Diet for healthy people, healthy planet too costly for some

ROME - At least 1 in 5 people could not afford science's 'ideal diet' designed to feed 10 billion people without hurting the planet, according to a study published on Friday.

The EAT-Lancet report made headlines when it was unveiled in January because it proposed the first scientific targets for both a healthy diet and a sustainable food system.

It recommended people double their intake of nuts, fruit, vegetables and legumes, and eat half as much meat and sugar to prevent millions of early deaths, cut greenhouse gas emissions and preserve land, water and biodiversity.

The Global Burden of Disease study by the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said poor diets killed 11 million people - 1 in 5 - in 2017, more than smoking, which kills about 8 million people a year.

Agriculture, forestry and other land use accounted for 23 percent of total net man-made greenhouse gas emissions from 2007 to 2016, soaring to 37 percent when pre- and post-production activity were factored in, according to the United Nations.

The 'ideal diet' - projected to be in place by 2050 - would keep people and planet healthy, said the Lancet. But it would cost an average $2.84 per head per day, said researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute and Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

This amounts to nearly 90 percent of a household's daily per capita income in poorer countries, pushing the regime beyond reach for nearly 1.6 billion people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, they said in a paper in The Lancet Global Health.

"The actual number must be higher, since people need to spend at least some money on other things such as housing and clothing, as well as education, healthcare and transportation," senior author Will Masters told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"For the poorest people, solutions to malnutrition will require economic change," said Masters, citing higher incomes and lower food costs.

Beans, lentils, cowpeas, some vegetables and cereals are easier to find and cheaper in most countries than foods recommended in the EAT-Lancet diet such as eggs, fish, meat and fruits, but they are "not as delicious or desirable," he said.

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UN food agency to elect chief, as climate change increases hunger

Candidates from China, France and Georgia are vying to head the UN's food agency, as the fight to eradicate world hunger takes a blow from global warming and wars.

The election of the new chief of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will be held Sunday at the headquarters in Rome during the agency's 41st conference, which brings together 194 member countries.

Global hunger has risen for the past three years due to the combined effects of extreme and erratic weather, economic slowdowns, and conflicts, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.

FAO has sounded the alarm over rising food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition, and the new head will have to ramp up support for small-holder farms and fisheries to combat the ills of intensive farming, food waste and poverty.

Whoever takes over the four-year posting from Brazil's Jose Graziano da Silva will have to put policies in place now in preparation for feeding a world population expected to increase from 7.7 billion people to 9.7 billion in 2050.

The UN agency tackles issues that are "important for both advanced and developing countries," Manuel Lafont Rapnouil, from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told AFP. 

They include "food security, (and) agricultural development, but also agro-business, trade, biotechnology and, increasingly, climate and environment", he said.

Epidemic, trade war 

The candidates -- who for the first time include a woman -- each boast extensive experience in the sector.

China has nominated its agricultural deputy minister, 55-year-old Qu Dongyu, who many analysts see as the frontrunner.

"Beijing has made a big push to get more senior jobs at the UN in the last few years," Richard Gowan, an analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, told AFP.

The country is currently grappling with a swine fever epidemic that is decimating its livestock, as well as a trade war with the United States that is forcing it to go elsewhere for cereals and soya.

The crises have pushed the food sector to the top of the government's priorities, Beijing said in its bid letter, seen by AFP. 

Qu, a biologist by training, has 30 years experience, from developing digital technologies in agriculture, to introducing micro-credit in rural areas.

'Know hunger personally'

Georgia's candidate, Davit Kirvalidze, is a former minister of agriculture who believes the private sector has a key role to play in eliminating global hunger, he said in a telephone interview.

It is vital that small family farmers have market access, with FAO acting as a "broker" of change to launch "public-private" partnerships to that end, he said.

"I know hunger personally, and it drew me to farm. Eventually I was able to feed my family, my community, and this is what led me here today," he added.

In an apparent nod to criticisms of the UN agency over management practices in recent years, Kirvalidze said his tenure would be "one marked by unprecedented transparency".

French candidate Catherine Geslain-Laneelle, former head of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has spent her entire career in the agricultural and agri-food sectors at the highest level in France.

She says FAO should help "develop value chains around agriculture, fisheries and forestry", a reference to the storage, processing and distribution of food.

As well as tackling the red-button issue of food waste, such chains would also help combat poverty by creating jobs for young people, in particular in rural areas and developing countries, she added.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Indonesia takes a bite out of food waste one wedding at a time

JAKARTA - In the slums of Jakarta, Indonesia's poor are getting a taste of how the other half live thanks to a new program that aims to take a bite out of its mammoth food-waste problem.

Called a Blessing to Share, the service supplies leftover wedding dishes to some of the poorest members of society in the sprawling capital.

Even as it struggles with poverty and malnutrition, the Southeast Asian nation bins more edible food per person than any other country except Saudi Arabia, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey last year.

Indonesia's 260 million citizens each throw out an average of almost 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of food annually, ahead of the United States in third spot, the survey said.

The country's food waste problem can be partly chalked up to local hospitality, which calls for ample helpings at all celebrations.

Hosts often err on the side of abundance, and many hungry revellers' eyes are bigger than their stomachs -- meaning lots of uneaten food.

Globally, about 30 percent of food produced every year is tossed out or spoiled -- about 1.3 billion tons -- which translates into some $1 trillion in economic costs, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Association.

That's where a Blessing To Share comes in.

"There are lots of weddings in Indonesia and lots of extra food," said program founder Astrid Paramita.

"And there are lots of hungry people unfortunately, so this programme is trying to close that gap between the rich and needy."

So far the program is fairly limited, but Parmita has big plans and hopes to expand to other cities and also start sourcing edibles from company meetings and conferences.

Since starting in November, about 50 weddings have participated in the program with about 1.6 tons of food collected for distribution through a local food bank.

For 60-year-old scavenger Efendi, getting a meal from one couple's lavish nuptials across town was a welcome surprise.

"I didn't expect this -- suddenly I'm getting free food," he said.

rws/pb/klm/jah

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PH, India lead nations with highest obesity levels

MANILA, Philippines - While the world is focusing on global hunger and malnutrition, another ugly “monster” has emerged.

Obesity, a new form of malnutrition, has surfaced as an urgent challenge affecting several countries.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Philippines and India are among the developing countries with high levels of obesity and under-nutrition.

Obesity as a form of malnutrition often coexists with under-nutrition and results from shifts from local and traditional diets to foods that are increasingly heavy in salt, sugar and fat or processed foods.

The shift to a steady diet of processed food is due to the increasing cost of nutritious and natural food, the FAO said.

The global prevalence of combined overweight and obesity has risen in all regions, increasing among adults from 24 percent to 34 percent between 1980 and 2008.

The FAO said the prevalence of obesity among children has increased even faster, doubling from six percent to 12 percent over the same period.

“Overweight can co-occur with underweight within the same household, and is on the rise in countries with a high level of under-nutrition,” the FAO added in the report.

A 2011 survey by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) showed that 22.3 percent of Filipino adults are overweight and 6.1 percent are obese.

The prevalence of overweight Filipinos is expected to increase significantly by 2015.

“If this trend continues, it is highly likely that more will suffer from high-risk diseases that could lead to death,” the FNRI report said.

The factors leading to obesity in developing countries like the Philippines are numerous.

One leading factor is increasing world and domestic food prices, forcing increased purchase of unhealthy processed food over healthy and staple but expensive food.

Price increases threaten food security for poor households. For example, the 2011 increase in the price of basic grains meant that, in many developing countries, the cost of a kilogram of wheat doubled from about $.15 to $.30, a critical difference for people who live on little more than a dollar a day.

Food represents a substantial portion of the expenditure of poor households in poor countries.

For countries in Asia and Africa, expenditure on food was generally over 50 percent in the early 2000s, prior to the 2007-2008 crisis. In the Philippines, expenditures on food amount to 63 percent of a person’s income.

Biggest risk

Obesity is the biggest risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus. It likewise aggravates hypertension and raises blood cholesterol levels, which are major predisposing factors to the development of heart attacks and strokes.

In overweight men, the occurrence of impotence and sterility is higher than average while in obese women, there is a higher than average incidence of menstrual disorders, infertility and complicated pregnancies.

In both sexes, obesity increases the risk for gallbladder stones.

Obesity is likewise associated with cancers of the breast, uterus, cervix, ovary and gallbladder among women, and colon, rectum, prostate, pancreas and stomach among men.

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