Dear Moderator,
Regarding the e-Consultation on the V0 draft of the HLPE-FSN report #19 „Strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems to achieve food security and nutrition in the context of urbanization and rural transformation” we would like to provide the Hungarian comments in this e-mail, since we had troubles to register to the website:
Hungarian comments on the V0 draft of the HLPE-FSN report on strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems
- Comment of the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary:
The discussion of the topic is relevant, but it has very diverse aspects. In global terms, although we are talking about large cities, the economic, social and political arrangements are very different, and the settlements and their consumers have to be placed under different climatic conditions.
A greener, more livable urban environment can be suitable for the production of small amounts of vegetables or fruit in some places in cities, for example by creating community gardens and community squares (orchards with native species). These opportunities bring urban people closer to food production, whether for educational or recreational purposes. Regarding this, it is important to highlight that educational institutions with green areas, such as gardens in the courtyards of schools and kindergartens can take care for the training of future generations in this direction, in rising interest, which contributes to the increase of urban biodiversity and the reduction of surfaces covered with asphalt.
It is important to carry out appropriate impact studies and research to see if recent innovations (e.g. the vertical farming, production of microgreens in larger facilities and the production of laboratory meat as animal feed or for human consumption) truly help to improve the malnutrition of the poorer communities, if mass production reduces the price to a lower price category, increase the employment of people living in the city, and fully ensure food safety. It should be considered that these investigations should examine as many locations as possible, and plans should be prepared to maintain, establish and guarantee food supply and food safety throughout the entire food chain.
- Comment of the research lead of the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture:
It would be useful to include the definition of processed-ultra processed-fresh food or even a list of which food and food groups belong to the given categories. I did not find a related section in the report and I think it would be useful.
I recommend to have a reference to NOVA food classification system.
· Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Moubarac JC, Levy RB, Louzada MLC, Jaime PC. The UN Decade of Nutrition, the NOVA food classification and the trouble with ultra-processing. Public Health Nutr. 2018 Jan;21(1):5-17. doi: 10.1017/S1368980017000234. Epub 2017 Mar 21. PMID: 28322183; PMCID: PMC10261019
· Monteiro, Carlos A. (2009-05-01). "Nutrition and health. The issue is not food, nor nutrients, so much as processing". Public Health Nutrition. 12 (5): 729–731. doi:10.1017/S1368980009005291. ISSN 1475-2727. PMID 19366466. S2CID 42136316.
The NOVA criteria involve classifying food products into four groups based on the amount of processed ingredients: (1) unprocessed or minimally processed foods, (2) processed culinary ingredients, (3) processed foods, and (4) ultra-processed foods (UPFs) [9]. See Fig. 1 for the complete definitions of all food categories.
Best regards,
Liliána Kaszás
Fao coordinator
Department of EU and FAO Affairs
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary