World Food Day: When biodiversity meets the Mayors of today’s cities for a more nutritional tomorrow

M. Ann Tutwiler, Director General, Bioversity International, blogs from Expo Milano 2015 where she is participating in a series of events for World Food Day. She reflects on why sustainable rural-urban food systems matter for future food security.

Today, on this occasion of World Food Day, I am in Milan for a series of significant events, including the launch of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact ⁱ, an international protocol designed to engage the world's cities in the development of urban food systems based on sustainability and social justice.

 

This is expected to be an important legacy of Expo Milan 2015, along with the historic signing of the Milan Charter, an international manifesto for the fight against undernourishment, malnutrition and waste.

Both agreements have been devised in response to growing health and nutritional problems around the world and hold at their heart the importance of equal access to natural resources and sustainable food production.

Bioversity International has been involved in a number of deliberations held at Expo 2015 focusing on these issues and exploring the solutions to future food challenges that face people in both urban and rural areas.

Our integrated work in sustainable rural-urban food systems has demonstrated the importance of combining a whole-diet and a multi-chain approach, highlighting the limitations of interventions focused solely on production diversity and single value chains. ^{ii iii iv} It has also identified one key indicator of a nutrition-friendly food system — diversity.  By this we mean diversity of diet, diversity of crops produced, and diversity of the species of those crops.^v

The challenges, as we know, arise from population growth and increasing urbanization combined with an escalation of health problems related to poor nutrition. Statistics show a lack of available dietary energy, deficiencies in vitamins and minerals critical for growth and development, while the number of people suffering from obesity all continue to rise on a global scale. No country is immune to the serious economic and social burdens that arise from these three forms of malnutrition. ^vi

Diverse diets that include both energy and nutrient-rich foods produced in a safe and sustainable way can reduce micronutrient and caloric deficiencies all year round. Conversely, our research shows a strong relationship between narrow supply diversity and stunting across countries in Africa and Asia.

Yet the diversity of crop species contributing to the global supply of food is narrowing reflected in the diets of both rural and urban consumers alike that tend to be monotonous and based on a few staple crops. ^vii Particularly vulnerable are low-income households in areas where access to nutrient-rich food, such as fruits and vegetables, pulses and animal-based foods, can be difficult.

For over 50 years, the paradigm for agricultural development has been to maximize yields through intensifying production, particularly for cereal crops. Increasing production of high-yielding cereals – wheat, rice, and maize – has replaced more nutrient-rich cereals, which has eroded the content of essential dietary nutrients in the world’s cereal supply. New approaches are needed to produce healthy foods, rich in essential nutrients, with efficient use of land. Standard yield metrics that measure the quantity of production are inadequate to assess progress toward this goal; what is needed today is alternative metrics of nutritional yields. From 1961 to 2011, protein, iron and zinc content in the directly consumed cereal supply declined by 4%, 19% and 5% respectively due to a change in the type of cereals consumed.

To counter this trend and contribute to efforts aimed at addressing the global challenges, our research suggests that promoting agricultural and tree biodiversity, together with economically viable supply chains via rural and urban markets, can make a crucial difference. Once in place, these components become demonstrable cornerstones of healthy diets, sustainable food systems and sustainable livelihoods in both rural and urban areas.

Here are just a few examples of where Bioversity International's work has been fruitful:

• In Western Kenya, nutrition education, based on our research, motivated the caregivers of infants and young children to improve the quality and diversity of complementary diets by using accessible local food resources.
   
• Growers in Kenya trained to produce and market African leafy vegetables, comparatively more nutritious than lettuce and other recent replacements, saw a 20-fold increase in incomes; in Nairobi, there was a 12-fold increase in sales of these leafy vegetables.

• Our efforts in Bolivia and Peru on Andean grains results in sales increases in the research sites by 81% and 64%, respectively, along with increased cultivation and consumption of these nutritious, resilient crops.
   
• In India, the inclusion of millets in the country's National Food Security Act (2013) food distribution programme has increased the availability of these affordable nutritious grains to more than 800 million people. Improved market links for small-scale producers have seen restaurants adding millet-based dishes to their menus, and brought about new income opportunities for women producing millet-based snacks. In 12 districts in central and south India, switching from white rice to minor millets in school lunches resulted in increased haemoglobin levels in children – up to 37% higher than the control group – within three months.
   
• In Brazil, the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project has provided scientific knowledge on the nutritional value of 70 native fruit species that informed public policies on school feeding, which now also include a commitment to procure 30% of school food from local family farmers.

As we meet with mayors today, and other global policymakers, we will commit to continuing our work to complement and enhance the critical processes crystallized in the Milan agreements, by providing cutting-edge research for development geared to the better use of agricultural and tree biodiversity in rural-urban food systems for improved nutrition.

Together with public and private partners we can improve the availability of, and access to, affordable, culturally relevant and healthy foods, while providing incentives to producers and other value chain actors to supply these sustainably and effectively. 

M. Ann Tutwiler

 

• Find out about our Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

Photo 1: Serving on the Urban Food Policy Pact Advisory Task Committee, M. Ann Tutwiler addresses delegates on the importance of diverse diets. Credit: Bioversity International/C. Masiello-Riome  

Photo 2: Over 100 Mayors from throughout the world met this week in Milan to simultaneously sign the Urban Food Policy Pact. Credit: Bioversity International/C. Masiello-Riome

Photo 3: In Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, the cultivation of traditional grains – particularly quinoa, cañihua and amaranth – is making a comeback. Credit: Bioversity International/S. Padulosi

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ⁱ See MUFPP website.  

ⁱⁱ Maertens, Miet; Swinnen, Johan (2015). Agricultural trade and development: A value chain perspective, WTO Staff Working Paper, No. ERSD-2015-04 Stoian, D., Donovan, J., and Elias, M.. (2015). Linking Livelihoods and Gender with Value Chain Development: The Case for a Multi-Chain Approach to Rural Poverty Reduction. Extended abstract in response to Agri-Gender call for papers

ⁱⁱⁱ Stoian, D., Donovan, J., and Elias, M.. (2015). Linking Livelihoods and Gender with Value Chain Development: The Case for a Multi-Chain Approach to Rural Poverty Reduction. Extended abstract in response to Agri-Gender call for papers

iv Kibrom T. Sibhatu, Vijesh V. Krishna, and Matin Qaim1 Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households PNAS | August 25, 2015 | vol. 112 | no. 34 | 10657–10662

^v Michael Pollan in Perspectives on 2015 Global Nutrition Report

^vi International Food Policy Research Institute (2015). Global Nutrition Report 2015: Actions and Accountability to Advance Nutrition and Sustainable Development. Washington, DC.

^vii Colin K. Khoury, Anne D. Bjorkman, Hannes Dempewolf et al. (2014): Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

^viii DeFries R., Fanzo J., Remans R., Palm C., Wood S., Anderman T. L. 2015. Metrics for land-scarce agriculture. Science 17 July 2015: 349 (6245):238-240. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa5766 www.sciencemag.org content/349/6245/238.full