FAO: The current food systems do not work
Hunger, obesity and other forms of malnutrition will continue to increase if there is no deep change in food systems, said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva, during Congreso Futuro, the most important scientific dissemination event in Latin America.
He explained that the problem of hunger and overweight in the world is not the lack of food, but the lack of access to healthy and nutritious food for the entire population. "The paradox is that today we have almost the same number of hungry people as obese people and the latter figure is growing rapidly," noted da Silva.
According to the latest FAO report, in 2017 there were 821 million undernourished people in the world, equal to 10.9% of the global population. Meanwhile, adult obesity affected 13.3% of the adult population in 2016, equivalent to 672 million people.
Da Silva sees a greater danger in the increased rate of obesity rather than the hunger issue and stressed that obesity should be addressed through public policy and not treated only as an individual problem. "The problem of obesity is more complex than that of hunger. Hunger is confined to specific areas, especially those hit by conflicts, droughts and extreme poverty, but obesity is everywhere and continues to grow throughout the world,” he said.
Food systems, he explained, encompass the chain and links stretching from soils, production and storage to distribution and even beyond retail consumption both in homes and restaurants. "There is a part that is not visible and that is the one that has more power, a 'superstructure' that conditions healthy diets. I refer to institutions, laws and regulatory frameworks,” added da Silva.
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