How do two major reports with different emphases on the relationship between nutrition and agriculture challenge our daily practices and current policies? This was the central question put forward by moderator Jeroen Rijniers at the June 4 launch at The Hague of IFPRI’s 2019 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) and the EAT-Lancet Commission 2019 Food in the Anthropocene report.
The event, co-organized by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IFPRI, included report presentations followed by a panel discussion with an audience from the private sector, knowledge institutes, government, and civil society organizations. The reports share a sense of urgency to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and the need to go beyond business as usual to make the necessary changes on a global scale.
From agriculture to nutrition
This year’s GFPR brings rural revitalization to the forefront as its central topic. “We are still facing hunger and malnutrition. Despite the tremendous progress that we have made, hunger is actually on the rise for the last three years, while malnutrition persists,” said IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan. Rural areas in particular are facing crises related to hunger, malnutrition, poverty, employment and environment, Fan said. To address these challenges, disparities between rural and urban must decrease.
IFPRI’s report defines several building blocks to revitalize rural areas: Connectivity between rural and urban areas, gender equity and women’s empowerment, restoration of the environment, access to energy, and finally governance as the key building block. Food systems are a vital aspect of this strategy. Fan emphasized that healthy diets are important as part of a sustainable food system: “What you eat really matters for your health, but it also matters for your environment.” He stressed the need for a diverse diet and argued that rural residents can help in establishing food system with greater dietary diversity.
From nutrition to agriculture
EAT Forum Science Director Fabrice DeClerck shared the results of the EAT-Lancet report by stating that we have to create a food system that reaches two dimensions of health—human and environmental. “The objective of the report is about recognizing the extent to which our actions on the production side and those on the consumption side are completely interlinked,” he said.
The report provides guidelines for creating better alignment between both sides. To do that, food systems and food policy have to situate themselves within a safe space between dietary and environmental boundaries. One key recommendation in the EAT-Lancet report is that the consumption of fruits, nuts and legumes should increase by 75%-150% by 2050 as a contribution to healthy diets.
Although the recommendations for diet and nutrition are challenging, they still offer flexibility regarding individual dietary preferences and requirements, noting there are 10,000-30,000 edible plant species and varieties whose consumption can increase. The EAT-Lancet Commission also sets specific environmental targets to ensure that increases in food production necessary to feed the global population in 2050 remains is environmentally sustainable, DeClerck said. Shifting diets to healthy food, reducing food waste and loss, and sustainable increases in productivity in combination should guide the transformation of our food system. The modeling work in the report demonstrates that these three interventions in unison can ensure healthy diets within environmental limits by 2050.
How to make food systems move in the right direction?
So, what do the different perspectives of the two reports say about the most effective approach to food system transformation? Ruerd Ruben of Wageningen University and Research opened the panel session saying that while he sees complementarity in the reports, there are also tensions and tradeoffs between the objectives—which can be overcome through appropriate action. One tension is the difficulty to combine a healthy with a sustainable diet. Any strategy to balance these two dimensions should work through the entire food chain, and ensure farmers and women play a key role in the transition.
Another tension mentioned by Micronutrient Forum Director Saskia Osendarp, representing the Netherlands Working Group on international Nutrition, is that the global malnutrition problem is extremely complex. It is great that the reports reflect a sensitivity to a diversity in dietary needs, she said, and keeping this flexibility will be crucial in the transformation to a more sustainable food system. Technological advancements and targeted interventions could play an important role in dealing with part of these complexities, she said, but more research is required to find new solutions and better adoption of existing technologies.
Mackenzie Masaki of the Netherlands African Business Council (NABC) noted another aspect of food system transformation: ”We should not forget that for some countries producing enough is still more important than producing nutritious food.” This related to the points raised by Annelies Zoomers of Utrecht University, who said she was happy to see the focus on rural development. The starting point should be a landscape approach with the engagement and understanding of local people taking priority, Zoomers said.
Different roles to move forward?
When it comes to identifying the role different actors should take in food system transformation, most conversation during the event was focused on the role of the government and the private sector. While government should work towards strengthening a regulatory environment, the private sector is a crucial actor to deliver the food. To enable people to make healthy choices, there is still much more to be done by various actors, not only these two. Ruerd Ruben highlighted the key role of a food environment, which should be affordable in terms of purchasing power, information and accessibility. The discussion that followed stressed the importance of taking local reality as a starting point in the development of policies and interventions.
A common agenda
In his closing statement, Paul van de Logt, head of the ministry’s Food and Nutrition Security Team, reflected on the influence of these reports on Dutch global food security policies. They provide a comprehensive international agenda, he noted, which helps structure Dutch efforts and brings the right people together. “Understanding the complexity is important, in order to understand how different elements of the food system come together,” he said. “This is a basis to define how we can work together in an overall common agenda to overcome some of the tensions that are mentioned today.”
Marielle Karssenberg is a Junior Policy Officer for Food and Nutrition Security at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This post first appeared on the Food & Business Knowledge Platform.
