Thanks for this opportunity to comment on this very important document and apologies for the length of my (personal) comments.
There is an increasing consensus that we need a change of paradigm. Present food systems are dysfunctional because they result in unhealthy diets. They are the outcome of a supply-driven and macroeconomic approach to food, which itself has shaped to a large extent research to date. Literature review by itself (in particular in the areas of food security and nutrition) cannot therefore be expected to provide a comprehensive basis for the report. The report should acknowledge this from the start. The report should for example explicitly question food policy prospective studies based on unhealthy food habits (e.g. excessive consumption of meat). The research principles agreed upon by IPES-food should lead the way for joint learning to guide food systems transition in the coming years.
Since the problem is diets, the report should start from diets, and in particular from the dietary transition resulting from the commodification of food and globalization. Revisit traditional diets and local food systems with a view to improving them in terms of health, culture, livelihoods and environmental management (e.g. Mediterranean diet the New Nordic Food) can provide a basis for sustainable diets. (It is important to go back to indigenous knowledge and not to the prevailing understanding that rice or maize are the national foods in West africa or Southern Africa) There is a need to re-localize food systems and ensure a harmonious articulation of local food systems with national, regional and global food systems.
Understanding the causes of malnutrition for affected population groups is also essential to understanding local challenges and opportunities, identifying the role of different institutions and ensuring complementarity between the food and agriculture and the health sectors. This can provide insights for the reorientation of food systems.
It is no surprise to note in several sections of the report a degree of confusion between value chains and food systems. While the report looks at health and environmental dimensions, insufficient attention is given to the social (employment and livelihoods) dimension of sustainable development and to institutional dysfunctions (governance is by far the major issue).
Most of the research reviewed mentions country data. There are several references to low and middle-income countries. The SDGs and Agenda 2030 have recognized the need to move beyond this simplistic classification.
The report focuses to some extent on food industry. More attention should be given to the distribution system (in particular the role of hypermarkets and supermarkets) since they are playing the lead role in shaping both consumption and production. It is essential that local markets and short food chains (e.g. farmers’ markets) be protected and supported. The shift to supermarkets (including in nutrition CCT interventions) has in many cases resulted in degradation of diets and destruction of local food systems. And roads have often resulted in depleting communities of the food they produced, thus decreasing home consumption, or isolating them from the national commercial system. More research is needed in this area.
The report is biased towards industrial-scale food production to the detriment of farming families. While increased dietary diversity is certainly needed, priority should be given to making the best of local biodiversity and ecosystems, which should of course be complemented through fair trade of quality products. This contributes to resilience of local food systems: areas most affected by the 2008 food crisis were those most dependent on international trade. More balance between national/local food production and food imports is needed.
Regarding possible solutions, the report emphasizes possible technological solutions, including fortification, which of course reflects the significant funding bias of recent research. These can certainly play a supporting role but have not proven to contribute to sustainability.
Urbanisation is indeed a key dimension but the report should emphasize the need for a territorial approach to food policies, which is central to sustainable food systems. The opposition p. 50 on urban vs. rural infrastructure is misleading and very reductive. The New Urban Agenda recently adopted in Quito could provide additional language. The process of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (which commits mayors to promote more sustainable food systems) could also be mentioned in a box. The examples of good practices collected could provide a basis for interdisciplinary research to elicit practice-based evidence.
Public catering - and in particular school canteens – are indeed key entry points for promoting more healthy and sustainable diets. This is increasingly being done all over the world: Brazil’s home-grown school feeding programmes, school canteens in Copenhagen, etc. The role of HORECA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horeca) is also essential and should be mentioned.
The assumption that healthy diets are more expensive (p. 51) needs to be substantiated: the issue is not to compare a mass produced commodity with the biologically produced equivalent, but to look at the food budget as a whole: cutting down on meat, dairy products, processed foods and soft drinks helps to reallocate household resources to better quality pulses and vegetables. In general, households have never spent such a small portion of their budget on food anyway and this cannot be sustainable.
Monitoring the impact of food crisis on diets is key for designing appropriate responses and will vary according to culture: in most places it results in sacrificing micro-nutrients to calories, but this is not always the case (e.g. Syria).
Sustainable food systems will require reviewing the legal and regulatory system at local level in order to identify and address contradictions and gaps. Many of the norms and procedures have been set up and adopted at national or regional level on the basis of a silo approach. Their relevance to sustainable development needs to be reviewed from a right to food perspective.
Florence Egal