The second half of 2021 offers the possibility of a bold and transformative change with decision makers from around the world ready to meet in a series of high-level meetings. From the UN Food Systems Summit (United Nations) (UNFSS) in September 2021 to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, governments can make decisions this year to transform food systems, learning from the COVID-19 experience and acting to truly protect human, animal and planetary health.
According to the 2020 report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, aligning the global recovery from COVID-19 with action on climate could not only improve public health, but also create a sustainable economy and protect the environment.
The pandemic has also highlighted the complex interdependence of ecological, animal and human health that is often overlooked in regular conversations about food system practices. Systematically address the Interconnected health risks of food systems. First, you need to recognize these key connections, as well as the flaws in the current system, which focuses on the amount of food and calories produced while maximizing the yield of individual crops. This primary focus on the productivity of individual crops, often for export, has come at the expense of worker health, environmental health, consumer health, affordable access to nutritious and diverse foods, and food security.
So strong leadership is needed at the policy level to mobilize and facilitate integrated and inclusive reform. The United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (COP15), COP26 and UNFSS, all scheduled for later in 2021, are opportunities for decision makers to do just that by engaging and creating the conditions for reforms that will transform production. , distribution and disposal of food. Achieving this also requires policymakers to adopt a more integrated approach to problem solving that is informed by “levers of change”: vision and leadership, governance, fiscal influences, knowledge and education, research and innovation, and collaboration. .
These levers of change are mentioned in an October 2020 report published by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, where I lead the Climate and Health program. The Global Alliance is a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working together and with others to transform global food systems now and for future generations. We are not a donor. Our unique contribution is to work together and with others to strengthen the evidence for global systems change, convene food system actors in meaningful dialogue, and stimulate local and global action for transformational change. Our members work on a variety of issues, from women’s empowerment in West Africa to large-scale supply chains outside of South America, to address the root causes of climate change.
Examples from the UK and Germany
Several initiatives around the world have already shown how this approach can help address many determinants of health at once and produce more positive and sustainable results. Peas please a UK-wide initiative (see page 19) led by the Food Foundation, is an example. Its goal is to drive an increase in vegetable consumption that then improves nutrition and reduces diet-related illnesses, as well as improving “green health” by promoting a more plant-based diet that has less environmental impact.
The Peas Please initiative uses a flexible “Commitment Framework” in which participating organizations establish specific and relevant commitments for the sector; for example, retailers set marketing and sales goals while public sector organizations strive for political action. So far, 96 organizations, from retailers to contracting catering services, have made commitments. Multimedia advertising, co-created with input from food companies, has been launched to promote vegetable consumption, while a new business alliance for UK fruit and vegetable growers was established to facilitate collective action. The initiative also strives to leverage existing partnerships across the city and, with more than 20 cities and local areas already enrolled in this campaign, this has led to committed organizations selling or serving an additional 90 million servings of vegetables.
Another success story comes from Germany, where the “Organic Farming Strategy – Looking Ahead” aims for 20 percent of the country’s farmland to be organically cultivated by 2030. This goal (see page 7) is part of the Sustainability Strategy of the Federal Republic to take advantage of existing government support for organic agriculture and accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable and healthy food system.
The strategy is supported by a five-component support package that includes financial support for farmers, as well as research and development. Payments to farmers for the introduction and maintenance of organic agriculture are financed by public funds from the European Union and the federal (national) government of Germany and the federal states, while a transfer program has been designed and implemented. knowledge and advanced training. Thousands of research projects have been funded through this support package, while recent figures suggest that average incomes from organic test farms exceeded incomes from conventional reference farms by about 36 percent, and the Estimated amount in organic food sales increased by almost 10 percent to € 11.97 billion in 2019.
Shifting our focus to health and food systems crises
These successes highlight how a systems thinking approach can successfully tackle multiple issues at once and bring a variety of industries and stakeholders together. Policymakers, in particular, have the opportunity to show real leadership, change the narrative about what is possible, and ultimately do more to connect the dots between health crises and the transformation of food systems, as described in “Systemic Solutions for Healthy Food Systems: A Guide for Government Action” and the who [World Health Organization] Manifesto for a healthy recovery from COVID-19: recipes and actions for a healthy and ecological recovery. In recovering from the disruption of the pandemic, governments can also play a central role in facilitating collaboration among stakeholders, providing financial incentives to food producers, and establishing tighter governance to create more sustainable and resilient food systems for food. future.
On June 4, 2021, the WHO, EAT and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food hosted a webinar entitled “Healthy Food Systems: For People, Planet and Prosperity”. In this session, experts from across the health and food communities explored how a new narrative on healthy food systems, which is already being used, can be used to stimulate action and drive decision makers to make commitments, from policies to investments that improve health. results for people, animals and the planet.
Related reading:
“Systemic Solutions for Healthy Food Systems: A Guide for Government Action”, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, October 2020.
Systemic Solutions for Healthy Food Systems: Policy and Practice Approaches, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, October 2020.
“Food Systems Transformation: Promoting Human, Ecological, and Animal Health and Well-being: A Shared Vision and Narrative” Global Alliance for the Future of Food, July 2020.
Unraveling the Food-Health Nexus: Addressing Practices, Political Economy, and Power Relations to Build Healthier Food Systems, Global Alliance for the Future of Food and iPES-Food (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems), 2017.
“Climate change and health: recently funded projects”, by Lee L. Prina, GrantWatch section, December 2020 issue, Health matters.
Table of Contents, thematic issue on Climate and Health, December 2020, Health matters.