Better together: improving food security and nutrition by linking market and food systems

Abstract Remarkable successes and new challenges to cope with requirements for food and water are analyzed. Trends in demography, food preferences and consumer habits are scrutinized together with their implications for human well-being and natural resources. Making best use of variable and limited water resources presumes proper management and efficient technologies, but also a worthwhile use of goods and services produced, for example, food. Reduction of food losses and waste, and reversing trends in overweight and obesity promise significant water savings. Transformations of food systems in this direction provide opportunities to meet human nutrient and food requirements in a resource-effective manner. In line with the principle of the Sustainable Development Goals, ‘no-one should be left behind’, governments, producers and consumers must be involved in efforts to ensure food security and nutrition. Naturally, farmers are major actors in food systems. The business community is showing a commitment to contribute to food security and nutrition and to reduce water risks. Consumers are dynamic drivers as well as beneficiaries, victims and culprits in water and food systems and need to internalize resource-use efficiency in their behavior, for example, by reducing food waste and aiming for better nutrition and sustainable diets.

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Resilience of Community Food Systems (CFS): Co-Design as a Long-Term Viable Pathway to Face Crises in Neglected Territories?

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods10030521 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 521

Author(s):

Ana Paula Dias Turetta ◽

Michelle Bonatti ◽

Stefan Sieber

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Low Income ◽

Crucial Role ◽

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Community Food Systems ◽

Food Security And Nutrition

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a global crisis, with impacts an ongoing food security and nutrition, exposing the vulnerabilities of our society. However, it can be a time for reflection and an opportunity to propose and stimulate initiatives that are ready to facilitate resilience within the food system. The food to fork must be shortened and diversified where it is viable and feasible, while made affordable for all societal levels. To face these challengers, the community food systems (CFS) approach has a crucial role, since it copes with relevant principles, including the necessities of low-income societies from areas particularly marginalized from mainstream food systems, of which those land areas also can pose as additional insurance just in case of occurrence of whatever crises. Systematizing the components and contributions of CFS can facilitate the advance of strategies to better deal with crises and increase resilience. Therefore, in this paper, through key elements of CFS, we propose a theoretical framework that can be applied by decision makers as a conceptual guide for combating threats to food systems in neglected territories.

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The Future of Food Security, Nutrition and Health for Agri-food Systems Transformation

10.31235/osf.io/qgn9u ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chin Yee Chan ◽

Steven Prager ◽

Jean Balie ◽

Marta Kozicka ◽

Guy Hareau ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Nutrition And Health ◽

Adverse Health Outcomes ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Multiple Risks ◽

Food Security And Nutrition ◽

Systems Transformation ◽

Inform Decision Making

Global progress towards food security and nutrition has been slow in many places and even reversing in others. Against the background of changes in population, income, technology, climate, and other drivers, the pressures on food systems are daunting. When designing and rolling out future interventions towards these goals it is of vital importance to utilize foresight knowledge to anticipate, shape, and prepare for alternative possible futures. Overcoming current and emerging challenges but also seizing opportunities as they present themselves requires continued efforts to provide robust analysis to inform decision making. Here we collated the latest insights from foresight studies around three central aspects within the food system. First, consumer demand and the changes this is undergoing is a key aspect shaping the food system itself as well as nutritional and environmental outcomes. Second, distributional inequalities and trade-offs within the food system have further been identified as key challenges to tackling adverse health outcomes of the current food system. And third, amplified by the COVID crisis, enhancing the resilience of the food system that is increasingly under threat from multiple risks has risen to the top of the agenda.

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From Food Security to Nutrition Security for All

10.1093/oso/9780198755173.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 196-283

Author(s):

Uma Lele ◽

Sambuddha Goswami

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Systems ◽

Public Health Problem ◽

Transformative Change ◽

Global Public Health ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Food Security And Nutrition ◽

Zero Hunger ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

Malnutrition, in all its forms, is a critical global public health problem. Food production and consumption patterns are also the largest challenges to planetary boundaries. Transformative change is needed in research, information and outreach, political commitment, and financial and institutional capacity to achieve sustainable and equitable food systems. Change, to date, has been incremental, not transformative; however, it is essential to significantly improve outcomes, an issue which will be a central theme of the United Nations’ Food Systems Summit 2021 and the intensive discussions leading up to it. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have powered the recent food security and nutrition discourse. And yet, SDG2 (zero hunger) is not broad enough; it does not pay enough attention to the growing incidence of obesity, as do the World Health Assembly targets for 2025. Furthermore, the interrelationships of the sub-targets of SDG2 are anything but straightforward. Growth in agricultural productivity does not necessarily increase incomes of small farmers, and productivity growth does not always assure improved nutrition. Increased income does not necessarily lead to improved nutrition. This also applies to the relationship of SDG2 to several other of the 16 SDGs. Increasingly, the concept of multidimensional poverty (MDP) has received attention in explaining food security and nutrition. MDP is substantially higher than income poverty, particularly among children. In addition, the chapter examines the relationship of gender inequality and nutrition, gender and obesity, nutrition transition, and the roles of changing lifestyles, food systems, and modern food chains.

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