Conference visit in the Hague

Apologies for not updating my blog for a longer time! I have been busy working on my literature review, as well as starting the environmental impact assessment.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the launch event for the 2019 Global Food Policy Report and the EAT Lancet Report in The Hague. Both publications are prominent in the CCAFS field, the former making a case for rural revitalization to address developmental shortcomings, and the latter stressing the importance of environmental and human health. After presentations on both publications each were given by Shenggen Fan (Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)) and Fabrice DeClerk (EAT Science Director), a panel discussion was held among academics and professionals in this

My takeaways from this event:

-Malnutrition, poverty, sanitation problems, as well as inequality and environmental degradation persist in rural communities around the world and need to be addressed in order to deliver on SDG goals. The main strategy proposed by the 2019 Global Food Policy Report, “rural revitalization”, promotes making use of new opportunities and technologies, increasing more and better-paid rural jobs, fostering gender equality, as well as better governance of the rural environment.

-Cities can be part of the rural revitalization effort, as rural areas can supply the growing urban populations with food and other commodities. This was referred to as “rurbanomics” in Mr. Fan’s presentation

-Food production should take place within the planetary boundaries*. Crossing these boundaries would not only severely disrupt these processes, but also make agricultural production more difficult.

-Most countries have diets that are neither nutritionally optimal, nor sustainable for our planet, and many populations are affected by under- and overnutrition at the same time.

-Free trade enables food diversity and better nutrition. Trade protectionism, however, adversely food diversity and thus food and nutritional security.

-Food fortification may be part of the solution towards more nutritious and sustainable diets globally. This tool has proven to be a good way to tackle malnutrition. As for environmental impacts, my results hopefully will give me some ideas on that soon.

*Planetary boundaries: This is a concept developed by a team of environmental and earth system scientists in 2009, and refer to a set of nine environmental processes regulating the stability of the ocean, land and the Earth’s atmosphere. Processes include ocean acidification, climate change and nutrient cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus. The scientists defined quantitative ranges for boundaries and as long these are not crossed, the Earth’s processes will resume without disruptions and humans can safely inhabit the Earth.