Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: Towards a common understanding of Sustainable Food Systems

Dear FSN Forum Moderators,

Many thanks for this interesting discussion paper of the SFS Programme.

You asked for comments/remarks and I allow me to make some comments/questions/remarks to your Draft V1.0:

  • What is the objective of the present paper (only a summary/report about the present situation or also to show some ways out of the present situation and to show challenges for the future, some alternatives etc.?
  • The objective of the report should be clearly defined at the end of your introduction.
  • Sustainable food systems (SFS) should include all the important elements of sustainability, such as Land Use (incl. Land Foot Prints; LFP), Plant and Animal Breeding, Plant and Animal Health; Alternatives to present ways of food production etc.;
  • The availability of arable land decreased from about 0.38 (1970) to 0.24 (2000) and will decrease to about 0.15 ha per inhabitant in 2050 (FAO 2012; Smith 2018). These developments can be considered as the largest challenge for population, but I could not find this problem in your Draft. Therefore, a more efficient use of arable land (including Land Footprints) should be one of the most important topic, if we discuss about sustainability.
  • Comments to Figure 1: Resource efficiency should be more specified: e.g. in soil, water, fuel, some minerals etc.; Food safety should be added under Food security and nutrition. Furthermore, I miss the significance of sciences (soil, plants, animals etc.) as important drivers of the Food Systems.
  • p. 12 and other places: Food security should be replaced by food security and safety. Secure, but unsafe food (e.g. contaminated with mycotoxins, heavy metals, dioxins etc.) cannot be any solution for the future.
  • Figure 2: Land footprint should be added into the Environmental Impacts. Animal and plants health are mentioned, but plant and animal breeding should be added under Environmental impacts. For my understanding, the plant breeding is one of the most important starting points (see added paper 4) of the whole food chain. Such new aspects should be also discussed in the following text.
  • To 2.2.; you started your SFS Programme with Sustainable diets etc. From my view, this is a very conservative view. I would start with the fundamentals of the food chain, such as Plant and Animal Breeding and coming step by step to sustainable diets about nutrient flow, emissions, sustainability, reduction of losses etc.
  • p. 29: Sustainable intensification should be defined. Later (p. 30), you mentioned specific agronomic techniques, which are associated with sustainable intensification, but I miss the plant breeding as the starting point of the food chain (see above and paper 4 of the added reprints).
  • p. 39; Table 1: I miss the term „Food Safety“ in this Table, at least in the last column (Public health approaches)
  • p. 41: Research and innovation: Only some general statements. I miss some specific examples along the food chain.
  • P. 44: I am a little bit surprised about the definition of „agriculture“. There are some other (better) definitions like: „Agriculture is the science and production of plants and animals, including fresh water and marine species for food, fuel, fiber and medicine“.
  • I come back to my initial question (see above): What is the objective of the present report/paper? On chapter 4 (p. 44 ff.), you defined many terms of the SFS. What is new or innovative in these definitions?
  • p. 53: I miss the definitions of „Food safety“(may be below „Food security“) and „Land footprint“(LFP in addition to W-FP and C-FP). Ecological FP is possible, but L-FP is more specific concerning the limited resource land (see above).

Some minor comments:

  • You used many abbreviations. (It is one of the typical disease of FAO people/FAO-reports). Therefore, it is hard to read and to understand the paper for people from outside (like me). Either you reduced the number of abbreviations or you introduced a list of abbreviations at the beginning or at the end of your discussion paper. I think that such a Draft and also the final document should be understandable for people from outside and should be the base for a lively discussion.
  • For readers and comments from outside, the numbering of the lines would be extremely helpful.
  • p. 56: „Sustainable consumption and production“? I think that we have to produce first, before we can consume
  • Annex 1 is very impressive, but it is extremely hard to follow all connections?

Finally, I would like to summarize/characterize/define a sustainable food system as: „More safe food for more people with limited natural resources (such as land, water, fuel) and low emissions (e.g. CF). This statement should/could be the most important objective for global food security and nutrition.

In addition, I allow me tol add some more recent reprints from our group dealing with „Carbon Footprints of protein of animal origin“ (paper 1); Land use for food of animal origin“ (paper 2); “Resource inputs and outputs of food of animal origin as well alternatives to traditional food of animal origin (such as insects, lab grown meat, simulated food, single cell protein, changes of eating patterns, reduction of food losses“ (paper 3); Challenges for plant breeders from the view of animal nutrition“ (paper 4).

 

Best regards

Gerhard Flachowsky

See the attachments: