Viet Nam Human Rights
Food Systems Need Transformation
3/9/19
The right to food is a universal human right. Yet, over 820 million people are going hungry, according the latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2019). In addition, 2 billion people in the world are food insecure with great risk of malnutrition and poor health" 1.
Another report 2 describes the situation even more worrying: "At the global level, one person in three is malnourished today and one in two could be malnourished by 2030 in a business-as-usual scenario. While hunger remains a critical concern, malnutrition in all its forms (undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity) now affects all countries, whether low-, middle- or high-income. Those different forms of malnutrition can co-exist within the same country or community, and sometimes within the same household or individual."
Against this backdrop, the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) 3, which is, at the global level, the foremost inclusive and evidence-based international and intergovernmental platform for food security and nutrition (FSN), requested a High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) 4 to prepare a report on nutrition and food systems.
The comprehensive HLPE report 5 is the basis for a series of inclusive, multi-stakeholder discussions at global and regional levels, including e-consultations, to provide inputs for shaping the Voluntary Guidelines (VGs) on Food Systems and Nutrition.
The zero draft 6 of the VGs provides a comprehensive overview on the situation of food security and nutrition. However, among the causes of malnutrition, appropriate reference to the root causes is still missing: poverty and inequalities. Due to their extreme poverty, many people do not have access to enough nutritious food, although it should not be a privilege, it is a basic human right. This confirms the need for transformation of our current food systems and make them more sustainable.
One basic problem is the misconception of low food price policy. The impacts of low food prices on the consumers' behaviour are significant, including their buying preferences. The situation of "low food prices" appears to be the result of competition among retailers and as such, they seem to be positive, favouring the poor people. In reality, all people, including the poor, suffer the consequences of low food prices, which regularly mean low quality of food.
Low quality, ultra-processed food (frequently with high fat, sugar and salt content, the so-called junk food) have serious consequences on the nutrition status of the poor populations, leading to obesity, overweight and other non-communicable diseases. Food prices generally do not reflect the real costs of production, ignore the positive and negative impacts (externalities) of food systems on the environment and on human health.
For the right decisions to transform our current food systems, true cost accounting is essential, giving due consideration to all environmental and human health externalities. This could help shape the VGs, recommending appropriate measures, policy incentives in support of sustainable solutions. There are ample scientific evidences related to the true costs of food and there are several studies 7 available on this topic.
In addition, artificially distorted, low food prices have a strong impact on the food waste as well. Cheap food conveys the message that it does not represent a real value and consumers will throw away food more easily. Higher food prices (reflecting the true costs of food) would discourage consumers to buy more than they effectively need. Realistic prices of food do not imply generally high food prices. Only the prices of those (ultraprocessed, junk) food would go up which do not internalize the environmental and public health externalities.
Studies show that as a result of true cost accounting, locally produced, fresh, healthy, unprocessed (whole) food would become more competitive, for the benefit of those who produce them, and in particular, the consumers and the whole society. The solution for the poor is not cheap food, but decent work and wages, essential to combat extreme poverty. In addition, the costs of decent wages are much lower than the benefits of saving great amounts of public health care expenditure.
For the transformation of our food systems, sustainability should be the driving principle, paying due attention to the (so far ignored) environmental and social dimensions. Obviously, the economic dimension should also be considered, keeping in mind, however, that economic sustainability is nothing else but the result of the financial policy incentives or subsidies, promoting one or another type of food systems.
In this regard, national legislators have enormous responsibility in providing the appropriate policy incentives to those food systems, which are sustainable.
Sustainability addresses climate change adaptation and mitigation concerns as well, and goes well beyond, it provides adequate responses to a number of other environmental challenges (biodiversity loss, soil degradation) and to social issues as well, like rural employment.
The VGs are expected to provide assistance for the transformation of food systems and to make them more sustainable, in order to eliminate hunger and all forms of malnutrition and to supply fresh, diverse, nutritious food for a healthy diet for all.
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All comments [ 20 ]
To successfully achieve a transformation in food systems under climate change, we need to go beyond business-as-usual.
Agricultural development can be slow and uneven, often not reaching the people who are most vulnerable and in pockets of deep, entrenched poverty.
It is further hindered by climate change, which disproportionally affects agriculture and threatens the achievement of SDG targets on food security and poverty.
In order to achieve food security, increase productivity, alleviate poverty among rural communities, build resilience to climate change and other stresses, and reduce agricultural emissions, a complete transformation in agriculture is needed over the next decade, going beyond business as usual and piecemeal short-term projects.
Collective actions by farmers and consumers are key to driving transformational change in food systems.
actions are needed to create conducive enabling environments that encourage producers, business owners, researchers, investors and policy makers to innovate in ways that promote gender equality and opportunities for youth.
Agriculture is behind many sectors in the application of information and communication tools.
Technologies and practices which enhance resilience and enable farmers to take low emissions development pathways are crucial
Food system is dendritic cluster of value chains: R&D; farm inputs; farm output to midstream/downstream; inputs to latter.
African, Asian, and Latin American food systems transformed fast in past two decades with “modern” and “quiet” revolutions.
Technology innovations and R&D systems are important to the transformation of food systems, for farms and off-farm segments.
Transformation brings incomes to farmers and lower food prices to consumers, but also exclusion, climate, energy challenges.
Developing regions' food system has transformed rapidly in the past several decades.
We analyze the transformation in terms of these value chains' structure and conduct, and the effects of changes in those on its performance in terms of impacts on consumers and farmers, as well as the efficiency of and waste in the overall chain.
We highlight the role of, and implications for agricultural research, viewed broadly as farm technology as well as research pertaining to all aspects of input and output value chains.
Food has been a life force for our families, cultures, and societies for millenia. But profound changes in the way food is grown, processed, distributed, and wasted over the last several decades have led to increasing threats to a future of food
We need to do things differently.
There are many actors who have developed visions for the future of food we both want and need, but often these visions relate to particular regions, parts of the value chain, issues, or sectoral interests.
This is a phased, generative project which will initially provide critical input to the work of the Global Alliance, and has the potential to serve as a tool for others working towards addressing critical issues that relate to the future of food.
sustainable, secure, and equitable, particularly when coupled with climate change and shifting global economics, politics, and demographics.
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