Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

This Draft is excellent in its comprehension and laying down a common framework for possible adoption with custom-designed localization (national, regional, territorial or other). Its major contribution is that it offers a set of plausible factors for conscious decision-making at different levels and sectors, recognizing various interlinkages. However, it falls short on relevant specifics: more illustrative best practice case studies or examples could motivate some of the principal stakeholders to aim at the attainment of various objectives in relation to SDGs (with due consideration of socio-economic as well as environmental impratives of the specific agroeconomic settings). Over the years there have been several good examples of practices; some is these included the role and contribution of FAO and other organizations in a variety of settings. The main limitations in many of these cases, however, is lack of scalability and or sustainable self-supporting mechanisms.

Greater emphasis on climate change-compatible adaptive sustainable agriculture will be useful.

On another issue, as long as large-scale farming that is directly or indirectly controlled by unaccountable multinationals promote consumption of unsustainable animal meats, the environmental fall out will continue to dominate many other offsetting activities such as organic agriculture. Similarly, if rise in personal incomes lead to excessive unsustainable and unhealthy food consumption, many of the normative concepts and approaches of SFS may deliver merely limited good results. 

Thank you for your efforts.

Krishna Rao Pinninti, Ph. D

Climate and Development Strategies, LLC

USA.

Thank you. It is a nice draft. Among the issues discussed, in my humble opinion, the most important ones are how to reduce food waste (as championed by France), and how to reduce negative impact of food production.

Most of the crop-based food production are Greening activities consuming Carbon, despite some negative issues, like pesticides and others.  Hence if food production can be made Greener, it will serve dual purpose.

Thanks,

AMM Zowadul Karim Khan

Here are definitions of processed and ultra-processed foods by NOVA: Monteiro, C., et al., The star shines bright. World Nutrition, 2016. 7(1-3): p. 28-38.

Ultra-processed foods:

« These are industrial formulations typically with five or more and usually many ingredients. Such ingredients often include those also used in processed foods, such as sugar, oils, fats, salt, anti-oxidants, stabilizers, and preservatives. Ingredients only found in ultra-processed products include substances not commonly used in culinary preparations, and additives whose purpose is to imitate sensory qualities of un/minimally-processed foods or of culinary preparations of these foods, or to disguise undesirable sensory qualities of the final product. Raw/minimally-processed foods are a small proportion of or are even absent from ultra-processed products. »

« Substances only found in ultra-processed products include some directly extracted from foods, such as casein, lactose, whey, and gluten, and some derived from further processing of food constituents, such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils, hydrolyzed proteins, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin, invert sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Classes of additive only found in ultra-processed products include dyes and other colors, color stabilizers, flavors, flavor enhancers, non-sugar sweeteners, and processing aids such as carbonating, firming, bulking and anti-bulking, de-foaming, anti-caking and glazing agents, emulsifiers, sequestrates and humectants. Several industrial processes with no domestic equivalents are used in the manufacture of ultra-processed products, such as extrusion and moulding, and pre-processing for frying. The main purpose of industrial ultra-processing is to create products that are ready to eat, to drink or to heat, liable to replace both unprocessed or minimally processed foods that are naturally ready to consume, such as fruits and nuts, milk and water, and freshly prepared drinks, dishes, desserts and meals. Common attributes of ultra-processed products are hyper-palatability, sophisticated and attractive packaging, multi-media and other aggressive marketing to children and adolescents, health claims, high profitability, and branding and ownership by transnational corporations. »

Processed foods:

« These are relatively simple products made by adding sugar, oil, salt or other culinary ingredients to raw or minimally-processed foods. Most processed foods have two or three ingredients. Processes include various preservation or cooking methods, and, in the case of breads and cheese, non-alcoholic fermentation. The main purpose of the manufacture of processed foods is to increase the durability of raw or minimally-processed foods, or to modify or enhance their sensory qualities. Typical examples of processed foods are canned or bottled vegetables, fruits and legumes; salted or sugared nuts and seeds; salted, cured, or smoked meats; canned fish; fruits in syrup; simple breads and cheeses. Processed foods may contain additives used to preserve their original properties or to resist microbial contamination. Examples are fruits in syrup with added anti-oxidants, and dried salted meats with added preservatives».

My research project is the characterization of the food degree of processing in relation with health potential. In this perspective I am notably working on ultra-processed foods. A food is defined as ultra-processed if it contains at least one ultra-processed ingredient (excessive fractionation of its original matrix/cracking) or a cosmetic additive (coloring, texturizer, taste enhancer, sweetener, ...) or additive considered at risk for health or if it has underwent a very industrial drastic process (e.g., extrusion-cooking, puffing...). Such foods, when massively consumed worldwide, are associated with degradation of food systems as a whole and are not sustainable. They are notably associated with increased risks of chronic diseases, animal suffering, environment degradation (pollution, deforestation, climatic changes...), degradation of social life (food often eaten by isolated individuals), culinary traditions (hyperstandardized foods replacing local ones) and small farmers or peasants (because they are cheaper than local foods). Therefore, we defined the three golden rule for preservations of all these dimensions of sustainability : Végétal, Vrai, Varié (if possible organic, local and seasonal). In English : Plant, Real (food), Varied. These rules are holistic allowing meeting all human nutrient needs and preserving human health, animal well-being and environment. In addition they are scientific because all protective diets worldwide are rich in plant-based, minimally-processed and varied foods. In detail these rules recommand not to exceed daily 15% calories from animal products and ultra-processed foods. For details see : Fardet, A. and E. Rock, Reductionist nutrition research has meaning only within the framework of holistic thinking. Advances in Nutrition, 2018. 9(6): p. 655–670. Therefore we think we have a powerpuf lever to activate locally and for a global change.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to comment - overall I think the document is really good but, while there is some mention of City Regional Food Systems as one type of Territorial approach, I do not think enough is said about CRFS considering what a significant driver this is becoming in all parts of the world for food system change and that the inclusion/ combination of CRFS with much of what is said about territorial approaches is a bit confusing.

In trying to understand Sustainable Food Systems, there are these 2 critical actors that are often neglected yet they are very fundamental drivers that can impact improved food systems.

1. The local farmers: these actors are the producers, and they are often not recognized in policy formulation and implementation. They are not recognized when pricing and regulation, the market regulators just fix prices and not considering inputs from the farmers, as they need to also measure their effort and some form of calculations to consider if they are making a loss or making  profit from their farming activities. There is also the concern about transportation systems and access to market, we have seen that there is the activities of 'middle-men', buy the products are low prices and sell at higher prices making more profits than the farmers who are the producers.  

2. Conflicts and crises: we are experiencing this concern in parts of North Central Nigeria, where farmers are clashing with herders, and tonnes of farm crops close to harvesting are either consumed by farm animals directed by the herders or burnt in anger and revenge. The face of conflict in Nigeria is having a huge impact on the food systems, and negatively affecting the food systems. 

In understanding the food system, we need to understand the actors, the processes, the market and the final consumers. How does the consumer get the quality and the commensurate quantity, in the form that retains the nutrients that is needed.

Sustainable Food Systems 

Key literature

Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems (2014), Vols 1-4, van Alfen, N. et al., (eds.). Elsevier Publishers, San Diego, USA.

Multifunctional Agriculture: Achieving Sustainable Development in Africa (2017). Leakey, R.R.B., Academic Press, San Diego, California, USA, 480pp.

International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development: Global Report (Eds. B.D. McIntyre, H. Herren, J. Wakhungu and R. Watson). Island Press, New York, USA.

Section 2.1.2 The Sustainable Food Systems Approach

The text states “While there will clearly be trade-offs to be made (i.e. between key priorities of the food systems: inclusive poverty reduction, increased agricultural productivity, improved nutrition, and enhanced environmental sustainability), there will also be opportunities to simultaneously accomplish multiple objectives”. This concept is central to the development of Sustainable Food Systems. It is the so-called inevitable ‘Trade-offs’ that make modern agriculture unsustainable, especially in the tropics and sub-tropics. The often-mentioned inevitability of these trade-offs is a fallacy; arising from a lack of understanding of the issues that constrain farm productivity in tropical/sub-tropical regions, especially Africa. While, conventional modern agriculture is productive in temperate regions due to its compatibility with: the socio-economic and biophysical environment, high capital investment, globalized markets, etc., it fails in the tropics where it is incompatible with all these factors (Leakey, 2013). The result is the downward spiral of the ‘Cycle of Land Degradation and Social Deprivation’ which drives the creation of Yield Gaps in staple crop production. These Yield Gaps can be (and often are) as great as 85% of potential yield (Leakey, 2013) and result in the rural population suffering from hunger, malnutrition, ill health, poverty and social injustice; while the land degradation contributes to Climate Change.

The solution, especially in the tropics and sub-tropics, is to find ways to reverse the ‘Cycle of Land Degradation and Social Deprivation’ by developing better land husbandry in ways that are also compatible with the socio-economic and biophysical environment, lack of income and capital for investment, local markets, etc. In other words, the common ‘Trade-offs’ have to become the focus of both policy, agricultural interventions and agribusiness to convert them to ‘Trade-ons’ (Leakey, 2018). Work in Cameroon since 1994 has been trying and testing this innovative approach and it has been found to be highly successful – beneficially transforming numerous components of the food system (Leakey and Prabhu, 2017). This approach is based on 12 Principles (Leakey, 2014a) and the social modification of ethnobotanically-recognized cultural and traditional food species by community level participatory domestication (Leakey, in press). With hundreds of candidate species from all ecoregions of the world and a generic 3-step process (Leakey, 2013, 2018) that diversifies and rehabilitates degraded agroecosystems (Leakey, 2014b) and generates income from expanded trade, new business and employment from local non-timber tree products (Leakey, 2017a; in press), these innovations appear to offer a new approach to revitalizing food systems in the areas of the world where the problems are greatest. This approach which is designed to reverse the Cycle and Land Degradation and Social Deprivation, so closing the very common Yield Gap in many staple food crops, needs to be up- and out-scaled to verify its apparent potential.

Section 2.2 should address the issues of Yield Gaps – the embodiment of an unsustainable food production system that then impacts the whole system.

2.2.4 Resilient Production Systems and 3.0 Different Roads leading to Sustainability

The above text also applies to the rehabilitation of abandoned and degraded farm land and its transformation into Resilient Production Systems through sustainable intensification.

The above approach in effect combines the development of agroecological approaches (delivered by agroforestry) with income generation from the domestication and commercialization of the products from culturally- and traditionally-important indigenous food species (many of which are trees) (Leakey 2017a, 2018). Agroecology without income generation does not restore the whole food system as it does not address the social and economic constraints to tropical/sub-tropical agriculture.

A Table in Leakey and Prabhu (2017) illustrates impacts flowing from the interlinkages, overlaps and complementarities (Section 3.2).

The integrated rural development approach presented above is relevant to the Main strategies to promote sustainable food systems (Section 3.3).

Definitions:

Agroforestry is: “a dynamic, ecologically based, natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees in farm- and rangeland, diversifies and sustains smallholder production for increased social, economic, and environmental benefits” (Leakey, 2017).

Multifunctional Agriculture is illustrated by FSF in Figure 2 (a Figure from IAASTD Global Report, 2009).

References

Leakey, R.R.B. 2013. Addressing the causes of land degradation, food / nutritional insecurity and poverty: a new approach to agricultural intensification in the tropics and sub-tropics. In: Wake Up Before it is too Late: Make Agriculture Truly Sustainable Now for Food Security in a Changing Climate, 192-198, UNCTAD Trade and Environment Review 2013, U. Hoffman (ed.), UN Publications, Geneva, Switzerland.

Leakey, R.R.B. 2014a. Twelve Principles for Better Food and More Food from Mature Perennial Agroecosystems, In: Perennial Crops for Food Security, 282-306, Proceedings of FAO Expert Workshop, Rome, Italy, 28-30 August 2013, FAO. Rome.

Leakey, R.R.B. 2014b. The role of trees in agroecology and sustainable agriculture in the tropics. Annual Review of Phytopathology 52: 113-133.

Leakey, R.R.B. 2017. Definition of agroforestry revisited. In: Multifunctional Agriculture – Achieving Sustainable Development in Africa, RRB Leakey, 5-6, Academic Press, San Diego, California, USA.

Leakey, R.R.B. and Prabhu, R. 2017. Towards multifunctional agriculture – an African initiative. In: Multifunctional Agriculture: Achieving Sustainable Development in Africa, RRB Leakey, 395-416, Academic Press, San Diego, California, USA.

Leakey, R.R.B. 2018. Converting ‘trade-offs’ to ‘trade-ons’ for greatly enhanced food security in Africa: multiple environmental, economic and social benefits from ‘socially modified crops. Food Security 10: 505-524.

Leakey, R.R.B. In press. From Ethnobotany to Mainstream Agriculture – Socially-modified Cinderella Species Capturing ‘Trade-ons’ for ‘Land Maxing’. In: Special Issue on Orphan Crops, Planta 0: 000-000.

1. La alimentación forma parte delos gobiernos de los pueblos.  Quien dirige los destinos de la humanidad (por países,  estados, provincias municipios, comunas  etc.) tiene que conocer qué consume la población, de donde proviene y si ello está acorde o  no  con la generalidad con las normas internacionales y si además responde (en cantidad y calidad ) con  las necesidades alimentarias de los seres humanos según su edad y funciones. Quienes dirigen las poblaciones de hombre deben estar capacitados en este principio básico de la existencia humana para la toma de decisiones.

2. Los poseedores de grandes extensiones y por tanto grandes productores necesitan formar parte de los programas de desarrollo hacia la interpretación del pensamiento agroecológico.  La agroecología    no es patrimonio sólo de los productores pequeños.

3. La capacitación actualizada y bien orientada, es el camino a seguir para cambiar el estilo de vida inadecuada que repercute en la salud humana por exceso o defecto.

4. La agrobiodiversidad es además de ser multiplicada por agroecosistemas  a favor de los humanos, también debe ser conservada y multiplicada en igual medida para los animales alimenticios y no alimenticios, así también para la restante diversidad equilibradora de los agroecosistemas por grande o pequeños que estos sean.

Los agroecosistemas debieran ser evaluados (independiente a su tamaño) por la contribución que hacen a la humanidad, no sólo en cantidad, sino también en diversidad. El IDA (Leyva y Lores, 2012) en la Revista digital Agroecología No.  7.  Es una pequeña contribución a esos propósitos.

Saludos

Dr.  Angel Leyva Galán

INCA., Cuba

In time of accelerated rate of climate change, relevant concept for human welfare is ensuring that net deficits in dietary intake are avoided. Particularly at an early age.

Sustainable livelihood systems require adequate net dietary intake. Means availability of clean non-contaminated drinking water, control of water and insect borne diseases, avoiding capability poverty (undeveloped brain circuitry due to stunting) at early age, and balanced dietary intake.

Sustainable food security- as apparently argued by FAO -  represents an inferior reductionist concept.

Per A Eklund

Literature

Capability poverty by deficits in net dietary intake at early age - Neglected

by the Rangarajan poverty line

•  November 2014 Indian

•   Journal of Community Health 26, Supp S1(5):2,

Per A Eklund

Hello.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Any consideration of Sustainable Food Systems need to be prefaced with the basic information that 99% of food comes from soil and that 98% of biodiversity is on land, not in oceans. At the same time the greatest, yet most ignored, environmental issue is loss of precious topsoil at a rate of 2,000 tonnes per second.

Rebuilding topsoil by preventing erosion and recycling all organic matter via earthworms is the most sensible and effective solution.

Please find my recent review paper (or just look at the graphics) - https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/2/4/64 .

Kind regards,

Rob Blakemore PhD