While 2020 seems to present novel conditions for those fighting global food segregation issues, in reality, COVID-19 has only exacerbated the impact of existing inequities.
Written by Radhika Marwaha
Our food systems are grossly interlinked.
In April 2019, the Mayo Clinic named 'Avocados' the superfood of the month, much to the delight of avocado-toast lovers. The fruit, laden with fibers, healthy monounsaturated fatty acids, folate, magnesium, potassium, vitamins B and C, among other fascinating features happens to be part of a broader 'food-system.' Netflix show, Rotten's Episode 1, sheds some light on the Latin American "Avocado War." Trade-offs such as the development of cartels that control exports and the impending risk of drought for farming communities are associated with a meal that can lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
In Chile’s Petorca Province, avocado plantations have dried annual rivers up, leaving locals dependent on a fixed weekly supply of portable drinking water. (1)
Global food systems have emerged as a holistic way of thinking about a "web of activities" that bring food on your plate - including production, processing, transport, and consumption. Policymakers and researchers also use the 'Food Systems Dashboard,' a tool developed by Johns Hopkins University and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, to visualize and study country-level data on the components, drivers, and outcomes of food systems (2). Supply chains, food environments, individual factors, consumer behavior, and external factors are unique to a community and available for in-country, or cross-national comparisons. In a later blog post, we will delve a little deeper into the methodology and applications of this tool.
As an approach, Global Nutrition, allows us to take a comprehensive look at the nutritional status and determinants of food security in differently resourced populations. Nutritional indicators such as the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies and malnutrition are especially crucial in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and disadvantaged communities, residing in 'food deserts' in high-income countries (HICs).
While the term 'food deserts' became essential to the discourse surrounding resource inequity in a Western Scottish public housing development in the 1990s, it is a highly contested term. Christopher Cook writes for USC's Center for Health Journalism to explain that the term limits our understanding of the complex socio-economic structures in the food industry that create a "nutritional vacuum" to a mere geographic space devoid of supermarket shelves stocked with brightly colored fruits and vegetables (3).
However, grassroots movements and sustainability-oriented organizations such as the US Agency for International Development and the World Food Programme, are investing more resources to bridge socio-economic and health inequities. Farmers' markets, community gardens, and co-operatives are strategies that have been used to promote a wave of development, centered around food justice. The Global Nutrition Report (2020) also echoes the cry for a pro-equity agenda, linking nutritional outcomes to population health (4), especially as we run out of time to meet the 2025 Global Nutrition targets that prioritize maternal and child health (5). By highlighting the coexistence of undernutrition, obesity, and diet-related non-communicable diseases, these goals help us contextualize nutritional disparities through an epidemiological lens to identify health risks and describe worldwide mortality and morbidity.
An urban farm in Chicago. Urban Agriculture helps improve economic and public health outcomes.
Systemic issues aside, in 2020, food systems have not been averse to the blow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of the analyses available in the public domain are speculative, based on proxy variables, and rely on grey literature, looking at the impact of the pandemic on food security, in terms of 'food systems,' allows us to better fathom the status quo.
With sudden jumps and drops in demand of fresh food, following national-level lockdowns, our food systems suffered both food shortages and spoilage.
Internationally, loss of income and purchasing power, coupled with country-level lockdowns, has resulted in an inadequate and/or unstable access to food (6). The extent of disruption of agricultural systems, export bans, trade, labor units, and price hikes is also speculated to be instrumental in discerning how quickly communities can bounce back to mitigate the risk of food insecurity. These structural disturbances have profound implications on the demand-side in terms of economic and physical access to food in real-time.
Many of us, even at the household level, have experienced that lockdown strategies, which are meant to curb the spread of the virus, have impacted the 4 pillars of the Food and Agriculture Organization - availability, access, stability and utilization (7). In terms of building contemporary resilience and capacity to strengthen food systems against future shocks, preserving assets, encouraging saving behaviors, and improving access to insurance is critical. Diversifying our networks, income, and food sources in our homes and nations can also go a long way in establishing institutional change (6).
Public health data available for the COVID-19 pandemic also reflects how vulnerable minority communities are prone to severe infections and death (8). In the UK, 33% of patients belong to Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, who constitute 13.4% of the country. They are critically ill and require intensive care. In the US, African and African-American patients are three times more likely to contract the infection than their racially white counterparts. But we know that folks from minority communities must be included in COVID-19 studies to ensure we are assessing the factors that affect their access to resources (such as medications, education, food systems) and their health.
COVID-19 emergency response efforts spring up across the world to save lives, especially for those with already weakened immune systems.
We all, as consumers today, are also adopting protective behaviors by shifting to healthier diets to arm our immune system against COVID-19 (9). In light of the same, there is a higher demand for foods rich in bioactive ingredients, flavonoids, herbal and Chinese remedies. Thus, the supply of such foods must keep up with their demand.
There might also be a risk of viral transmission associated with food handling amongst a dense network of producers, retailers, and consumers (9). Trends related to other CoV strains (MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV) indicate that transmission is only likely if an uninfected person contracts food from an infected person, and then touches their eyes, nasal, oral or thoracic mucous membranes. While producing and transporting frozen foods, personnel must take care to prevent transmission of the virus. These items are conventionally kept in cold storage units and sometimes transported to sites plagued by reduced availability of fruits and vegetables, such as food-segregated neighborhoods. Already home to immunocompromised folks, who have poor access to healthcare, such food items must be carefully sanitized at different checkpoints in their journey.
This post is a brief overview of the concept of food systems and their application in understanding the dynamic nature of nutritional disparities before and during the pandemic. In the next few parts of this 'Global Nutrition' themed series, we will be exploring the impact of COVID-19 on agriculture and farmworkers, maternal and child nutrition, global humanitarian crises, and in other vulnerable communities. Until then, check out the resources linked below and drop any questions or comments you might have!
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