Why do food systems matter for better policy-making

1. Why do food systems matter
for better policy-making ?
Food Systems E-learning course
(Em.) prof. dr. Ruerd Ruben

2. Today’s program
2
 Key objectives:
1. Understand why we make so many mistakes in food policies
2. Sensitize what difference it makes using a food systems approach
3. Inspire with some practical design principles for FNS projects
 Lecture outline:
1. Food system challenges
2. Common fallacies & mistakes
3. Basic features of food systems framework
4. Leverage points for effective FNS projects

3. Key take-aways
1. Poor people depend on affordable & safe food from informal markets
2. Triple burden of nutrition: investing in better diets for improving health
3. Food system transition: game changers with multiple leverage points
4. Food system transformation at scale : Experimentation & Co-creation
5. Triple helix governance: Empowerment, Innovation and Co-creation
3

4. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
%
population
Poverty
(<USD 1.90 a day, 2011 PPP; % of
world population)
Undernourishment
(calories, % of population, world)
Stunting
(% of children under 5, world)
Overweight
(BMI>25, % of population
developing countries)
4
Nutrition transition & triple burden
More food production does NOT automatically lead to less hunger
Poverty reduction does NOT directly lead to better nutrition

5. Rising concerns : Urgent Action needed!
5
Increasing hunger
Global hunger & malnutrition
are rising fastly: up to 840
million people (FAO-SOFI)
Unaffordable diets
Healthy diet is too
expensive and not
affordable for 3 billion
people (EAT-Lancet)
COVID-19 Pandemic
Steep increase in urban
& rural poverty (+ 265
million people) due to
Covid-19 lockdown

6. Multiple food system challenges
6
Food production is surpassing planetary boundaries Alarming loss in biodiversity

7. Overweight & Obesity
Micronutrient deficiencies
Stunting &
Wasting
Triple burden of hunger & malnutrition
More than 690 million people suffer from hunger (after adjusting for China)
More than 2 billion people lack essential micronutrients
More than 2 billion people are overweight or obese
More than 144 million children are stunted

8. Common mistakes (1) : price paradox
8
Higher Food
Prices
More Food
Production
Better FNS
Security
? ?
Lower Food
Production
More Leisure /
Off-farm work
Lower FNS
Security
RATIONALE
Smallholder farmers have limited (land &
labour) resources and are both producers
and consumers of food & leisure

9. Common mistakes (2): adoption paradox
9
Credit &
Input subsidies
More technology
adoption
Higher
sustainability
? ?
Resistance to
change
High risk
aversion
Limited
resilience
RATIONALE
Rural farm-households have limited
reserves and therefore cannot take much
risk in technology adoption

10. Common mistakes (3): nutrition paradox
10
Intensify labour
use
More food
production
Better
nutrition
? ?
Limited labour
substitution
Gender division
of labour
More
malnutrition
RATIONALE
Gender inequality limits possibilities to
expand food production due to labour
substition constraints

11. Why do we make so many mistakes ??
1. Poor people have multiple objectives (i.e. higher income, less risk,
better nutrition, more resilience)  dealing with trade-offs
2. Poor people have limited resources and therefore face restricted
capacities for adaptation and change
3. Poor people’s livelihoods depend on relations with other stakeholders
(fellow farmers, women, traders, policy-makers, etc.)
11

12. Changing paradigms & new mindsets
12
Increase
Food
Production
Enhance
Food & Nutrition
Security
Improve
Food
Systems
Focus on
 Yield increase
 Technology adoption
 Tenure security
Focus on
 Crop diversification
 Labour training
 Market linkages
Focus on
 Risk management
 Gender empowerment
 Stakeholder cooperation

13. Trade-offs in food systems
13
External Drivers of Change
Food Systems
Components
Multiple
Outcomes
Food
Production
Food
Environment
Food
consumption
Nutrition
Sustai-
nable
Inclu-
sive

14. Simultaneous transitions
Diet transition
Declining expenditure
share for food and
increasing shares of UPFs
14
Value chain shares
Midstream parties capture
80-90% of value added
Shifts in farm size
Midsize farms produce
largest commercial share
of nutritious foods
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
< 2 2-20 20-50 50-200 > 200 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Banana Mango Bean Apple Coffee Cocoa
Retail
Factory
Import
Taxes
Transport
Export
Packing
Farm

15. New imagination: tipping points & synergies

16. How to support food system transformations ?
1. Going from ‘problem solving’ to real ‘system solutions’
 focus on key enablers and constraints
2. Based on a understanding of the dynamics of change
 different –and diverging- transition pathways
3. Considering adjustment and adaptation of behaviour
 focus on interactions between stakeholders
16

17. Food system design principles (1)
17
1. Working from both sides
 Production & consumption goals
 Farm & off-farm employment
 Upstream, midstream & downstream
2. Creating linkages & feedbacks
 Price change & market responses
 Spillovers (to other households)
 Intra-household distribution

18. Food system design principles (2)
18
3. Engaging critical stakeholders
 Individual response & collective action
 Broad alliances & platforms
 Negotation & bargaining solutions
4. Combining/bundling incentives
 Push & pull
 Hardware, software + orgware
 Location-specific (No one size fits all)

19. Tools for Food Systems Transformation
Shaking the systems from different sides
 Combining (Public & private) Investments
 Innovations (products, technologies, procedures)
 (price and non-price) Incentives
Making it work in practice
 Realize changes in (nutrition) behaviour (Theory of Change)
 Recognize conflicts & engage into bargaining (Lab in Field)
 Don’t be afraid of experiments & accept failure (M&E)

20. Game changers in food value chains
PHL reduction Nigeria Diet diversity Myanmar Schoolmeals Vietnam
Reducing PHL in tomato
chain using crates with
return system by traders &
contracts for farmers
 Promote feedbacks
Dietary diversity can
be promoted through
off-farm income &
market diversification
 Using linkages
Meals at school or
workplace canteens
change eating habits
of parents at home
 Create spillovers

21. Game changers for Food Policy
Labelling Fermented foods Nudging
Food warning labels on
sugar/fat can modify
industry recipes &
change consumer choice
 Change behaviour
Improving probiotics, female
entrepreneurship and shelf
life by supporting traditional
mabisi products
 Support upgrading
Making access to
healthier foods easier and
buying unhealthy foods
less convenient
 Create social norms

22. Future challenges & outlook
22
WHAT?
(Strategy)
WHERE?
(Scale)
WHO?
(Level)
WHY?
(Purpose)
Technical change
&
Behavioural
incentives
Horizontal landscapes
(cooperation)
&
Vertical supply chains
(integration)
Individual solutions
&
Collective response
Overcoming trade-off &
generating synergies
Food + Climate
Poverty + Nutrition

23. Inspiration for Further reading
23
Ruben, Ruerd; Verhagen, Jan; Plaisier, Christine. The challenge
of Food Systems Research: What Difference Does It Make?
Sustainability 2019, 11, 171.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010171
Brouwer, Inge D.; McDermott, John; and Ruben, Ruerd. Food
systems everywhere: Improving relevance in practice.
Global Food Security 2020 - 26 : 100398.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100398