Thank you to the HLPE for their invitation to add to the discussion on the Issues’ Note on Nutrition and Food Systems.
We are very happy to see the mutiplicity of food systems acknowledged, and, a push to gathering evidence for review on the broad - and ambitious - scope of the intended report.
My feedback/comments to the most critical issues of the undertaking as presented (IMO):
- [sources of evidence: academic and experiential] Including experiential sources of evidence is sure to be a very useful and knowledge-enriching approach, opening the knowledge base out beyond even the multi-disciplinary perspectives to trans-disciplinary (here meaning the inclusion of practice/practitioners). The challenge I see is to find a suitable procedure and scope. For "food and diets" every single one of us 7 billion humans is an expert insofar as almost all of us eat and drink more than once every single day, and, after a few years can be said to be following a diet (i.e. pattern of food and drink consumed over time).
- ['nutrition and food systems'] Before doing anything else those involved need to find and agree on an unambiguous description or definition of a 'food system'. The way I look at it, 'nutrition' is an integral part of a 'food system'. In the Issues' Notes the terms seem to be used differently. Also, it needs to be unambiguously clear, whether, given the use of the term 'food system', an analytical or a systems approach is going to be followed - or both. The way the subject matter under review is framed will definitely and definitively affect what will be seen and found and hence what recommendations for action etc. can be made. I highly recommend following a systems approach, or, both an analytical and a systems approach. If a purely analytical approach is taken, with underlying linear assumptions and the focus on 'drivers' and 'determinants', feedback loops (rebound effects) and the analysis of changes in relationships between elements of a food system and potential strong leverage points may go unnoticed.
- [methodological approach: review of evidence-base] The intended report will be extremely valuableas a summary statement of the status quo of our knowledge of the issues to be addressed. In this sense it is, however, strongly restrospective and will not easily include immediate findings nor necessarily be able to elicit the very best suggestions for action. Thus there will be gaps. The report and the team will need to name and address the gaps as issues for future work/reports.
Comment on "assess[ing] the influence of various types of food systems on diets, nutrition and health":
One food system of value wrt a mounting evidence-base we are currently working on is the organic food system. This offers a history, clear definitions and system boundaries, application of global principles in local contexts around the world, data on sustainability of both production and - recently - consumption and diet, as well as policy, regulation, education and technology issues. We see there is much insight to be gained from studying the organic food system. See our work here: http://organicfoodsystem.net/
Carola Strassner