National food strategies and food policy reform

National food strategies, sponsored by the World Food Council, are intended to produce policy blueprints for improving food production in poor countries. International experience with agricultural development discloses wide agreement on national and local policy specifics which should have priority. However, the absence of research into the political attitudes and processes which foster consensus on goals and the reconciliation of competing desirable policies, eg short term v long term, equity v efficiency, may impede the desired policy reform.     

Opening the black box of food waste reduction

Surplus food management plays a key role in food waste reduction. This paper addresses the multifaceted concept of food supply chain sustainability by presenting a model of surplus food generation and management (called ASRW, Availability-Surplus-Recoverability-Waste), which encompasses the integrated food supply chain (i.e. business, environmental and social players). The model was developed using a bottom-up approach, by conducting 30 exploratory case studies and iterating theory development and data analysis. Three confirmatory case studies, from different food supply chain stages, are also presented to demonstrate how the model can be used to identify food waste reduction strategies.     

Changing food patterns in West Africa: Implications for policy research

West African consumption of wheat and rice is growing rapidly despite technological barriers to production of these cereals in the region. Soaring imports are of particular concern in view of likely consumption trends. Maize imports are also growing rapidly, as is production in the more humid countries, to the detriment of sorghum. The latter is performing relatively better in the drier countries. Possible factors underlying consumption shifts are discussed, including price policies at variance with stated objectives. Possible policies to slow down these shifts are discussed, along with research requirements for effective diagnosis and implementation.     

The impacts of value chain upgrading on the export of processed food

Upgrading in global value chains (GVCs) is an important path for developing countries to move along to capture higher benefits. Several qualitative studies of GVCs have identified two main upgrading types: economic (product, process, functional, and inter-sectoral) and social upgrading. The upgrading concept is widespread in productive sectors such as processed food, which has become a key export for developing countries. However, they have confronted multiple product standards required by global buyers. This study uses a case study of Thailand’s processed food exports (TPFEs). Although Thailand is a leading exporter of processed food, the country needs to upgrade in many areas related to production to meet global product standards and requirements. If Thailand fails to comply with global product standards, it will lose its export competitiveness. This study uses a gravity model to evaluate the impact of economic and social upgrading (EUP and SUP) on TPFEs. Our results show that upgrading types are significant in TPFEs, particularly for exports to developed countries. Process upgrading has a negative impact on TPFEs because of increased production costs to comply with product standards. However, process upgrading can lead to increased producers’ and exporters’ knowledge about how to comply with international standards. Consequently, process upgrading exhibits a lagged positive effect on TPFEs.     

The potential of diversified agroecological systems to deliver healthy outcomes: Making the link between agriculture,food systems & health

In 2014, the Rome Declaration on Nutrition recognized food system sustainability as a key condition to ensure adequate nutrition and access to healthy diets for all. Five years later, the evidence has never been more clear: despite a series of positive outcomes, our current food systems have increasingly generated severe environmental, social, and health-related costs. Many of the most severe health impacts of food systems can be traced back to the core practices of industrial food and farming systems (e.g. input-intensive agriculture; intensive livestock production; mass marketing of highly processed foods; deregulated global commodity chains). Yet alternatives exist.This article provides an overview of the key impacts generated by current food systems on human and environmental health, with an emphasis on their effects in the region of Europe and Central Asia. It then brings together evidence on how diversified agroecological systems can play a key role in meeting health and nutrition goals, while also addressing the environmental, social, and economic challenges created by current systems. Ultimately, the article sheds light on how to break away from the underlying drivers keeping current systems in place, and suggests how more diversified systems can effectively be promoted through systemic, multi-sector, and integrated policy approaches to ensure healthy diets for all.     

The right to food in historical perspective

The right to food is the most fundamental of economic rights. The author disagrees with pessimists who claim that economic rights will never be ensured due to opposition from those who take advantage of the status quo, and believes that social transformations can occur, as history has shown. After outlining the historical background to the right to food, he identifies processes of deprivation in the 1980s, such as the impact of pricing policies, and food insecurity among the urban poor. Finally he outlines some recommendations to Third World governments seeking to ensure the right of food to its peoples.     

The evolution of food aid : Towards a development first regime

The purpose of food aid has evolved over the past 30 years, shifting from surplus disposal to a ‘development first’ regime. This shift was accelerated by the World Food Conference, but even 10 years after the conference it is yet to be completed. There are inherent tensions between the older and new design principles. The author proposes a more coherent set of governing principles and norms.     

Factors associated with the healthfulness of food shelf orders

Food shelves are placing increased emphasis on the healthfulness of the food they offer to clients. This paper presents an analysis of foods ordered from food banks by 110 food shelves in Minnesota and western Wisconsin in 2013. We examine whether and how food shelves’ Healthy Eating Index scores for ordered food are associated with food shelf size and sourcing patterns, food bank providers, food shelf policies, food shelf manager characteristics, client characteristics and community-level demographics. We find a significant positive relationship between annual order quantity and the HEI-2010 score for ordered food. We also find strong associations between characteristics of the person placing food bank orders and the healthfulness of food ordered, which suggest that training programs designed to improve these individuals’ skills and motivation for ordering a healthy assortment of foods may have an important impact. Finally, while the age structure of clients served does have a significant relationship with HEI-2010 scores, it is noteworthy that the ethnic profile of clients served by a food shelf does not have a strong relationship with the healthfulness of food ordered. This suggests that food shelves can respond successfully to wide variations in culturally based food preferences.     

Prospects for food demand and supply in Central Asia

Central Asia has experienced massive economic and social shocks during the past decade following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. Demand for cereals, particularly for staple cereals and meats, has fallen significantly even as production and productivity have plummeted. Although agricultural reforms were launched in 1991, the performance of the agricultural sector has been weak across the region. Prospects for food security in Central Asia appear mixed. Projections indicate that a growing and urbanizing population in Central Asia with rising incomes will increase demand for cereals by 32% between 1995 and 2020 to reach 24 million tons, and for meat by 47% to reach 2.9 million tons. Improvements in crop productivity will be essential to meet the increases in demand projected for the region. Cereal production is forecast to keep pace with demand such that Central Asia will be virtually self-sufficient in cereals. However, national food self-sufficiency or food security does not necessarily translate into household or individual food security. Moreover, self-sufficiency comes with a high price-tag of opportunities foregone and inappropriate use made of resources. Given the growing enthusiasm for food self-sufficiency in Central Asia, it is imperative that research be undertaken to assess the full costs and benefits of such a policy.     

Disaggregating food consumption parameters : Designing targeted nutritional interventions

This article is concerned with a new nutritional intervention strategy, which is based on the belief that malnourished people eat different types of food to the well-nourished. The calculation of disaggregated food consumption parameters can identify ‘inferior’ food commodities; and the subsidization of these commodities will target intervention to those most in need. The effectiveness of this policy depends on the understanding of its theoretical basis. The author introduces the policy maker to this by reviewing the theoretical basis for consumption analysis, and then several key studies.     

Solving Africa's food problem

It has been predicted that the most difficult food problems in the world during the next decade will occur in the African continent as a whole and particularly in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. This article looks at the common characteristics of and differences between African countries, economy, socio-political conditions, agriculture and agricultural policies. Major problems of low agricultural production, increasing levels of poverty and high levels of food dependence are discussed, and policies to alleviate them put forward.     

The economics and nutritional impacts of food assistance policies and programs

Recent evidence on malnutrition and poverty raise important questions on the role of food assistance policies and programs. In this review article, we examine evidence on the economic and nutritional impacts of international food assistance programs (FAPs) and policies. The returns on investments in FAPs are, on average, high but depend considerably on the targeting and cost structures as well as on food quality and role of complementary activities. We disaggregate findings into four classes of recipients. Returns to FAPs are highest for children under two. But, FAPs oriented towards early childhood interventions are less well funded than are interventions aimed at school-age children or at the broader, largely adult population even though available evidence indicates that these latter classes of interventions offer considerably lower average returns in economic, health, and nutrition terms. Nonetheless, FAP effectiveness in achieving any of several objectives varies with a range of key factors, including targeting, additionality, seasonality, timeliness, incentive effects, social acceptability and political economy considerations.     

Validating the usage of household food acquisition surveys to assess the consumption of ultra-processed foods: Evidence from Brazil

Our ability to research dietary changes over time and their effects on health is limited by challenges in accurately measuring food consumption. In countries where dietary surveys are scarce and rarely nationally representative, household budget surveys may serve as a useful alternative for assessing food consumption. The objective of this study was to evaluate how well household acquisition data reflects the actual intake of ultra-processed foods, using data from the 2008 to 2009 Brazilian Household Budget Survey. The food acquisition module was conducted for all households selected for the survey (n = 55,970) and a subsample corresponding to 25% of the households (n = 13,569) was randomly selected for the individual food intake module, which was conducted for all individuals aged 10 years or older (n = 34,003). Ultra-processed foods were defined as formulations made by the food industry mostly or entirely from substances extracted from foods or obtained with the further processing of constituents of foods or through chemical synthesis, with little if any whole food. Examples included candies, cookies, chips, sugar-sweetened beverages, and ready-to-eat dishes. Our results showed an important agreement between the estimates of ultra-processed food consumption obtained from household acquisition data and individual intake inside-the-home data, particularly for the relative (% of total energy) consumption of these foods. Our study thus indicates that household budget surveys are quite promising for tracking population-level changes in the consumption of ultra-processed foods. The trend toward increased consumption of food away from home in other low- and middle-income countries indicates that future household budget surveys should include the collection of these data.     

Local food,food miles and carbon emissions: A comparison of farm shop and mass distribution approaches

This paper provides a critical commentary on the conception of food miles followed by an empirical application of food miles to two contrasting food distribution systems based on carbon emissions accounting within these systems. The comparison is between the carbon emissions resultant from operating a large-scale vegetable box system and those from a supply system where the customer travels to a local farm shop. The study is based on fuel and energy use data collected from one of the UK’s largest suppliers of organic produce. The findings suggest that if a customer drives a round-trip distance of more than 6.7 km in order to purchase their organic vegetables, their carbon emissions are likely to be greater than the emissions from the system of cold storage, packing, transport to a regional hub and final transport to customer’s doorstep used by large-scale vegetable box suppliers. Consequently some of the ideas behind localism in the food sector may need to be revisited.     

The economics of food aid under subsistence farming with an application to Malawi

We investigate how food-aid affects price and production of staple food, with a partial equilibrium model with non-separable production and consumption. The model captures the key characteristics of sub-Saharan Africa subsistence economies. Simulations generate negative but also positive food-aid elasticities of production. Conditions are identified which mitigate the negative impact and support a positive impact. The share of domestic food production in total staple food demand (+) and the share of income from staple food production in total household income (−) are key determinants. Price and production equations, estimated with a panel of district data of the Malawi maize market for the period 1999–2010, show a small positive impact of food-aid. Large negative impacts of food-aid are not likely given production and income shares and behavioural responses.     

The food situation in developing countries : Two decades in review

This article presents an overview of the general changes in the food situation in developing countries over the past two decades, and especially since the 1974 World Food Conference. Following an examination of trends in production, consumption and trade in basic food staples of Third World countries, the article looks at possible strategies for improving their food situation.     

US food aid to South-east Asia, 1975–1983

According to food aid policy analysts, President Ford emphasized fiscal restraint, President Carter stressed ‘food for development’ and President Reagan used food as a ‘weapon’. However, a political bias has characterized food aid to South-east Asia, cutting across administrations. Public Law 480 supported American efforts in Indochina, boistered ‘friendly’ Indonesian and Phillippine regimes and helped secure geopolitical objectives. Humanitarian and developmental goals played the weakest role in shaping programmes. When conflict occurred, foreign policy aims overrode budgetary and commodity objectives.     

The impact of food safety standards on processed food exports from developing countries

This paper examines the impact of food safety standards on processed food exports in developing countries. A panel data econometric analysis of processed food exports in developing countries was undertaken. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standard (SPS) is incorporated into the model to capture the impact of food safety standards. The empirical model shows that food safety standards imposed by developed countries could impede processed food exports from developing countries. This could emerge because practically, SPS is less transparent than tariffs or quotas. There is an ample room for developed countries to tweak the standards stronger than necessary to achieve optimal levels of social protection, and to twist the related testing and certification procedures to make their competing imports more competitive. In addition, limited supply-side capacity of developing countries, especially in terms of resources, manpower as well as institution, constrains the countries to overcome food safety standards. Because of the potential benefits that could emerge from imposing food safety standards such as a reduction in transaction costs and trade friction, developing countries should view SPS not just as a trade barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standard and market sophistication. Supply-side capacity in developing countries needed to be improved, especially upgrading agriculture sector. Multilateral efforts are also needed to mobilize additional financial and technical assistance to help redress constraints in developing countries in meeting the required food safety standards imposed by developed countries.     

Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO debate in Southern Africa

The inclusion of genetically modified maize in food aid shipments to Southern Africa during the 2002 food crisis rekindled debates over agricultural biotechnology. As the region edged ever closer to famine – putting the lives to some 14 million Africans at risk – corporate pundits, government officials and biotech’s critics debated the health and environmental dangers posed by the new technology.By situating the decision to send genetically modified maize to Southern Africa in the context of US–European debates over agricultural biotechnology, it becomes clear that the promotion of biotechnology has nothing to do with ending hunger in the region. Indeed, American food aid shipments to Southern Africa have little to do with the famine at all. Instead, I argue that US food aid policy following the 2002 crisis was intended to promote the adoption of biotech crops in Southern Africa, expanding the market access and control of transnational corporations and undermining local smallholder production thereby fostering greater food insecurity on the Continent.     

Integrating climate change,food prices and population health

The inter-related nature of food, health and climate change requires a better understanding of the linkages and a greater alignment of policy across these issues to be able to adequately meet the pressing social and health challenges arising from climate change. Food price is one way through which climate change may affect health. The aim of this study of the global and Australian food systems is to provide a whole-of-system analysis of food price vulnerabilities, highlighting the key pressure points across the food system through which climate change could potentially have the greatest impact on consumer food prices and the implications for population health. We outline areas where there are particular vulnerabilities for food systems and food prices arising from climate change, particularly global commodity prices; agricultural productivity; short term supply shocks; and less direct factors such as input costs and government policies. We use Australia as a high-income country case study to consider these issues in more detail. The complex and dynamic nature of pricing mechanisms makes it difficult to predict precisely how prices will be impacted. Should prices rise disproportionately among healthy foodstuffs compared to less healthy foods there may be adverse health outcomes if less expensive and less healthy foods are substituted. Higher prices will also have equity implications with lower socio-economic groups most impacted given these households currently spend proportionately more of their weekly income on food. The ultimate objective of this research is to identify the pathways through the food system via which climate change may affect food prices and ultimately population health, thereby providing evidence for food policy which takes into account environmental and health considerations.