Dear CFS Colleagues,
So many congratulations on this comprehensive Zero Draft of the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. Thank you very much for including biofortification in Part I, under (1) Production Systems paragraph (h) as one of the technologies that should be scaled up to improve consumer access to healthy diets and better nutrition outcomes.
Since conventionally bred (i.e., non GMO) biofortified crops and foods made thereof are now being scaled up along the crop supply chains; biofortified foods could also be included in other parts of the guidelines, including Part I, section(1) Production Systems (a), (b), (f), (i), (g), (k); (3) Processing and Packaging (a); (4) Retail and Markets (a) and (b); in Part II, section on Availability and Physical Access (b) and (c); Economic access/affordability (c), and under Food Quality and Safety (b).
Given the evidence-based approach taken by the CFS in development of these important guidelines, I would like to refer you to the latest evidence on the nutrition and health impacts, adoption, consumer acceptance and cost-effectiveness of biofortification (https://www.harvestplus.org/evidence-document). Furthermore, 21 countries have now included biofortification in their various national policy and strategy documents (list of countries and policies/strategies are available from HarvesPlus, www.harvestplus.org). These could be highlighted as examples of policies/strategies for improving food systems and nutrition (and learnings could even be shared among member countries through the forum mentioned in Paragraph 59).
Many thanks for your consideration and warmest regards,
Ekin Birol, PhD
Director, Impact and Strategy, HarvestPlus
Д-р. Ekin Birol