Dear Sir/ Madam,
Please see below some of my views/ innovations for food safety and security, considering that I taught IPM/ agroecology for some years in the past perhaps I will respond for that in more detail in the future, only add here that as an entomologist I am observing big loss of insect populations/ pollinators, a collapse, only less than 1/300 of insect species are pests (all pests including crop, health, veterinary, etc.), edible insects are a good source of our future proteins, etc.
With land degradation and erosion, pollution, loss of biodiversity, climate change and many other problems arisen from decades long industrial agriculture now it is the time to take the agroecological approaches based on ecosystem based adaptations serious for food production. I live in mountains near the big one Damavand in Northeast of Tehran and believe that food insecurity is higher for people that live in mountain areas of the world. On the other hand I believe that food production in cities in controlled environments, vertical farming/ gardening and food sharing could help a lot for food security. As the pioneer of the idea: we have to shorten our food chain many years ago during teaching agroecology I strongly believe that humans do not need so much meat consumption and must increase number of plant species in their food table, already use only 12 species. According to my findings some years ago there are strong correlation between diversity of plant species we eat and induction/ diversification of the Cytochrome P-450s (MFOs) called also polysubstrate mono-oxygenases which are responsible for detoxification in human/ animals bodies. With big recent megamergers happened between food/ pesticide companies, already big toxic pollution in food and so less chance for involvement of regulatory agencies FAO need to take immediate action to prevent the harm. Finally looking at the SDG 12 which is all about Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) FAO must increase its role and activities to prevent so much food loss and waste, already about 1/3 of whole food production in the world. Please also see my first global message 10 years ago: how pesticides are handled in developing countries and a more recent one: More exposure of people in developing countries to toxic pesticides...etc.
Best regards,
Ahmad Mahdavi, professor emeritus at University of Tehran,
PhD, insect/ pesticides/ chemicals/ biocides environmental regulatory toxicologist,
UN-FAO focal point for Mountain Partnership in the University of Tehran,
UN Environment- CMS preventing poisoning group,
UN Environment focal point for Environmental Education in the University of Tehran.
Ahmad Mahdavi