Looking at fruit and vegetable news today, a new study reports that almost half of the world’s population does not eat enough fruits and vegetables.
It’s a story we’ve heard before, and frankly, we lose track of the percentages. How many people eat enough fruits and vegetables? Not many among us.
The situation is much worse in less developed countries.
From the news release from Wageningen University:
“Many people in low- and middle-income countries do not get enough nutrients because there are shortages of fruit and vegetables, and supply is one-sided and not always affordable. New policies are needed to increase production in a sustainable way and there is a need for research into how to diversify supply and make it more affordable. This is the conclusion of a group of researchers from Wageningen University & Research (WUR), including Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters, Ilse de Jager and Inge Brouwer, ahead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit.”
Some highlights from the report, according to the release:
- Good seed and fertilizer is not universally accessible or affordable;
- There are problems with preservation and perishability of fruit and vegetables, which result in food waste;
- Not every consumer has enough income to choose fruit and vegetables in their diet, or knowledge about the health benefits;
- There are only enough fruit and vegetables for 55% of the world’s population to meet the recommended amount of 400 grams per day;
- In Africa, only 13% of the countries can meet the populations’ needs, compared to 61% in Asia;
- In low- and middle-income countries, the supply is mainly limited to tomatoes and onions;
- Vitamin and mineral deficiencies resulting from inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption are among the top five risk factors for poor health worldwide; and
- Over 2 million deaths and 65 million Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) are attributable to low intake of fruits, and 1.5 million deaths and 34 million DALYs attributable to low intake of vegetables globally each year.
What are the answers? The authors look at macro (nation or global), meso (community) and micro (household) solutions:
At the macro level, the authors suggest:
- Policy: R&D investment, right to food legislation and food safety regulation;
- Push: Production subsidies, efficiency through breeding and technology and support to diverse alternative production paradigms, infrastructure development and fair finance access;
- Pull: Price subsidies, social safety nets, and food-based dietary guidelines.
Increased fruit and vegetable consumption will benefit all but getting there isn’t easy.
The report summarizes the challenges in its conclusion:
“To guide better action, we need more evidence and understanding. We know a lot about a small fraction of the fruit and vegetable species of which we are aware, and very little about the rest; we know there are disparities in diets in different contexts, but less how to address the political, social and equity determinants of who gets to eat fruits and vegetables; we know much about the technical production and market aspects of fruits and vegetables, but less about bottlenecks in bringing these to low- and middle-income countries; and we don’t know enough about how these things change with context or over time. Work drawing on different academic traditions, including valuing traditional and tacit knowledge, is needed to join the dots. Food systems enabling fruits and vegetables in healthy diets are not only a technical issue, but bring up very real political, social, and ethical questions that societies will have to address, alongside a reliance on evidence. Having these conversations though the lens of equity, to address the needs of both winners and losers of food systems change, will be a vital part of the United Nations Food Systems Summit process towards enabling fruit and vegetable-rich food systems for healthy diets for all.”
TK: It seems a basic question in this debate is just how much faith we invest in the “free market” to deliver a solution to this global problem of underconsumption of fruits and vegetables. If there is no hope that the invisible hand of the market will change outcomes, the time has arrived to engineer more robust push and pull levers at all levels of the economy to produce needed change.
