Accra, Oct. 15, GNA – Aside from air, two most crucial things of sustenance of man are food and water. Our health and well-being depend on the availability of and access to nutritious foods.
How we participate in these systems on a daily basis, our choices, and actions, impact them.
World Food Day 2021, which is today, raises the awareness of the need for supporting the transformation to a more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.
It calls for action across sectors to ensure that our agri-food systems deliver enough affordable, nutritious and safe food for all.
For two years in a row, the World Food Day is being celebrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, whose effects disrupted agri-food systems and triggered an unprecedented global economic recession resulting in a dramatic loss of livelihoods and incomes and increased food insecurity and inequality.
The agri-food system covers the journey of food from farm to table – including when it is grown, harvested, processed, packaged, transported, distributed, traded, bought, prepared, eaten and disposed.
It also encompasses non-food products (for example forestry and biofuels) that also constitute livelihoods and all of the people as well as the activities, investments and choices that play a part in getting us food and agricultural products.
An agri-food system is a complex term that may seem far from your reality, but our lives depend on them. Every time one eats, he or she participate in the system. The food we choose and the way we produce, prepare, cook and store, makes us an integral and active part of the way in which an agri-food system works.
A sustainable agri-food system is one in which varieties of sufficient, nutritious and safe foods are available at affordable prices to everyone, and nobody is hungry or suffers from any form of malnutrition.
The shelves are stocked at the local market or food store, but less food is wasted and the food supply chain is more resilient to shocks such as extreme weather, price spikes or pandemics, all while limiting, rather than worsening, environmental degradation or climate change.
In fact, sustainable agri-food systems deliver food security and nutrition for all, without compromising the economic, social and environmental basis, for generations to come. They lead to better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.
Governments must do more to secure healthy diets. For example, they can lower taxes on nutritious foods, repurpose incentives towards high-value commodities, improve access to markets and offer training, incentives, including cash transfers, and technologies to farmers to encourage them to grow nutritious foods with sustainable and planet-friendly methods.
Food supply chain workers also need nutrition-sensitive social safety nets to be more resilient. Governments can promote equitable food trade measures, avoiding protectionism and promoting the comparative advantages of all countries.
Consumers with access to nutritious foods can help to increase demand by making healthy and sustainable food choices. The private sector can also invest in sustainable healthy diets.
GNA