The food system is not a business and it has no CEO. Yet the facts stand for themselves: the food system is unequal, unsustainable, unstable, and in need of transformation. And it needs everyone – all stakeholders – to take action.
Work is being done. Multilateral agencies and international organizations; governments at all levels; businesses and entrepreneurs; philanthropists; farmers; communities and citizens. They are cutting carbon emissions and waste, improving the nutritional value of food, innovating at the farm level, developing city-level food policies, and transforming local food through citizen action.
But this uneasy combination of success – the well-fed populations, the choices available, the awe-inspiring technology – with failure – the hungry, the diseased, the polluted, the degraded, the overweight, an overheated planet, and a workforce too poor to feed itself – means we all need to do more to change it, fundamentally, for a more equitable future.
People get sick because they work under unhealthy conditions.
People get sick because of contaminants in the water, soil, or air.
People get sick because specific foods they eat are unsafe for consumption.
People get sick because they have unhealthy diets.
People get sick because they can’t access adequate, acceptable food at all times.
A recent report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems identifies these five mechanisms whereby the current food system makes people sick.
The report calls for a reform of the food and farming systems to be made on the grounds of protecting human health. Many of the most severe health are caused by core industrial food and farming practices, such as chemical-intensive agriculture; intensive livestock production and the mass production and mass marketing of ultra-processed foods. They are in turn stimulated by the deregulated global trade.
From farm to fork
What is it that we need to do?
The first thing is to radically change the way we think and act on food. It’s no longer good enough to think that food is someone else’s business or just to do our bit in isolation: we need to recognize that all our work affects food and figure out how to make changes in a connected way. This means recognizing that food is part of a “system.” Once we start to see food as an interconnected system, from farm to fork, gate to plate, boat to throat, we begin to see how we all influence it in some way, and indeed, we are all affected by it.
Second, let’s see food as a solution. Food can help nourish people and planet, provide decent jobs, and provide enjoyment and happiness in our daily lives. A well-functioning food system provides a range of public benefits from public health to the state of the environment, the economy and society. Let’s work harder to find solutions that recognise the interconnections in the system where we can achieve the greatest possible impact.
We also need a clear set of metrics to measure how well we are all doing in effecting change. It’s not just about economic efficiency anymore, but about measuring how effectively and efficiently the system can work together to produce health, environmental sustainability and social inclusion. As they say, what gets measured gets done.
Third, to get this done, we must allocate our financial resources differently. Companies, governments, development agencies, philanthropists and citizens alike. Are we putting our money into the most nutritious foods that contribute to a healthy diet? Are we using our tax dollars to support the people who produce nutritious food in ways that support resilient ecosystems? Are our investments maximising healthy diets while also enabling profitable business?
Let’s explore how we can all spend and invest to align these goals, rather than pitching them against each other. There will be some tough compromises that need to be made. There will be hard questions about who has power and who makes profit. But this is part of food systems leadership: we either have the courage to think and act differently, or we don’t.
Source: World Economic Forum