Global health bodies call for global food system overhaul to address both stunting and obesity

23 Jul 2019 --- To promote healthier and more sustainable urban diets and food systems to tackle overweight and obesity, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has inaugurated the World Sustainable Urban Food Centre (CEMAS). The new center is a joint initiative of FAO and the city of Valencia, Spain, to strengthen, advise and coordinate cities around the world in the management and exchange of knowledge on sustainable, local food systems. The move coincides with a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which highlights how food systems need to be overhauled in order to tackle malnutrition.

The IFPRI study is one of the first to document that the affordability of both healthy and unhealthy foods varies significantly and systematically around the world. CEMAS also hopes to offer help along these lines. In addition, CEMAS will carry out dissemination and public awareness activities about issues related to food, nutrition, the fight against hunger, climate change and food systems.

In the IFPTI study, the researchers used national price data for 657 standardized food products in 176 countries collected under the International Comparison Program (ICP), to measure how costly it is to diversify diets away from traditional calorie-dense staple foods such as bread, corn or rice. The study shows that a higher price per calorie of a food predicts lower consumption of that food. It also explores how those price differences might explain international differences in child stunting and adult obesity.

The study finds marked variations in the affordability of both healthy and unhealthy foods across different regions of the world, and at differing levels of development. In the world’s poorest countries, healthy foods were often extremely expensive. This is especially true of nutrient-dense, animal-sourced foods, which are widely known to be effective in reducing stunting. Eggs and fresh milk, for example, are often ten times as expensive as starchy staples. Another healthy food for children, specialized infant cereals fortified with a wide range of extra nutrients, are sometimes 30 times as expensive as the nutrient-sparse traditional cereals more commonly fed to infants.

Inauguration of the World Center for Sustainable Food Systems (CEMAS) in Valencia, Spain.“There are already more obese people than hungry people in the world. People are increasingly eating badly and the main reason is that current food systems encourage the consumption of ultra-processed foods, which are high in salt, sugar, saturated fats and artificial ingredients,” says FAO Director General, José Graziano da Silva, warning of the rising obesity “pandemic” in five continents.

This type of food, da Silva says, is cheaper, more accessible and easier to prepare than fresh food, particularly for the suburban and rural population. “In general, when resources are scarce, people choose less expensive foods, which are usually very caloric but not very nutritious,” he adds.

The IFPRI study also suggests that relative price differences help explain international differences in dietary patterns, child stunting and overweight prevalence among adults.

While the causes of poor diets are complex, the affordability of more nutritious foods is an important factor, the researchers say. 

“Our research shows that most healthy foods are substantially more expensive in poorer countries,” says Derek Headey, IFPRI Senior Research Fellow and study co-author. “But while healthier foods become cheaper over the course of development, so do unhealthy processed foods, like soft drinks.”

Da Silva stressed that processed foods also fare better in international markets. “This particularly affects the population of countries that must import most of the food, as in the case of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and some countries in Africa,” he notes. “That is the reason behind the high obesity rates in the Caribbean and Pacific islands, where the average is 60 and 70 percent, respectively.”

Supporting local circuits of food production
Da Silva calls for an “urgent transformation” of food systems to ensure that they offer healthy and nutritious food for all, while preserving natural resources and biodiversity. “We need to integrate actions and create local circuits of production and consumption. There are many issues that condition local production, such as laws, research and academic centers and we have to approach everything. The transformation must be integral,” he says.

“Cities play a fundamental role. There are many effective measures to combat obesity, but the most fundamental is that fresh and healthy foods are available for the consumption of their citizens,” he adds.

At a time of rapid urbanization, cities are important agents of change in terms of policies aimed at providing access to healthy food.Da Silva also stressed that local administrations “can and should promote proximity markets” so that the healthiest option, which is fresh food, is also the “most accessible to consumers.”

The IFPRI researchers also note that policymakers have several tools available to help make nutrient-rich foods relatively more affordable, including nutrition-sensitive agricultural investments that could make healthy foods cheaper, as well as taxation and regulation efforts – such as food labeling – to curb consumption of unhealthy foods.

At a time of rapid urbanization, he explains, cities are becoming increasingly important agents of change in terms of policies and measures aimed at providing access to healthy food.

“We know that there is a close relationship between local production of family farmers and good nutrition. It is no coincidence that the UN Decade of Family Farming and the Decade of Action on Nutrition are being implemented at the same time,” Da Silva highlights. That is why it is important to offer family farmers better access to services, infrastructure and markets.

“We must also create the conditions for city dwellers to consume more fresh and nutritious food, based on short food chains as well as urban and peri-urban agriculture,” he adds.

In his speech, the Director General referred to the data released in the latest report of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019, which warns that more than 820 million people continue to suffer from hunger in the world. “I hope that in the next few years we can make more progress because the goal of Zero Hunger is still possible. We can do it,” he concluded.

Edited by Kristiana Lalou