Food security and nutrition are subjects that need to be addressed locally on a country basis.
1. Do you think that the report is striking the right balance between agricultural development overall and the livestock sector specifically with respect to their relative contribution to FSN?
The first draft of the HLPE report is a useful review of the present knowledge on the situation of food security and nutrition around the world. It is a good attempt to classify the elements under discussion in order to arrive at wide-ranging high-level conclusions and recommendations. It is a worthwhile effort to guide the attention of international organizations devoting efforts to find solutions to present and future issues facing food security and nutrition.
The document can be viewed as an effort to amend earlier conclusions from international organizations on the importance of livestock in the food chain as a tool for arriving to an acceptable level food security and nutrition. The livestock sector is well aware of attempts made to demonstrate that greenhouse gas from ruminants is the key element of climate change. This was done without considering the contribution of livestock to food security and nutrition by supplying nutrient rich foods to all populations around the world particularly to developing countries. The report could still be viewed as expressing biases against animal production by failing to recognize the work of non-government organizations representing livestock commodities.
The key role of livestock in feeding to world population is an indisputable fact in ensuring food security and nutrition. Hopefully this report will take steps to establish the fact. The report tends to highlight issues related to livestock production rather than promoting the nutrient richness of animal products. The nutritive value of nutrient rich food such as meat of all sources and dairy products needs to be clearly expressed in the policies supporting livestock as an important source of nutrients.
Both animal and plants are equally important sources of food. There is a need for an objective assessment of the complementary contribution that each source of food can contribute to feeding the world with nutrient balanced diets in a sustainable manner. One does not need to fear objective technical information coming from livestock commodities in the area of nutrition and nutrient availability.
2. Does the report strike the right balance of coverage across the various chapters? Are there important aspects that are missing?
The report deals with complex issues involving as many production systems around the world as there are countries and ecosystems. One has to accept the classifications and categorizations chosen by the authors. It is a first draft. The authors should be responsible for choosing the classification. The entire report is built around different classification. It is easier to handle a small number of categories when it comes to formulating concise and meaningful conclusions and recommendations.
One aspect that could be developed further is the importance of trade agreement in addressing food security.
The first draft of report on sustainable agricultural development for food security and nutrition was made available for comments at the time of the conclusions of the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific-Partnership agreement and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union. The least that can be said about food security and nutrition for those two long term agreements is that food security and nutrition were not determining factors for the economies of developing and developed countries involved in the negotiations. Whatever happens with the enforcement of the new set of trade rules and of other similar outcomes, food commodities will continue to move around the world depending on the capacity of the buyers to pay. The capacity of a developing country to purchase food to address hunger is limited by its capacity to pay for the food. The system is ruthless otherwise there would not be hunger and starvation at this time.
Assuming that trade rules are not going to change for the next 20 to 30 years, the HLPE needs to take into consideration that trade in food products should not be based only on profit but should give consideration to food security and nutrition to alleviate hunger and starvation.
To remain in business agricultural producers from exporting countries need to cover their costs of production. The HLPE report seems to indicate that surplus production would automatically move towards areas of the world lacking the proper quantity of nutrients. It seems to be far from the reality.
The World Trade Organization states another view about the effectiveness of the worldwide trade rules indicating that trade rules will be an important tool addressing hunger https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news15_e/dgra_25sep15_e.htm.
3. Do you find this approach useful for identifying specific policy responses and actions in different socio-economic and environmental contexts?
The intent of the report is to outline a set of high level conclusions and recommendations that will hopefully lead to concrete actions addressing starvation and hunger. To be useful, one would need to bring those conclusions and recommendations to the level of application within each country with issues with food shortage. Usually international organizations are not dictating policies at country level. There is a need for suggesting a credible delivery process that has the capacity to perform at local level and encourage local production instead of patching gaps with food aid.
Such a program exists within the World Animal Health Organization (OIE). The model deals with the evaluation of veterinary services around the world. To date, OIE “has evaluated the quality of national animal health systems, including Veterinary Services, in more than 130 countries.” The world needs a similar mechanism for a sustainable level food security and nutrition to address issues particular present in developed and developing countries.
4. Are there other studies that the report needs to reference, which offer different perspectives on the future outlook for the agriculture (including livestock) sector, in particular those that focus on nutrition and diet?
The report mentions the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership sponsor in part by FAO. The HLPE should make use of the knowledge available within LEAP for its contribution in formulating recommendations at country level. LEAP’s members are food related industries and non-government organizations involved in food production and trade at national and international levels. LEAP’s contribution would be key in the formulation of policies addressing food security and nutrition at a level that could be of use by local organizations.
5. Do you think that there are other key challenges/opportunities that need to be covered in the report, including those related to emerging technologies, the concentration and intensification of production in livestock, and the implications for feedstuffs (crops and oilseeds), and international trade?
The present report should not result in few lines of recommendations and policies formulated by high level UN executives, HLPE should work with members of LEAP so whatever good work coming out of the report will be put to optimal use at country level.
6. A decision-making approach that could be useful for policy makers in designing and implementing policies and actions has been proposed in Chapter 4 of the report. Is this a useful and pragmatic approach?
Food security and nutrition must be dealt with locally within each country. One model, which should be considered to address the issue, is the program developed by OIE for assessing veterinary services of the 180 member countries participating in OIE’s activities.
The main intent of the program is the improvement of the legal framework and resources of national Veterinary Services. “The Veterinary Services and laboratories of developing and transition countries are in urgent need of support to provide them with the necessary infrastructure, resources and capacities that will enable their countries to benefit more fully from the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement) while at the same time providing greater protection for animal health and public health and reducing the threat for other countries which are free of diseases. The OIE considers the Veterinary Services as a Global Public Good and their bringing into line with international standards (structure, organization, resources, capacities, role of para-professionals) as a public investment priority.” http://www.oie.int/index.php?id=53#c202
“OIE has developed an evaluation tool, the OIE Tool for the Evaluation of Performance of Veterinary Services (OIE PVS Tool) in order to assist countries in determining their current level of performance, forming a shared vision, establishing priorities, and carrying out strategic initiatives. It comprises four fundamental components and 46 critical competencies. To promote and support intersectoral collaboration at the national level, OIE is also implementing OIE-PVS “One Health” pilot missions. The objective and scope of the pilot OIE PVS “One Health” missions is to assess the quality of the National Veterinary Services relevant to the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code, with special emphasis on collaboration activities with the Public Health and other relevant stakeholders at the animal-human interface. Although there is still no specific tool officially recognized by WHO and OIE Member Countries for the PVS “One Health” missions, the current pilot activities use the OIE PVS Tool as a framework in that field. More information on the OIE PVS Tool and the OIE PVS Pathway can be found at: http://www.oie.int/en/support-to-oie-members/pvs-pathway/”http://www.oie.int/en/for-the-media/onehealth/oie-involvement/oie-pvs/.
The OIE PVS Tool should be examined by the HLPE. It applies to animal health and all aspects of animal production including animal welfare, food safety, and sustainability within the One Health concept. http://www.oie.int/for-the-media/onehealth/
The strength of the program is its capacity to be delivered locally while serving a global mandate. Local experts in the area of livestock production are responsible for the delivery of the program. The model developed by OIE could be expanded to other experts in the area of food security and nutrition. At least the OIE PVS Tool should be evaluated by HLPE.
7. Could you offer other practical, well-documented and significant examples to enrich and provide better balance to the variety of cases and the lessons learned in agricultural development, including the trade offs or win-win outcomes in terms of addressing the different dimensions of sustainability and FSN?
The main problem with the report is the lack of availability of information that could have been supplied by organizations responsible for livestock commodities like dairy, goat, sheep, beef, pork, poultry and other animals of agricultural importance used for food and other services to human. Those organizations exist at international level and at country level. They are willing to contribute. It would be a big mistake to keep them from contributing directly to the formulation of recommendations and policies.
To make sure that there are no excuse for contacting them, for dairy, it is the International Dairy Federation http://www.fil-idf.org/Public/ColumnsPage.php?ID=23077. For beef, pork and other animal producing meat one could refer to The International Meat Secretariat http://www.meat-ims.org. For poultry one could contact the International Poultry Council http://www.internationalpoultrycouncil.org/index.cfm;jsessionid=29965DFC9AABEE275B7EEF2E2B78013B.cfusion?CFID=6301737&CFTOKEN=cd8384139647cd43-0E8685C8-D510-230D-2D7F94CF8B091EC5 for poultry meat and for eggs the International Egg Commission https://www.internationalegg.com/corporate/index.asp. For animal health one could contact the global animal medicines association Health for Animals http://healthforanimals.org. For animal feeds, one should consult with the International Feed Industry Federation http://www.ifif.org.
A practical example is the Dairy Sustainability Framework http://dairysustainabilityframework.org and its Global Dairy Agenda for Action. The framework includes more than forty dairy organizations with membership at country and local level along with members of the entire dairy food chain.
8. The social dimension of sustainable agriculture development has often been less well described and understood, including due to lack of data. Examples and experiences on such issues (livelihoods, gender, share and situation of self employed versus wage workers, working conditions, etc.) would be of particular interest to the team.
In the context of sustainable development, one could examine the life cycle analysis of agricultural products such as the one conducted by Dairy Farmers of Canada in 2012 https://www.dairyresearch.ca/file.php?filename=/var/www/cdrplive/files/news/19/LCA-DFCExecSum_e.pdf.
http://dairyresearchblog.ca/downloads/PLC_Infographie_eng.pdf.
A similar project is conducted by Dairy Australia in greater details http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/Industry-information/Sustainability/Industry-sustainability.aspxhttp://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/~/media/Documents/Industry%20overview/Sustainability/AustDairyIndustrySustainability%20Progress%20Report2014.pdf.
In the USA, the Dairy Innovation Centre for U.S. Dairyhttp://www.usdairy.com/sustainability/industry-commitment developed the “Stewardship and Sustainability Guide for U.S. Dairy supports dairy farms and companies’ efforts to voluntarily measure, report and communicate progress. Dairy producers, processors and manufacturers work with retailers and other stakeholders to draft, test, pilot and refine each phase. View the current version of the guide, and find additional support for producers and processors in the handbooks http://www.usdairy.com/sustainability/reporting/stewardship-and-sustainability-guide-for-us-dairy#sthash.UcYYo6L3.dpuf.”
Documenting the role of women in food security and nutrition should be expanded. The development of the dairy industry in India could be used as a model for other initiatives. The report makes strong points about the role of women in ensuring food security and nutrition. It should be part of each relevant policy addressing the different steps in the food chain mainly in the area of production.
9. Can you provide examples of the role these sectors play in sustainable agricultural development and FSN?
The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform “counts over 70 members, which actively share the same view on sustainable agriculture seen as "the efficient production of safe, high quality agricultural products, in a way that protects and improves the natural environment, the social and economic conditions of farmers, their employees and local communities, and safeguards the health and welfare of all farmed species". Members also jointly work on achieving SAI Platform’s 2020 Vision.”
10. What are the key policy initiatives or successful interventions to improve the sustainability of food systems, in different countries and contexts that merit discussion in the report? Is there evidence about the potential of economic incentives, and which ones (taxes, subsidies etc.), regulatory approaches, capacity building, R&D and voluntary actions by food system actors?
The issue of food security and nutrition must be addressed locally within each country. The countries that can afford exporting food will continue to export for profit. Importing countries will continue to import at a competitive price. Countries that cannot purchase food to meet their nutritional needs will have to develop sustainable agricultural systems to meet the nutrient needs for their population otherwise the situation that HLPE tries to solve is not going to be improved.
The HLPE should consider formulating recommendations addressing mechanisms such as the one OIE has developed for animal health and veterinary services which will overview the organizational needs of individual developing countries. Local experts need to be supported and local governments need guidance from a world organization similar to OIE.
11. Where are the data gaps that governments, national and international organizations might need to address in the future in order to understand trends and formulate better policies?
National and international organizations representing commodities are knowledgeable of the situation of food security and nutrition in their individual areas. Those organizations need to be involved and made accountable to arrive at the right set of policies for local government to meet their particular needs. HLPE needs to involve the parties that will deliver food security and nutrition at the working level.
12. Are there any major omissions or gaps in the report? Are topics under-or over-represented in relation to their importance? Are any facts or conclusions refuted or questionable? If any of these are an issue, please send supporting evidence.
As stated earlier, the main problem with the report is that information that could have been supplied by organizations responsible for livestock commodities around the world is not available in the first draft. Hopefully this information will be available in simplified future drafts by involving the right experts.
Réjean Bouchard