Lecture in the module "Global Food Policies" of the Master in Food, Law and Finance (IUC Torino, 23 Feb 2017). Several very common food policies often implemented in countries of the Global South are presented and analysed through a critical approach (who wins/who loses, balance of power, visible outputs VS underlying causes, collateral effects, paternalism VS universalism, rights-based or needs-based). taxing unhealthy ultra-processed food and beverages (Mexico soda tax as case study), conditional cash transfers and their impact in stunting (Mexico and Brazil as case studies) and patented technologies to save lives VS public research (Plumpy Nut, ready-to-use therapeutic food to save lives in humanitarian situations). The idea is to understand the advantages, impacts and challenges of those well-known food policies.

1. Food Policies in
the Global South
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL
PhD Research Fellow
in Food Governance
Module “Global Food Policy and Developement”
Master in Food, Law and Finance 2017-18
International University College, Turin, Italy

2. Context
•High hunger prevalence (measured by different
indicators)
•Rising obesity/overweight in many countries
•Weak taxing capacity and thus meagre budgets
•Highly influenced in half of them by external donors
and banks
•Important group of countries with hunger but
financial capabilities (BRICS +)
•Poor social welfare systems
•Strong civil society in some (LAC + India) but weak
in the rest

3. Taxing unhealthy ultra-processed Food: scientific
evidence vs post-truth Is fair? Is useful?

6. Mexico: 10% soda tax in Jan 2014
•SCIENCE CONFIRMS: sales of ultra-processed
products are associated with weight gain and
obesity in Latin America.
•Mexico: highest rates of diabetes in the Americas
(14%)
•US (12%) of adults live with diabetes.
•Mexico soda consumption: 120 litres person/year
(3060 sugar cubes, 8.3 sugar cubes person/day)
•Sanchez-Romero et al. (2016). Tax on Sugar-
sweetened beverages Projections, based on
observed consumption reductions, suggest tax may
substantially decrease morbidity and mortality from
diabetes and CVD while reducing healthcare costs.

11. Conditional
(unconditional)
Cash Transfers
(or Universal Basic
Income)
Bolsa covers 25% of Brazil, or 50 million
Brazilians. School attendance in Northeast
region has risen, and prenatal care and
vaccination have increased.

12. Mexico’s Oportunidades: 6.5 million families living
poverty, (25% of population)
•Enrolling their children into schools or getting
regular health check-ups, doing community works,
having an ID card
•Rates of malnutrition, anemia, and stunted growth
have fallen, maternal and infant deaths have
dropped and contraception rates have risen while
teenage pregnancy rates have fallen.
•In education, middle school enrollment rates in
rural areas have risen 42%, while high school
enrollment rates have risen 82%

13. 40 CCT programmes (14 in LAC)
•Reducing poverty
•Improves the conditionality (often)
•Feeding the deprived region with cash
•Women empowerment
•Political Bias (paternalism, populism)
•Activating demand but insufficient offer
•Efficiency to reduce hunger is
controversial

14. Ready to Use Therapeutic
Food to treat acute
malnutrition

15. Peanut butter with dried milk, oil, sugar, and
essential minerals and vitamins.

16. Bakhsh, U.R. CHI.-KENT J.INTELL.PROP.238
http://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=ckjip
•Plumpy’Nut is a RUTF that was developed by French
pediatrician Andre Briend in 1996. At the time,
Briend was working for Institut de Recherche pour le
Développement, a research institute that was
collaborating with another French corporation,
Nutriset, on a project to develop a commercially
viable treatment specifically for malnutrition.
•After several failed trials, Plumpy’Nut was
developed using a blend of peanut butter, powdered
milk, sugar, and oil and is fortified with vitamins and
minerals.
•After the formula was developed, Nutriset (Michel
Lescanne) immediately pursued patent protection in
France. Now in 40.

18. • Useful, scientifically-tested, proven in the field (UNICEF, WFP,
NGOs)
• A medical treatment (100-200 USD per kid per treatment)
• The bars are mostly produced in the U.S., Europe and
increasingly in India, Africa and South America.
• Field tested in massive scale in Niger 2005
• 90% of market share (potential market, 50 M children)
• In some countries — including Bangladesh and India —
researchers are developing therapeutic foods with locally
sourced ingredients. In 2011, out of a total of 46,000 MTs of
Plumpy’Nut® produced worldwide, 11 676 MTs were made in
developing countries.
• Nutriset uphelds national nutritional autonomy and thus
Nutriset formalised this technology-sharing approach in
2005 by creating the Plumpy’Nut® in the Field network, since
renamed PlumpyField®.
• Nutriset patent is very broad, enforced in many countries
but contested in others (India)