Food Business News - August 28, 2012 - 20

New global food paradigm
ROME — A paradigm shift in favor of food biodiversity and away from excessive dependence on crop staples such as wheat, corn and rice is urged in a book published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Biodiversity International. The book, “Sustainable Diets and BioDiversity: Directions and Solutions for Policy, Research and Action,” was edited by Barbara Burlingame and Sandro Dernini. The 309-page book is a compilation of papers presented in November 2010 at the International Scientiﬁc Symposium titled, “Biodiversity and sustainable diets: United against hunger,” organized jointly by the F.A.O. and Biodiversity International, which like the U.N. group is based in Rome. The book criticizes an approach toward world hunger focused excessively on food quantity. “But the pace of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, coupled with emerging health issues related to diet,

Book published by the F.A.O. recommends less dependence on dietary staples
such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases across the world.” The F.A.O. noted the three largest grain staples (corn, wheat and rice) account for 60% of caloric intake (though the group fails to estimate whether the ﬁgure is up or down from recent and distant historical numbers). To blame, according to the F.A.O., is “high-input industrial agriculture and longdistance transport,” responsible for making “reﬁned carbohydrates and fats affordable and available across the globe.” As a result, diets have become overly simpliﬁed with reliance on a “limited number of energyrich foods,” the F.A.O. said. “But such foods lack nutrient quality and have heavy carbon and water footprints,” the group said. “Cheap, energy-dense foods have also come at the cost of ﬂavor, diversity and cultural connection.” The F.A.O. warned that rising incomes in developing economies has prompted many to abandon “traditional plant-based foods” in favor of diets laden with meat, dairy products, fats and sugar. “Regardless of the many successes of agriculture in the last three decades, it is clear that food systems, and diets, are not sustainable,” wrote Ms. Burlingame, who leads the F.A.O. Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division, in the book’s preface. “While over 900 million people in the world suffer from hunger, even more — about 1.5 billion — are overweight or obese, and an estimated two billion suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, including vitamin A, iron, or iodine deﬁciency,” Ms. Burlingame said. Emile Frison, director general of Romebased Biodiversity International, said the time has come to move beyond the largest grain staples in favor of “the many hundreds and thousands of neglected and underutilized plant and animal species that mean the difference between an unsustainable and a sustainable diet.” Modern agricultural production is blamed in the book for shrinking plant and animal genetic diversity, with 17,291 species out of 47,677 assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature described as threatened with extinction. Examples are offered of the successful reinstatement in Kenya of leafy green vegetables that historically had been considered “poor people’s food” in local diets and markets. “Promotion of the traditional plants, including African night shade, cowpea and pumpkin leaves, spider plant and vine spinach, has increased demand both within households and

make it urgent to address the quality of agriculture and food systems,” the F.A.O. said. “Poor diets are linked to marked increases in non-communicable diseases

ingredient & blending
solution.
one stop shopping national distribution

the

B.C. Williams Bakery Service BCW Food Products
800.527.4104 www.bcwilliams.com
a baking tradition since 1935.

FOODBUSINESS NEWS

August 28, 2012

http://www.bcwilliams.com

Food Business News - August 28, 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Business News - August 28, 2012