Dear Colleagues,
The report on Nutrition and Food Systems is really interesting and offers useful information for further research. In the following, I like to suggest a few points which could be helpful.
HLPE Comments:
Page 9, lines 8-10: “And the burdens are transmitted across generations, because malnourished mothers are more likely give birth to malnourished babies who are more likely to grow up to be malnourished adults.”
Comment: This is rather from a perspective of developed countries. Considering the transformation in developing countries (e.g. China) during the last 25 years, the problem lies not only by the mother. For example, when you think about obesity in China currently, the problem lies in the food habits of younger generations. Within this generation, there is a bigger demand for street and convenience food. This aspect is not expressed in this part of the introduction. Source: Zhai et al. (2014): Dynamics of the Chinese diet and the role of urbanicity, 1991-2011 (Table 2 and 3).
Page 21-22: Typologies of food systems
Comment: Regarding to this aspect Gómez, M. I. and Ricketts, K. D. (2013) with the paper “Food value chain transformations in developing countries: Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications” in Food Policy, could help by definitions (Table 1).
Page 54: Trade and globalization
Comment: The role of foreign direct investment could be illustrated more clearly. Multi-national food companies not only trade export their products to foreign markets through free-trade and globalization, they also enter the market by buying domestic food companies. This aspect is clearly described in Hawkes, C. (2006): The role of foreign direct investment in the nutrition transition, in Public Health Nutrition.
Page 58 f.: Demographic drivers – Population pressure, changing ages and urbanization
Comment: Zhai et al. (2014): Dynamics of the Chinese diet and the role of urbanicity, 1991-2011, describe the effects of urbanization for different age groups. This could be interesting in terms of which age-groups are most vulnerable to negative nutritional changes (especially younger groups) and therefore which groups have to be protected through political agendas.
Best regards,
Jonas Schmitt
Jonas Schmitt