After having carefully read and commented on the preamble, I have repeatedly read the questions in the Issues Note.
Am I alone in feeling that some of the more relevant questions are not posed there --making some key issues to be missing?
Take for example (not exhaustively and not in any particular order):
The role of mono-cropping in modern resource-intensive agriculture.
- Palm oil quickly replacing trans-fats -- an ecological disaster in the making.
- Agro-industrial vs agro-ecological food systems.
- Food security vs food sovereignty.
- TNCs and vertical integration -- from seeds, to fertilizers, to pesticides, to processing (and ultra-processing!), to marketing and advertising (especially to children).
- The current predominant food system and NCDs -- another disaster in the making.
- Do diets and eating habits really change by choice?
- Consumer habits vs consumer manipulation.
- The determinants of the changes in consumer consumption are driven by ultra-processed foods being cheaper (thus the last resort option for those rendered poor) Is the dynamics of food consumption thus a form coercion?
- Public policies as a pathway to healthy nutrition vs the essential role of community empowerment and mobilization for true actionable solutions in the farm to fork continuum.
- Is the diversity in food systems being irreversibly lost? Why?
Ah, and, at the end, you call on stakeholder groups when you really ought to be calling on claim holders and duty bearers; this is what we must use in the UN system.
Am I very off the mark?
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Claudio Schuftan