FAO Liaison Office for North America and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to host a roundtable discussion on, “Transforming Food Systems to Support Nutritious Diets” on Tuesday, April 17th 2018 at 9.00-10.30 EDT.
At the end of 2016, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition produced a formative report titled, Food systems and diets: Facing the challenges of the 21st century. That report emphasized that nearly three billion people across the globe now have low-quality diets. Nearly one quarter of all children under five years of age are stunted, more than two billion people have insufficient micronutrients and the incidence of overweight and obesity is growing in every region. As a result, many economies are seriously underperforming, and diet-related chronic diseases are placing ever-greater demands on health care systems. In fact, low quality diets, are the number one risk factor for the entire global burden of disease.
The quality of people’s diets depends on food systems—that is, the actors and relationships that govern every decision between what is grown and what is eaten. These food systems shape the demand, availability, affordability and desirability of safe nutritious foods. Instead of contributing to the nutrition problem, food systems need to become a much bigger part of the nutrition solution.