3 FAO. 2022. United Nations report: global hunger figures rose to as many as 828 million people in 2021. (https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/un-report-global-hunger-SOFI-2022-FAO/en).

4 FAO, IFAD, WHO, WFP and UNICEF. (2022). The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable. Rome, FAO. (https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc0639en).

5 WCRF/AICR. (2007) (World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute of Cancer Research). Food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of cancer: a global perspective. AICR: Second Expert Report. Washington, DC. (https://www.paho.org/hq/dmdocuments/2011/nutrition-AICR-WCR-food-physical-activ.pdf).

6 Hawkesworth, S., Dangour, A.D., Johnston, D., Lock, K., Poole, N., Rushton, J., Uauy, R. and Waage, J. (2010). Feeding the world healthily: the challenge of measuring the effects of agriculture on health. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 365(1554): 3083-3097.

7 GBD. (2019) Global Burden of Disease Collaborator Network. Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2020. (https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results).

To overcome this situation, public policies are needed to address structural changes in the food environment. This means harmonizing fiscal measures, marketing and marketing regulations, mandatory front-of-pack labelling, incentives to encourage sustainable and healthy food production and short supply chains, together with food and nutrition education programmes. To address existing challenges in agrifood systems, we must strengthen coordination between public policies and broaden the range of interventions to help different types of food producers (mainly family farmers) and consumers. Special efforts are needed to close the gender gap and reduce all forms of inequality.

BACKGROUNDCOVID-19 has exacerbated the fragilities of agrifood systems and inequalities in societies, causing increases in hunger and severe and moderate food insecurity in the world.1 The war in Ukraine, involving two of the world's largest producers of staple grains, oilseeds and fertilizers, is also disrupting international supply chains and driving up the prices of grains, fertilizers and energy, as well as ready-to-use therapeutic foods for the treatment of severe malnutrition in children. This comes at a time when supply chains are already being disrupted by extreme weather changes, especially in low-income countries, with serious implications for global food security and nutrition.3

Despite food-related efforts, trends in child malnutrition – including stunting, essential micronutrient deficiencies, maternal anaemia, overweight and obesity – have worsened4. A radical transformation of agrifood systems is therefore required, taking actions that guarantee access to healthy and sustainable diets for all men and women. This must be done in order to reduce levels of malnutrition and guarantee the human right to adequate food, particularly when we consider that almost 3.1 billion people globally do not earn enough to afford a healthy diet.4

Ensuring people's access to safe and healthy food is essential to prevent malnutrition in all its forms (undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity), as this multiple burden of malnutrition leads to health problems such as underweight (low weight for age), stunting, chronic non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction and stroke), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma), and diabetes, among others.5,6,7.

Governments therefore need to incentivize the production, supply and consumption of nutritious and culturally suitable foods. They must also contribute to making healthy diets less costly as well as more affordable and equitable for all. More could be done to reduce barriers to trade in nutritious foods such as fruit, vegetables and pulses.

27 DE FEVEREIRO DE 2024 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

53