Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

This member contributed to:

    • Ariel Larson

      IPM Institute of North America, Inc.
      United States of America

      Thank you for the opportunity to comment!

      IPM Institute's input is attached and pasted here:

      1. Does the draft adequately explain the principal components of a sustainable food systems (SFS) approach (section 2.) and put the latter in relation to the approaches discussed in section 3.1.?
        1. Suggest including food safety as a principal component and list food safety under Food security and nutrition in figure 1
        2. Suggest including worker safety under Food system outcomes in Figure 1
        3. Suggest including land use and farm inputs under food system elements – environment category in Figure 1

       

      1. Are the key concepts in relation to sustainable food systems in section 2.2. well defined and described, including their importance for this publication?
        1. Sustainable diets:
          1. Suggest adding that sustainable diets are those with low environmental and human health impacts, including both farm workers and consumers. An integrated pest management approach minimizes potential risks associated with pesticide use by emphasizing non-chemical approaches, chemical use only when necessary and low-risk chemicals over high risk alternatives.
          2. Clarify in the text that “health” includes health of farm workers, communities close to agriculture that may be impacted by pesticide drift, and the health of those eating the food. Often in the public’s mind when we think about “health” we’re only thinking about those consuming the food.
        2. Sustainable value chains
          1. In the discussion of “green” value chains, suggest mentioning that sustainable sourcing can take place w/in a company through their internal efforts to identify products that meet certain sustainability criteria – they may not necessarily be third-party certified to a sustainability standard. Food retailers may work in partnership with their suppliers to address sustainability, by e.g., collect information on various sustainability attributes like pesticide inputs, and work together to improve outcomes and reduce risks. Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods Market, Woolworths have various sustainable sourcing practices and programs in place, there’s published literature from Stanford on the efficacy of Woolworth’s approach and improving adoption of environmentally friendly practices at the farm level.
        3. Resilience:
          1. As an example of a specific measure, suggest adding importance of soil health and practices that keep soil covered year-round, reduce erosion and improve soil health (e.g., cover crops, no/low tillage). Soil C sequestration also contributes to GHG reductions and overall resilience of agricultural systems.

       

      1. Is the list of terms in chapter 4 complete, are any important terms missing (if yes, please submit together with the respective definitions) or do you think certain terms may be redundant?
        1. Integrated production:
          1. Suggest adding “... to minimize risk to people, property, resources, and the environment” to the sentence reading: “Their implementation promotes the recycling soil nutrients and overall soil quality, and reduces the issues linked to pests and diseases.”
        2. Suggest adding integrated pest management as a term
          1. Proposed definition: integrated pest management (IPM) is an science-based approach that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or pest damage through a combination of physical/mechanical, biological, cultural and chemical approaches. Pesticides are used only when necessary, after or in conjunction with non-pesticidal strategies, and only if pests or pest damage exceeds an economic threshold as determined by monitoring/scouting. IPM focuses on pest prevention, avoidance, monitoring and thresholds. When pesticides are used, those that minimize risks to humans, non-target species and the environment are selected and applied in ways that minimize potential negative impacts.
      See the attachments: