Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, has endorsed measures encouraging the production of healthy, locally produced foods. These include the introduction of taxes on unhealthy food products, as well as easier-to-understand and more comprehensive food labels. The Director-General asserts that conventional policies aimed at keeping food prices low for consumers are contributing to unhealthy eating habits, perpetuating rural poverty and driving internal and external migration.

Graziano da Silva made the statements during the closing of the latest Session of the FAO Conference, held in Rome, Italy (June 22-29), which highlighted the growing issue of obesity and overweight. This comes at the heels of last month’s “Future of Food” international symposium in Rome (June 10-11), at which the FAO hosted panel discussions on relevant topics including research, knowledge gaps and needs for sustainable food systems and healthy diets; governance of food systems for healthy diets; and building consumer confidence in food systems. 

In closing, the Director-General thanked the member states and staff for their support during his tenure, and he expressed his satisfaction that Brazil’s pioneering Zero Hunger program is being replicated by many countries and could be further expanded.

“In a world in which tensions between nations or ideologies undermine progress towards a better future, your work during this Conference has helped to make FAO more effective in responding to the many demands on its services,” says Graziano da Silva, noting that the Conference saw the highest number of participants – more than 1,300 delegates from 196 countries.

He also stressed that many of the major issues related to healthy food systems, sustainable agricultural development and responsible environmental stewardship can only be addressed through joint work between countries and relevant partners.

“Current food systems are not equipped to provide everyone with the ability to choose nutritious and healthy diets in a sustainable and equitable way,” John McDermott of Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), tells. “Moreover, companies frequently resist healthier and more sustainable solutions when the unhealthy foods they sell are cheap to make and popular with consumers. Governments, businesses, and civil society groups are increasingly realizing the importance of supporting the consumption of healthier foods, making food systems more sustainable and climate-change resilient.”

Highlights from the FAO Conference
The Conference saw the election of FAOs new Director-General – Qu Dongyu. A series of side-events explored the challenges and opportunities of reaching Zero Hunger across several regions – Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, the Near East and North Africa – as well as on biodiversity for food and agriculture and youth’s role in agriculture.

Government ministries in Pakistan and Rwanda, a group of Spanish journalists, a Norwegian research vessel, a group of current and former parliamentarians in Chile, and FAO field staff who worked in South Sudan and Yemen were recognized at the biennial FAO Awards ceremony, held on the sidelines of the Conference.

Mozambican politician and humanitarian Graça Machel also delivered the McDougall Lecture with a call for the immediate need to “change the way we do business,” scale up hunger-ending initiatives, and “disrupt the agricultural sector as a whole.” This is needed if countries are to reach the Zero Hunger goal by 2030, the target date agreed by the international community, she emphasizes.

Initiatives combating malnutrition
Last year saw several similar events and reports with one common theme: marking the urgent need for change to better adapt to the projected world population growth. How the industry will feed future generations sustainably and within environmental boundaries remains a looming question. 

For instance, last November, an in-depth report from the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) called for a total transformation of how agricultural systems operate, with consumer choices highlighted as a major factor driving “disastrous climate change.” A panel of experts warned that global food systems are failing and urgently need to be turned around to avoid catastrophic climate change. A key theme focused on how to mitigate impacts through “climate-smart” food systems as well as dietary changes, such as cutting down on meat. The report came as a “wake-up call” to world leaders ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP24, in Poland, which was also held in November. 

Changing food systems, sustainability and dietary shifts are all also major topics of interest to leading food industry players. This is evidenced by a swathe of food incubators working with start-ups and companies to find sustainable food and beverage solutions as well as corporate-financed initiatives such as the “Future Food Initiative” wher Bühler, Givaudan and Nestlé are collaborating to boost healthy and sustainable innovation.