, other links of food systems .Another example , in rural areas of the m ost developing countries, food systems ,is mainly r estr icted to pr oducing manual processing of products without pack aging and selling in local markets, this is the why we see the different consumption patterns in compar e to urban areas.
How to sha pe a nd to a ddr ess pathwa ys to hea lthy nutr it ion?
The First and most important step in order to shape and address pathways to healthy nutrition is to pr omote the n ation al awareness level about the healthy nutrition ,its social- economic and individual importance(benefits) ,and then the ways to achieve it .This is a bilateral r esponsibility as follow:
A-Responsibility of governments –all governmental policy-makers , presidents , r elated ministries ,parliaments etc…must emphasis on the healthy nutrition of their people .they must lead and legally man age and contr ol the differ ent links of food system which will r esult in healthy nutrition ,Simultaneously ,they must increase the awar eness of people about healthy nutrition thr ough national media(By using and extension of findings the universities ,r esearch centers ,senior experts etc).
B-Responsibility of individuals-Each person of community not only him or herself must move in the way of healthy nutrition , but he or she must tr ain his children(other persons of community) abou t paying attention to healthy nutrition .Thr ough such bilateral cooper ation ,each person of community becomes like a well wh ich i t s elf oozes t h e wa t er, n ot p ou r wa t er in s id e ,m a n u a lly .Now , he or she knows very well about disadvantages of over-nutrition , micr o nutrient deficiencies ,full meeting r equirement diet, vice versa, accordingly ,he does his best to address his pathway to a healthy nutrition.
Wha t is the role of public policy in pr om oting hea lthy, nutr it ious a nd cultur a lly a ppr opr ia te food for a ll?
I think I have answered this question in question 6 ,But ,I cordially , believe th at public policy h as the most and the most significant role in w abou t the dangers and disadvantages of an unsafe food .Why? because public policy makers have access to (Knows about)the food systems and cultural char acteristics of community .They must compile the tr aining and extension programs by using the newest technologies of the world, compatible with each population r egarding to their social and cultural peculiarities.
How to build on the diver sity of the existing food system s?
This is very interesting and attr active question for me .We must take in to our consideration that diversity of existing food systems directly depends on diversity of all links of each food system from sustainable food production to consumption .Therefore , I f we conserve and comprehensively improve the links of food system compatible with socio- economic and cultur al peculiarities of each r egion, not only we have conserved the diversity , but we h ave built on the same existing food system .I , seriously , believe that the only solution to achieve this aim (At least in developing countries ) is comprehensive ru r al development.
What is in pra ctice the range of actionable solutions from farm to fork that enable better nutritional outcomes of food systems?
I think I have answered this question somewhat in last eight questions. But , again I r efer to the key solution of comprehensive promotion of different process(the links) of food systems .For example :Farmers or animal breeders must be aware of the effects of using the chemical fer tilizer or horm ones. Food processors must be aware of vital importance of pollute or unsafe products ,economic par ties such as cooperative must provide a balancing market so that people can afford to buy their favorite food .Consumers must be aware of the balancing food.They must know the importance of protein ,energy , vitamin and minerals .Likewise ,the disadvantages of over-nutrition -obesity… etc .The man aging r esponsibility of these awar eness is on the shoulder of governments , but the governments must use the Non-governmental par ties ,Cooper atives ,tr aining and extension services , universities… as executing agencies.
Wha t action should differ ent sta keholder s, includ ing gover nments, civil society a nd the pr iva te sector , ta ke?
I have r efer r ed to the importan t and leading role of government in the way of the best efficiency of food systems in last 9 questions .but I believe that governments must have effective and significant role in compiling and contr olling of food systems but BY civil society and private sector .Civil society and private sector as executer sector must seriously feel the shadow of governments in order to do their best in the each link of food system .but governments also must be aware of their economic policies along with taking into their consideration the socio-economic and cultural status and ecologic poten tials of each r egion.
Thank you ver y much for your soon r eply indicating the receipt Hamidreza Naderfard.Born in 1959
M.Sc in genetic and animal breeding
Head expert of buffalo development in the ministry of agriculture.Tehr an.IRAN
E.mail: h n a d er fa r d @ ya h oo.com Mobile;0098(0) 936 877 9019
Hamidreza Naderfard