The risk that poor diets pose to mortality and morbidity is now greater than the combined risks of unsafe sex, alcohol, drug and tobacco use, at a cost equivalent to a global financial crisis every year
These apocalyptic figures come from an authoritative new report from the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition. The Panel is a group of international experts which includes, from the UK, Sir John Beddington, professor of resource management at Oxford University and formerly the UK Government's Chief Scientific Officer. The fact that this august body sees a need for a panel on food 'for nutrition' is telling in itself.
The report finds that three billion people from 193 countries now have low quality diets, and nearly half of all countries are experiencing the simultaneous problems of serious levels of undernutrition, overweight and obesity. Projecting current trends to 2030, nearly half of the world’s adult population will be overweight or obese.
A key message of the report is that the problem is not 'just' poverty or scarcity. It shows that while income growth can help to alleviate hunger, it does not guarantee accessibility to healthier, quality diets. Although many people today have better diets than before, the intake of foods that undermine diet quality has increased even faster. Action is needed to ensure that the food infrastructure being developed today -- governing what is grown, how it is processed and how it is sold -- prioritises the nutritional needs of the world's population.
'Our food systems are failing us,' said Lawrence Haddad, another report author. 'The foods that are produced, [that] are affordable and are chosen have been changing fast and will continue to do so. Now is the time to take action to ensure that food systems and nutrition are helping to fuel development — not hold it back.
Read the report, Food systems and diets: Facing the challenges of the 21st century, here.
Find out more about Sustain's campaign work for a greener, fairer food system here.
Published Friday 30 September 2016
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
