Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

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Dr. JC Wandemberg

Member since
Organization: Sustainable Systems International.Org
Country: United States of America
Field(s) of expertise:
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Sustainable Development

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    • The need for rethinking the approaches that best guarantee environmental, social, institutional, and economic sustainability has been acknowledged and documented by researchers, social scientists, and government agencies throughout the world. Recognition, however, is the easy part. What remains to be understood is the means by which social, economic, and environmental sustainability can be best achieved.

      What do people mean when they speak of “Sustainability”?

      However, it is not feasible to translate the Bruntland definition of sustainability into actions, and much less to accomplish a “sustainable development,” without a conceptual knowledge and understanding of human organizations and their underlying behaviours.

      What is Ideal-Seeking Behaviour?

      Most definitions of “sustainability” seem to share at least two things in common:

      They are all obviously anthropocentric.

      They all speak of an ideal process or state.

      Based on these two observations and on the seminal work of Ackoff and Emery (1972), the only operational definition of sustainability to this day is the following:

      Sustainability is a Socio-Ecological Process Driven by Ideal-Seeking Behaviour.

      This behaviour is characterized by the desire and the ability (i.e., opportunity & resources) to:

      Progress towards a common ideal by choosing a new goal when one is achieved (or the effort to achieve it has failed), and

      Sacrifice a goal for the sake of the ideal.

      IDEAL: An unattainable state or process (in a given point in time/space) but endlessly approachable.

      Only ideals serve as appropriate guidelines within a context of uncertainty and complexity because only ideals are time-free, hence, intrinsically pro-active-adaptive in themselves. 

      The four universal ideals are:

      1) Homonomy

      2) Nurturance

      3) Humanity

      4) Beauty

      (Emery, 1993).

      Ideal-seeking behaviour is what builds Tropophilia into any process or organization allowing it to thrive within Black Swan Domains.

      REF: <https://medium.com/@JCWandemberg/tropophilia-beyond-resilience-antifrag…;

    • Addressing COC

      There are only three ways to manage people’s conduct:

      By Coercion

      By Collusion

      By Inspiration

       

      1. and 2. are rather simple to deal with through incentives, disincentives, and regulations.

      Number 3 is the greatest challenge along with the implementation and enforcement of 1 & 2.

      There is no greater inspiration than that of a brighter future for all involved based on moral authority, integrity, and transparency.

       

      Addressing FLW

      FLW happens for many reasons, inter alia:

      Some food prices are so cheap people don’t care about wasting them

      Inappropriate infrastructure to bring food from harvest to consumer

      Inappropriate storage

      Adding a tax to cheap foods will address # 1. the tax collected can be used to help build better infrastructure and storage issues.

       

      Best regards,

       

      JC Wandemberg Ph.D.

      Sustainable Systems International.Org

    • Agricultural extension and advisory services must play a major role in realizing gender equality and improved nutrition through a truly participative democratic organizational structure (based on Open Systems Design Principles) conducive to creating an environment of symmetrical dependence where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, an organizational environment conducive to enhancing human behavior in general and ideal-seeking behavior in particular.

      Further info: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/antifragile-heteroticorganisations-jc-wa…-?trk=v-feed&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3Bm6QQEHSCtXj01J4k06N58A%3D%3D

    • Dear Christine,

      A major problem with nutrition is the lack of knowledge of government officials about substances like MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate), Aspartame, etc. In Ecuador they implemented the infamous "Food Light" red for high sugar, salt or fat, green for low and yellow for medium, this caused much more damage than good, people reduced consumption of milk, yogurt and 100% natural snacks like banana chips because they had RED on fat and SUGAR!!! While saying NOTHING at all about snacks full of MSG, aspartame, etc.

      This kind of foolishness, to say the least, should be avoided at all costs, in addition to fighting corruption!!!

      Best regards,

      JC Wandemberg Ph.D.

      Sustainable Systems International

    • Dear Christine,

      Thank you for the opportunity to share my views. To best maximise the potential of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition there must be a simultaneous focus on eradicating corruption. This is the most critical activity that needs to be included in the Work Programme. Without this simultaneous fight against corruption all efforts will be significantly diminished to say the least.

      Thank you,

      JC Wandemberg Ph.D.

    • Human behavior is extremely complex, e.g. one man's trash is somebody elses treasure. Hence, the need to understand all the driving factors behind over-eating before overweight becomes a vicious downward spiral e.g., tired to exercise> more anxious > eating). Addressing the symptoms will only delay the solution and thus aggravate the problem!

      In Ecuador the government implemented a food "traffic light" with red for high sugars, fat and salt, yellow for medium and green for low. The consequences were desastrous, to say the least, people lower their consumption of milk, yougurt and other healthy foods while continue eating processed foods with plnety of MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) as well as other preservatives and additives which were completely ignored by the infamous food "traffic light".

    • CFS can add the most value to current initiatives  addressing food security and nutrition in the context of urbanization and rural transformation by ensuring the active participation of those who have to live with the consequences of the decisions being made, however, this active participation is NOT possible or sustainable without proper knowledge or education. Hence, the need to link with local universities and/or research centers. 

      A MAJOR drag on every development effort is the pervasive bureaucratic structure, this restrictive organizational structure can and must be transformed into an expansive organizational structure through the Search Conference and Participative Design Workshop.

      Best regards,

      JC Wandemberg Ph.D.

      SustainableSystemsINternational.Org 

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