1. The Links between Farming Systems and
Human Nutrition:
Valuation of externalities
Workshop Session I, Theme 3: Public Health
Jess Fanzo, PhD
Columbia University, New York
Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development
2. Overweight and Obesity Patterns
<10%
10-20%
21-30%
31-40%
41-50%
>51%
Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
North Pacific Ocean
Indian Ocean
South Pacific Ocean
South Atlantic Ocean
POPKIN The World is Fat
(Penguin, Dec 2008)
5. Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture:
The Known Unknowns
National
economic
growth
Food
prices
National
nutrition
outcomes
Nutrition
knowledge
Household assets and livelihoods
Food production
Food
expenditure
Income
(agricultural and
non-agricultural)
Non-food
expenditure
Food
consumption
Nutrient intake
Health care
expenditure
Health status
Mother’s
nutrition
outcomes
Caring capacity
& practices
Female
employment /
resources
Child
nutrition
outcomes
Female energy
expenditure
7. Solutions to Support the Integration of
Public Health and Food Systems
How can we harness current innovations, knowledge
and evidence to improve nutrition security?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Bundling interventions
Building capacity at the community level
Using technology as a delivery channel
Utilizing social networks for dissemination
Rethinking the consumer
8. Rethinking the Consumer
•
•
•
•
•
Equity, equity, equity: political commitment
Women as key consumers
Consumer demand is changing
Flipping value chains
Cost of diets and re-thinking luxury foods
9. The Cost of a Nutritious Diet
De Pee and Bloem 2010
10. Additional Research
• Understanding Impact of Agriculture on
Nutrition: Many unknowns on how to address
nutrition that is equitable and affordable
• Quantifying Costs and Benefits: Need to cost
interventions and understand the benefits and
tradeoffs of nutrition sensitive value chains
• Identify ways of maximising benefits while
minimising costs: Not well understood. Less
cost to provide a pill?
11. Affordability dimension
Additional Research Needed:
Affordability or
knowledge and behavior?
Do NOT
have
economic
access to
nutritious
diet
Have
economic
access to
nutritious
diet
In need of
transfer &
possibly
more
Not applicable
Mainly act on
education &
behaviours,
marketing &
regulation
No need for
food support
Do NOT
have
adequate
diet
Have
adequate
diet
Food consumption dimension
1
12. Need more on Policy:
Better Equitable, Access to Diversity
Not poor
Vegetables
Staple
Less poor
Moderate poor
Very poor
Very, very poor
Staple
Eggs
Vegetables
Staple
Meat
Eggs
Vegetables
Staple
Staple
Vegetables
Milk
Meat
Eggs
Snack foods – high
fat & sugar ‘empty
calories’
The agriculture sector is best placed to influence food production and the consumption of nutritious foods necessary for healthy and active lives. Aims to maximize the impact of nutrition outcomes, while minimizing the unintended negative nutritional consequences of agricultural interventions and policies.It is agriculture with a nutrition lens, and should not detract from the sector’s own goals.Almost always depends on a functional health system. Women’s control of household income and their ability to influence household decision-making and household allocation of resources for food, health, and care
Figure shows the lack of cross-sectional correlation between child underweight with agricultural GDP (adjusted for the size of the agricultural population).25 Some longitudinal analyses report no significant correlation between annual economic growth and reductions in stunting.26 In India, states with rapid agricultural growth between 1992 and 2005 showed inconsistent changes in undernutrition during the same period; while overall, the correlation appeared positive. Some states showed no improvements in stunting or underweight, and in one state, there was an increase in underweight in women.27 Overall, the effect of GDP growth on undernutrition appears stronger from agriculture rather than non-agriculture growth, but the effect is quite modest regardless.
Luxury foods include animal source foods, fruits and vegetables; nutrient fortified foods – Equity issue.
