Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?

Two years ago, I embarked on the writing of my very first book. Coming from a field of expertise that values peer-reviewed scientific publications more than books, I did not think it was in the cards to consider authoring a book about my discipline and my experience working in that discipline. But here we are, and tomorrow, my JHU Press Wavelength series trade book, Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet? will be released. The pandemic helped, unfortunately. It nudged me to sit still and put pen to paper.

The book investigates the interactions among food systems, diets, human health, and the climate crisis. It draws on my experiences (along with my team and many colleagues) working and living in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It describes how food systems must change to slow and reverse the stark trends we see with increased hunger and obesity, catastrophic climate change, and inequities. The book draws attention to the idea that the very nature of food and food systems can play a significant role in fixing these vexing challenges and bring communities together.

Food books abound—cookbooks by celebrity chefs (thanks Anthony Bourdain!), history of food and cuisines, and self-help diet books. My book does not delve into these areas much. Instead, it delves deep into politics and shows that if we take a “business as usual” path of how food systems have, are, and will operate, there will be significant negative consequences on human and planetary health. It provides examples of what can be done by the various actors like government and food and agriculture industries to promote healthy, sustainable, and equitable diets, sustain the earth’s biodiversity, and protect the environment and all species living on the planet. And last, it raises readers’ food and environmental literacy and empowers readers to take immediate and long-term changes by helping them make informed decisions when they walk into restaurants, grocery stores, farmers' markets, and their kitchens.

The book changed the way I communicate my work. It is not easy to write about a complex topic like food systems and ensure that it inspires eaters, global experts in governments, and those working in and shaping food systems to make better decisions. I tried my best to bring to life some of my experiences working in different countries—from very poor to prosperous—and the experiences of those I have worked with and shared time with in deeply rural and urban pockets of the planet. It provides a nuanced story that takes you away from computer and desk research to farmer’s fields, families’ kitchens, and United Nations’ working forums.

I hope the book shows readers how our everyday diets are the products of massive, interconnected, and highly complex food systems that extend from the seedlings in a farmer’s field to the global distribution and marketing networks that deliver food to our plates. These systems have direct and substantial impacts on poverty, the planet’s natural resources, the nutrition of individuals and populations, the composition of the atmosphere, and social equity. They also are incredibly vulnerable to the climatic changes that we have already seen and that will accelerate in the future.

Food Bytes: June 1st Edition

Food Bytes is a weekly blog post of “nibbles” of information on all things food and nutrition science, policy and culture.

Indeed, it has been a while. One would have thought that the COVID-19 pandemic would have made me more productive—there is so much to blog about! Alas, for some of us, we’re okay going “underground” so to speak.

Speaking of underground, cicadas have emerged—the Broods (X) are back after a 17-year slumber. What does that have to do with the pandemic? Well, everything and nothing. My guest blogger and better half went hunting to cook some up. And let me tell ya, they are scrumptious. Truly. I too spoke about them on NPR and CNN.

COVID-19 has us not only experimenting with grubs but has upended our entire lifestyle. This NY Times piece argues that as we emerge from a year ++ of inactivity and less than normal eating patterns, we do not have to give in to all the diet fads that companies want you so badly to believe and buy. The video is quite thoughtful.

So many podcasts on food…but I like Point of Origin. This one, on “food apartheid” as opposed to “food desert” is particularly interesting.

Speaking of podcasts, I am pretty excited about my book that is coming out on June 22: Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet? I spoke to Jeremy Cherfast of Eat This Podcast about the book and fixing our food systems.

The UN Food Systems Summit is gearing up for better and for worse. There is a lot of chatter, dialoguing, planning, and writing on the peripheries. Corinna Hawkes, my go-to on all things food systems, has been keeping up her blog sharing gems of thoughts on leadership, inclusion, and what it means to truly change food systems around the world.

Some other random media nuggets that caught my eye this past week or so:

• NYT questions the measurement of Body Mass Index. It’s about time…

• Inspiring article in Mother Jones about black farmers reclaiming land that is rightfully theirs.

• Mark Bittman has written another book and this one hits hard at the U.S. food system. Always provocative, here are some of his thoughts on what needs to change. Alice Waters weighs in too.

• Should we have a scientific body that weighs the evidence on food systems? Some say no. Why? Because it already exists. Yes, it does but it needs help…

We cannot end any Food Byte edition without highlighting some of the fantastic science being generated on all things food. Here are a few gems:

• Animal source foods reduced stunting in young children in Bangladesh and Nepal. Nature Food.

• A modeling exercise looked at the cost-effectiveness of food programs on saving children’s lives. Bottom line, they make an impact. Global Food Security.

• A call to action for a one-health approach to avoid future land use-induced spillover events. Lancet Planetary Health.

• Interesting perspective of pastoralists and another piece on their resilience. One Earth and Aeon.

• You say you want a food systems data revolution? Well, think again. Sustainability.

• While food systems could address disability-adjusted life years due to chronic hunger, population pressure and climate change will make it much worse, particularly for sub-Saharan Africa. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

And that’s all she wrote folks. See you soon.

Brood X - Collecting and Cooking Cicadas 101

This post is from guestblogger, 5cense. Original posting here.

Since Jess has been too busy giving all these interviews about eating cicadas to actually collect and cook them, I figured I'd walk the talk for her and give the practical low-down (though this advice won't be useful to anyone for another 17 years (for brood X anyway), which is crazy to think about... seriously a 4/5-times-in-a-lifetime opportunity). For the past week I've been waking up before dawn to collect cicadas, until yesterday when it got cool and rainy and seems they stopped coming out of the ground. All in all I don't think it was the biblical plague the media hyped it up to be, at least not in D.C. proper... maybe it's a different story in the suburbs? Seems the cicadas don't like "nature" and the majority I found were in grassy open areas in Rock Creek and Kalorama Park, which certainly made them easier to find. I saw some in Malcolm X park but there were tons of squirrels, birds and rats to compete with, not to mention the possibility of pesticides or rat poison. Ideally we looked for ones crawling on the ground or starting to go up trees. If I collected stationary nymphs on trees I often found that they'd molt by the time I got back and while some say the soft white adults were the best, they looked gross after being trampled to death by the active nymphs. Like lobsters and crabs (also bugs), seems it's best to collect and keep them alive as long as possible.

And here's what the ones we collected the other morning looked and sounded like:

Some also say the black adults taste good, but we never tried them... seems if an adult made it to the tree and molted then it deserves to live, especially the pregnant females which some say are a delicacy. I "saved" quite a few adult cicadas that were on sidewalks or seemingly lost nowhere near a tree by putting them high up in trees, and a few (including a stowaway that hitched a ride home on my backpack) we brought into our house and put on our plants to keep them safe until they were ready to mate, but then they flew around our house and wouldn't settle down so we put them in our backyard, where likely they were eaten by the numerous birds or squirrels that eat anything that moves in our yard. Once I'd get home I'd sort thru them to remove the grass and debris and dead ones, and also any fungus-infected "sex-crazed zombies".

Once I sorted thru them I bagged them into meal-size batches and stuck them in the freezer, which seems sort of cruel, but better then having them suffocate or slowly die. I collected about a dozen bags worth (maybe a ½ pound each). The first 2 times we tried them (including the ones Jess cooked for CNN, see the previous post), we sautéed/fried them in sesame oil w/ garlic, chili and spices. This past weekend we had a friend over for dinner and made cicada fajitas/tacos, which were tasty.

A few nights ago we wanted to try them roasted and without too much spice to really taste the bug (after all, most anything fried with garlic and chilis will taste good). As when we fried them, we boiled them first for a few minutes, which serves to clean them (and also seems to plumpen them up) and then rinsed them in a strainer to get off any remaining debris. We mixed them in with potatoes on a cookie sheet and added olive oil and a little garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary and stuck them in the oven for about 20 minutes (the potatoes for longer).

They might look gross, but must say they were quite delicious—nutty, buttery and earthy. In fact we gobbled the bugs up before the potatoes. They taste like something that's meant to be eaten, like shrimp, sea urchin or clams (which we tend to eat a lot of... the lower on the food chain the better). They supposedly have a lot of fat because once they emerge from the ground they live off their fat stores during their 2-week party of molting, courting and mating, but seems nobody has done a proper nutritional analysis, so "my better ½" Jess wants to sacrifice one of our baggies for analysis (if we don't devour them all first).

The lost art of reading a book

I recently did an interview for the Reading List with Phil Treagus. I am a big book fan (my better half is a book publisher and archiver) but especially books on food (go figure). I also have two books coming out this year that I am pretty excited about. The first is through Johns Hopkins University Press titled “Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?” The book is my own take on improving food systems and brings in a lot of my own experiences working on food issues in different places in the world. It comes out May 2021. The second book is a textbook published by Palgrave titled “Global Food Systems, Diets and Nutrition: Linking Science, Economics and Policy.” My colleague Claire Davis and I are excited to see this book out in June 2021.

This is what I had to say about books and you can also go to the original interview here.

How do you describe your occupation?

Educator and researcher of food systems.

Talk us through a typical day for you…

My day starts with a series of very early morning (begins around 5 am) zoom meetings with other researchers and organizations (UN, NGOs, etc.) working in Europe, Africa, and Asia on projects, publications, or initiatives. If I am not teaching a course that semester, I usually have one guest lecture to do and am usually on one or two public panels/webinars/keynote talks throughout the day. I try to block some time to read, write and do data analysis and, of course, to exercise (one hour a day)—usually mid-morning or late afternoon. Sometimes, I have 10-15 meetings throughout the day, so having concentrated focus time is challenging. Dinner is always the highlight of the day. We eat early, like 5:30, and my husband whips up gourmet meals. We usually watch something on Netflix or Criterion for about an hour or so. Then back at it to do a bit of writing in the early evening. I am in bed (and asleep) by 10 pm.

What are you reading at the moment, and what made you want to read it?

Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth by Stuart Ritchie. With so much dis- and misinformation on facts, data, and evidence, and the significant conflicts of interest in the food world, I was very keen to look inward into the science community that generates information. Where have we failed? Where are our faults? What could we do better? This book highlights the pitfalls of how we develop, communicate and vet science (with nutrition examples throughout the book) and turns the mirror on the science world. It is fantastic!

Can you remember the first book you read by yourself?

It is a toss-up. The two that stand out to me and are forever imprinted on my brain is Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert O’Brien and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Strangely, and I haven’t thought about this until just now, both involve the food world. Mrs Frisby (a mouse) needs to move her home, which is endangered from the fields’ annual spring plowing. She asks a sophisticated bunch of rats for help. The story of James centers on a boy who enters a peach, and his world changes. Both stories highlight the magic and mysticism of ecosystems and experiences with that magic.

Are you a page folder or a bookmarker?

Page folder. But I go one step further. I fold the top of the current page I am reading so I know where I am the next time I pick up the book. I fold the page’s bottom if there is something on that page I want to go back to or research later.

Can you tell us a little more about the Global Food Security Journal?

The Journal strives to publish evidence-informed strategic views of experts from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives on prospects for ensuring food security, nutrition, and health across food system issues. We wish to publish reviews, perspectives articles, and debates that synthesize, critique and extend findings from the rapidly growing body of original publications on global food security, nutrition, food systems, and related areas; and special issues on critical topics across food security, food systems, and nutrition including how these are impacted by climate and environmental dynamics.

If you could gift yourself books at age 16 and age 25 – what would they be and why?

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan and The End of Food by Paul Roberts. Pollan has mastered the craft of telling compelling food stories that have political, social and environmental repercussions in such an approachable way. While the book focuses mainly on the United States, it does raise questions as to the sustainability and ethics of how we grow our food and the individual dietary choices we make every day. Pollan has his fair share of critics, but I have yet to see an academic write such a compelling narrative on the fractured global food system. Paul Roberts’s book had an even deeper impact on me. It was hard to eat after reading his book because essentially, you feel the world is doomed! As Jim Morrison of The Doors sang, “the future is certain and the end is always near.” The End of Food, as the title suggests, brings those lyrics to life…

If you could invite 5 authors (dead or alive) to a dinner party – who would they be and why?

Amartya Sen (for his incredible influence on how we view poverty, famine, and human development and his many authored books including Poverty and Famine). Mark Kurlansky (for his incredible journalistic deep dives into things like Salt, Cod and Paper). Leah Penniman (author of Farming While Back and co-owner of Soul Fire Farm. A walking the talk author and entrepreneur!). Rachel Carson (for her landmark book Silent Spring that influenced the entire environmental movement). Joseph Campbell (his vast knowledge on the human experience and author of A Hero with a Thousand Faces). I highly recommend the interviews he had done towards the end of his life with Bill Moyer. After watching that, I wanted to be better at my craft.

What was the last book you purchased, and why did you buy it?

New Climate War by Michael Mann. Michael is a climatologist at Penn State. He is a clear communicator and fantastic science whose work has helped build the evidence on global warming. His new book is all about the politics of inaction on climate. In the food world, and very much tied to climate, we face similar issues of political inertia, interference and power imbalance of powerful industry players and complex scientific messages. Hopefully, I can learn something from Mann’s experience in battling the “merchants of doubt” and how he and others have fought to keep the evidence of climate change on the top of the global agenda.

What is your favourite thing about reading?

The quiet time and the ability to reflect on other’s views, worlds, and perspectives. I also find that I like the feel, experience, and act of reading an actual book as opposed to an e-book or an audiobook.

What’s the best book you’ve read in the last 6 months?

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Written in 1962 but felt like it was written in 2020.

In your Twitter bio you describe yourself as a ‘goat lover’, I have to ask you to elaborate on this…

Goats are just so cool. Resilient, smart, and independent. And did you know they can surf? My husband and I even keep a blog, named “Goat Rodeo.” Speaking of books, there is a great book about goats entitled Goat Song by Brad Kessler who leaves New York City with this partner to go raise Nubian goats in Vermont.

If you could insert yourself into any book, which would you pick and why?

This is a tough one! Maybe Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan. Robert would roam the city streets of New York in the silence and darkness of night observing what rats would feast on, and how they lived their lives. I am disgusted by but fascinated with these resilient little creatures and it would have been fun to spend a year doing this sort of rodential research. Turns out their diets are a lot like humans…they like junk food.

What is the book that you feel has had the single biggest impact on your life? What impact did it have?

This is really a tough one. I want to say Ulysses by James Joyce but that is a total lie. Perhaps Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. As a trained molecular nutritionist, it upended the way I think about food, human health and environmental sustainability. I pulled my head out of the petri dish and have focused much more on their connections and the macro- long view of food systems and how and where they fit into sustainable development.

If you could only own three cookbooks, which would you pick and why?

Anything by Alice Waters but especially The Art of Simple Cooking. She lays out the necessities of cookware, ingredients and basic recipes you need to at least feel like you are cooking organic, wholesome food straight out of the 1970s Berkeley. She also just propels food and cooking to an art form. Bibi’s Kitchen because it highlights the diversity of Africa’s cuisine told through and shared by grandmothers. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat. She makes cooking so approachable.

Are there any books you haven’t mentioned that you feel would make your reading list?

I’d also include:

Chronicles by Bob Dylan,
Just Kids by Patti Smith (I am a big fan of music books),
Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss,
Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton,
Food Politics and Soda Politics by Marion Nestle (see our interview with Marion Nestle),
Mass Starvation by Alex De Waal,
One Day I will Write About this Place by Binyavanga Wainaina,
Four Fish by Paul Greenberg,
Sweetness and Power by Sidney Mintz,
The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles Mann,
and The Way we Eat Now by Bee Wilson.

Which book sat on your shelf are you most excited about reading next and why?

The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr. I love the premise of this book. The author takes the reader through the inner workings of the nebulous supermarket that has become the powerhouse influencer on our diets. I am sort of scared though. I have a feeling I am going to never want to set foot in a supermarket again after reading this. Much like how I felt after reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I have yet to eat at McDonald’s (not that I really want to) since reading that book…

Taking the long view

This post is my first after what was

“a year like no other”

“one for the records”

'‘unprecedented.”

If you think I am being snarky, I both am and am not. 2020 was the year of feeling overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. Feeling interested and totally uninterested with each passing day. Existing in a time loop but sensing that time was running out. There has been so much analysis about how 2020 unfolded and many proclamations and celebrations of its end. I will not reopen those newly closed wounds. What worries me is 2021. The idea that the world will (have to) get better in the next 12 months is stunningly optimistic. With that in mind, here are my 2021 resolutions and they have absolutely nothing to do with food...

Managing expectations

2020 had some high moments and some incredibly low ones too. One of the high ones was the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Even with the vaccine(s), we need to manage our expectations of when the pandemic will end and if herd immunity is within our reach (imagine the challenge we face to vaccinate at least 5 billion people). We require a united global effort if we want to pull this off. So far, the response to the COVID-19 crisis has been splintered and now, the virus is doing what it is driven to do: it’s mutating, surviving, getting smarter. There has been an incredible amount of political polarization in handling the virus, and very few governments have embraced global cooperation and inclusion. Governments should not and cannot face inward. We will never get a handle on the pandemic.

We have been watching (too) many movies from the 1970s (the golden era of American cinema). It is so strange to see people drinking in crowded bars, having intimate dinner parties at people’s homes, taking bites and sips of shared food and drink, and kissing! It reminds me of a time when we were so alive. Will we ever go back? I don’t know. I plan to manage my expectations in thinking that this pandemic will be dusted and done by the end of 2021, or even 2022. We have a long way to go before this is over, and even when we get there, will we remember how we lived? We may need to watch the Godfather, Klute, Deer Hunter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Network—to remind ourselves that we had a time. And we may never get back to it.

Focusing on the small things

The world often seems to be on its knees, particularly with the sensationalized news feed that inundates us 24/7. Sometimes it is better to step back and re-focus our energy on the small things. The things we can change. The things that are asking to be appreciated. Maybe, the things that matter. I love these lines from Mary Oliver’s poem, Invitation:

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in this broken world.

Taking the long view

For those of us living in the United States, it is challenging not to get swept up in what is happening to our democracy and the unraveling of a nation. Indeed, the world is broken. Some would argue, we are on the verge of a collapse—all the signs of a very complex, stymied society are ever-present and when you throw a pandemic on top of the heap, it could all crumble. But we must remember that the president before (soon to be former) President Trump was President Obama. Talk about whiplash. And as Obama rightly said: “Two steps forward, one step back. The long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion.” Taking the long view allows us to see the ebbs and flows of democracy. Are we headed for a societal collapse? Maybe. But we still have a few solid years in us to undue made mistakes and chart a better path. We have it in us, much like the coronavirus does, to survive.

Enjoying the silence.

A group of scientists published a paper in Science calling 2020 the “great seismic quiet period.” Noise from transportation, industrialization and population movement and activity, in general, was significantly lower in 2020 than in previous years. Most of the seismic decreases were due to government responses to the pandemic – lockdowns, curfews and restricted movements. While these pandemic responses have been devastating economically, the world has become quieter. So, for now, as the pandemic rolls on, enjoy the silence.

Food Bytes: October 1st Edition

Food Bytes is a weekly blog post of “nibbles” of information on all things food and nutrition science, policy and culture.

Its been a while since the last Byte. What can I say, COVID and all things America has got me down, slow to move and at times, speechless. So here it goes.

The Food Systems Dashboard was officially launched on June 1st and I think thus far, it is a useful tool. It brings together 170 indicators that characterize food systems, representing just about every country and territory on the planet. There are some snazzy ways to visualize the data or if you choose, you can just download the entire data set. Have at it and send feedback. Keep checking on it, because more features, bells, and whistles are coming soon.

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition published its new Report, Future Food Systems: For people, our planet and prosperity a few days ago. It’s chock-full of really good data with contributions from many stellar experts and scientists working on food system transitions and transformation. Plus, the cover is pretty badass.

Speaking of world order, or the lack thereof, a new book out of John Hopkins Press entitled “COVID-19 and World Order: The Future of Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation” is out. Project Muse was gracious enough to provide it as a free download. I contributed a chapter on food security. I recommend reading the last section of the chapter, “The necessity of world order for food security.” I am a bit harsh on the UN and CGIAR systems, but the COVID-19 response has displayed the weaknesses of the multilateral system and existing institutions. Many of these organizations are totally necessary but are perhaps now out of date and in need of an overhaul.

The High-Level Panel of Experts of the UN Committee on Food Security published a great paper on COVID-19 and food security. My guess is the very thoughtful Jennifer Clapp may have been a significant contributor. They lay out some scenarios of short to long-term impacts of the pandemic on food systems. Here is a quick diagram if you don’t have time to read the report. Basically, we are all screwed.

View fullsize

Food policy specialist Corinna Hawkes has a new blog series out entitled the Better Food Journey. Cool stuff. Check it out.

Are you getting sad? Brace yourself, because according to the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report, “Our relationship with nature is broken.” Sounds like a Werner Herzog documentary. They argue that because humans are the biggest instigators of nature’s destruction we should be the ones to fix it. Here here. Agreed. Too bad our current administration of the ol’ US of A doesn’t feel the same. And THAT is problematic for the whole world not just as dummie Americans or Californians, although “climate change is smacking California in the face.”

Let’s change the subject to one a bit more uplifting. Childhood stunting! In all seriousness, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition just published a series on how countries can reduce stunting. They highlight some countries that have had success, and for those of us who work in nutrition, the usual suspects - Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Peru et al. But there are some good lessons to be had. Check out the supplement here. And for those more interested in the state of acute malnutrition, there is a good website of acute malnutrition data on over 20 indicators, including prevalence, incidence and coverage.

And for any of you interested in the UN Food Systems Summit slated for next year, keep posted on the latest news here. There will be a lot of activity leading up to the Summit. The question remains, will any of it matter for those being left behind living with hunger, food insecurity, and poverty? Or will it be just another global high-level meeting of the usual suspects? The jury is out…but I will remain hopeful.

Generating knowledge, dutifully and honestly

“Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.”

— Haruki Murakami

This quote by Murakami really speaks to researchers and scientists: Keep focused. Crowd out the noise. Discover. Be dutiful and honest.

But as Tony Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Infectious Disease of the United States gets the cold shoulder from our dear Potus, with attempts to undermine his evidence-based warning calls of a worsening COVID-19 pandemic here in America, it is hard to ignore the last part of that quote - the falling apart bit.

As researchers, we often keep our heads down and dig deep into the details with laser sharp focus to keep generating data and evidence for the greater good of science and knowledge. But we can no longer sit quietly behind our benches and laptops and blissfully hope that someone, anyone, will read that peer reviewed paper that you just published in Journal X. We need to be attuned to the political climate.

Speaking of publications, I was asked to contribute to an exciting, upcoming Johns Hopkins University Press publication COVID19 and World Order. In my piece, I make a series of technical recommendations on what it would take to achieve resilient food systems and potential measures to address our current pandemic and avoid catastrophic future zoonotic pandemics. I bring up this publication because none of the recommendations to fix food systems I made in the paper will stand on two legs with the current fractured and sclerotic global political enabling environment. In order for food systems to function effectively, equitably, and sufficiently during the pandemic and long after, the political environment must be one that embraces global cooperation and inclusion and minimizes political polarization and geopolitical competition. And we, as scientists and researchers, cannot remain silent, disengaging from the political process, however dismal it may be.

Politics matter for the world and for science, and now more than ever. Frank Fukuyama wrote: “Countries with dysfunctional states, polarized societies, or poor leadership have done badly, leaving their citizens and economies exposed and vulnerable.” It is not surprising that states led by populist, inward-facing leaders such as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico are not sufficiently addressing the pandemic. This has led to dire consequences for the citizens living in these countries with many who are struggling with food insecurity and high COVID-related morbidity and mortality.

The COVID-19 response has also displayed the weaknesses of the multilateral system and existing institutions. Within this, the “global food architecture” is often slow, outdated and needs 21st-century support and strategic know-how. One of those entities - the World Health Organization - has tragically and sadly just lost its support from the United States during a time in what may be one of the most crucial global health issues of the century. Multi-lateral cooperation looks perilous and science and the data that it bears is being undermined.

However, cooperation can happen in times of crisis - we have seen it before. Perhaps the UN Food Summit in 2021 can be a moment to create a global strategy for food governance that is nimble, modern, and inclusive, backed by an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-like body that provides evidence and science to support actions.

As the Editor-in-Chief of the Global Food Security Journal, my co-editors and I share our perspectives on the food security challenges that face humanity and lay out our vision and call for stronger food systems research and science in the 2020s. I think this piece comes at a critical moment in food policy with COVID and climate change, because the challenges and opportunities for food systems research that lay ahead are significant, requiring that high-quality science be translated into policy faster than ever before.

“Our vision is one in which research and science, and the evidence stemming from their application, not only inform food and environmental policy, but are adopted and mainstreamed into actions at the national, regional, and global levels.”

In the paper, we write: “At a time when facts, science, and evidence are under ever greater scrutiny, and even openly disregarded as suspect by some political and business leaders, the rigors of research have never been more critical. It is also important not to become disheartened by the slow speed of change in policy and practice, even when the appropriate course of action is clear ‘to us.’ Research can and does bring about wholesale changes in attitudes, political thought, and action, but change takes time.”

We argue that the food systems have transformed, but with that transformation, we are left with profound and widening gaps to address sustainability and equity. These gaps will make future food security and continuity of life on the planet difficult to say the least. As researchers, we will have to fill in those gaps to ensure we meet the demands of a growing population sustainably while co-existing in amity with the planet.

We also need to find the stitched pockets of progress and small glimmers of hope as the basis of our knowledge to move forward - dutifully and honestly.

The threat of zoonotic diseases on the global food supply: Preventing the next spillover

by Meghan Davis & Jessica Fanzo

This is a cross-posted blog and can also be found here on the COVID-19 blog series: Opportunities for building back better food systems and nutrition, a series curated by Lawrence Haddad, Jess Fanzo and Corinna Hawkes to shine a light on the threats and opportunities for nutrition and food systems.

Disease X was supposed to be caused by an influenza virus.

For years, scientists, world leaders, and other critical stakeholders have been preparing for the moment when a novel zoonotic pathogen would cross the species barrier from an animal population into the global human population in a big way. This is called a spillover event, and in role-playing exercises, the resulting hypothetical global pandemic came to be known as Disease X.

The last time a disease emerged on this scale was the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the last influenza spillover was the H1N1 “swine flu” in 2009. Influenza met all the criteria for a problem pathogen from a pandemic preparedness perspective: 1) it spreads rapidly from person-to-person, 2) it can hide and mutate in animal reservoirs (particularly birds and pigs), and 3) it can impact many parts of society, including the food supply. Because H1N1 could infect pigs, many animals were culled and the pork supply chain was badly affected.

COVID-19 is worse, and its impacts on the food supply are far greater than many imagined.

Like H1N1 influenza, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19 disease) infected people through a spillover event, most likely from a bat, although another animal may have been involved as well. At first, case trace back from the December outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, China implicated seafood and “wet market,” a place where wildlife and other live animals are bought and sold. These are considered to be risky places from a pandemic preparedness perspective since stressed wild animals from many different areas are brought together—a recipe to encourage a pathogen to jump species. However, later genetic work on SARS-CoV-2 and additional information suggested that the virus may actually have emerged as early as November, before the wet market outbreak. Currently, many questions remain about the origins of the virus, although scientists agree that it is zoonotic (comes from animals) and that a bat coronavirus is the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2. The figure below shows the origin and co-evolution of the coronavirus family prior to the SARS-CoV-2 emergence.

Given the potential for influenza to infect pigs, preparation for Disease X assumed that one impact on the food supply would be culling related to pigs, chickens, or other livestock becoming infected, suggesting a need to limit the spread in the animal population through depopulation of affected farms.

With COVID-19, animals are being depopulated, but not because of animal infection (in fact, preliminary animal studies suggest pigs and chickens don’t easily get infected with SARS-CoV-2). Instead, they are being depopulated because of the impacts on the health of humans who work on farms and in meat processing plants, leading to plant closures. If the animals can’t be harvested, they can’t be kept indefinitely, consuming expensive grain and outgrowing the equipment that would be used to harvest them later. To complicate the situation, the feed supply chain, which is global, also has been disrupted by COVID-19 mitigation measures—the average person might run to the store to stock up on toilet paper, and livestock producers run to the futures market to stock up on grain.

Coronavirus family origins and evolution (Source: Fang and Shi, Nature, 2019)

So what to do to avoid a future Disease X? First, researchers and development practitioners must recognize that the health of people, animals, and our shared environment are tightly interconnected. Public health issues are environmental issues, and taking a One Health approach to science, is critical to avoid future zoonotic spillovers. USAID’s PREDICT project encompasses transdisciplinary teams made up of public health specialists, epidemiologists, veterinarians, and environmentalists. These teams focus on geographic hotspots where wildlife is most likely to carry zoonotic diseases that could be a threat to human health and food systems. They catalog diseases, create predictive maps of potential disease outbreaks, and help communities respond to the threat of an outbreak.

Second, we need to understand that changes in ecosystems where animals live are driving the circulation of viral spread. Wildlife’s habitats are threatened and affected by land-use changes and deforestation, often due to agriculture expansion to grow more food, ironically. Trade of wildlife is common and found for purchase in wet markets in many parts of the world. This is shifting viral reservoirs and contact-rates between virus-carrying animals and humans. Regulation of illegal sales of wildlife in global food trade and food markets must be governed by local authorities, and balancing respect for cultural food practices with public health prevention measures will be important.

Third, social behavior change strategies should be prioritized and scaled up that focus on issues of secondary infections and the handling of animals. Examples of campaigns in Sierra Leone with Lassa fever and in the DRC with Ebola increased awareness of how the disease is transmitted in the handling and exposure of animals as food or animals contaminating food.

And last, there is no systematic global effort to monitor pathogens emerging from animals that put human populations at risk. There is a need for even more surveillance through traceability technologies in the food system to track potential zoonotic and food-borne illnesses that are and will continue to present a threat to food systems and the health of our global population. One Health approaches—those at the intersection of human health, animal health, and environmental health—are critical as we respond to COVID-19, recover and learn from its impacts, and prepare for the next Disease X.

In Africa, Covid-19 Threatens to Worsen Hunger

This is a cross-posted blog and originally on Bloomberg Opinion. The original can be read here.

The continent has some unique strengths, but food insecurity is a special vulnerability. 

“It is easy to see the beginnings of things and harder to see the ends,” Joan Didion wrote in “Goodbye to All That.” Her words resonate in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when no one has a clue whether we’re at the beginning, in the middle or near the end. In sub-Saharan Africa, not knowing is especially worrisome because it’s difficult to tell whether the continent’s fragile food supply systems will weather the strain.

 While the continent has made great strides toward economic security over the past several decades, Covid-19 could stymie that progress. Conditions vary greatly from country to country, but many struggles to ensure that their citizens have access to basic essentials: soap to clean hands, potable water and nutritious food to keep immune systems strong. Hunger and food insecurity have not gone away. Twenty-three percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished. Because of the global economic fallout from Covid-19, the number of people worldwide facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million, the United Nations World Food Programme estimates, and much of that impact will be felt in Africa.

 At the same time, obesity and noncommunicable diseases (heart disease and diabetes for example) are rising in many low-income countries, Africa included, and both are proving to be serious complications for people infected with Covid-19. Much of the continent is also still dealing with other complex infectious diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other neglected tropical illnesses – that will make it more difficult to treat Covid-19 infections.

 As it expands on the continent, Covid-19 will put further stress on already strained health systems – with limited numbers of ventilators and proper beds, minimal personal protective equipment, and, in some places, too few health care workers.

At the same time, food supply chains are starting to falter. Lockdowns in 30 African countries have made it very challenging for farmers to sell their goods in markets or for workers to get to fields. Food assistance is not always making it to those most in need. Many informal markets – the infamous wet or open-air markets, where most Africans shop for food – are closed, further imperiling food insecurity and threatening malnutrition. Reports from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition’s offices in Nigeria and Mozambique noted that prices of food, particularly the fruits and vegetables, have increased significantly.

In many African cities, social distancing and self-isolation are a recipe for disaster. Slums and informal settlements are overcrowded and lack basic services such as running water, cooking facilities, and electricity. And even if people infected with the coronavirus had safe places to isolate, some feel they must work to keep their families fed. Commutes to work often involve overfilled buses and long traffic jams – which increase the spread of disease.

With global unemployment rising, remittances worldwide are also are expected to fall – by 20%, or nearly $110 billion, according to the World Bank. In sub-Saharan Africa, they may drop by 23%. This will push more people to go to work, increasing their exposure.

To be sure, African countries have a few things working in their favor. For one, they have experience with massive infectious diseases – HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and polio, to name a few – and public health systems have been strengthened over the last decade. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been hard hit by Ebola, but there are signs of progress with a declining case load in early 2020.

 In the current crisis, African governments can take some early lessons from the rest of the world that has been grappling with the pandemic a month or two longer, and work to keep the food supply moving. The continent is still 60% rural, and many urban Africans have close ties to the countryside, owning land or family plots. With luck, lower population density in rural areas may slow the spread of Covid-19, allowing farmers to continue to grow food, that is if they can get access to seeds and the technologies needed to plant and harvest. Support to food producers is an absolute necessity to keep the continent food sufficient.

 Sub-Saharan Africa is also fortunate to have a relatively young population, which may make it better able to weather outbreaks of Covid-19 with less hospitalization and death.

 Still, it remains hard to see the end. Some people hypothesize, with little evidence, that Africa may not be hit as hard as other places because of its warm climate. Perhaps, they say, the spread will be slower in Africa, and that will buy extra time. Given how easily Covid-19 has spread in other warm places such as Singapore and Thailand, that’s not something to count on.

 To ensure that Africa doesn’t starve and that it can weather the Covid-19 storm, it is essential to make sure people are guaranteed access to food, water, soap, masks, and cash transfers to support their families. The poorest and most vulnerable should be the priority. World governments with their donor partners, including the World Bank and the World Food Programme, will be counted on for support over the next four months. Businesses who make food products need support as well. We must all help make sure they come through.

The silent companion: Food Bytes Edition April 2020

Silence. We sit in our houses, in silence, watching the world from afar with only COVID-19 as our silent companion. But this silence isn’t really calming. The silence has an urgency to it. It is loud. And there is only so much silence one can take.

We are seeing the restlessness. We are seeing signs of noise. The world wants to open up and get things moving again. But that is risky. And our companion is keen to stay with us, just sitting in the quiet.

But some things have to move. Like our food system. As precocious Lawrence Haddad wrote:

“Keep the supply of nutritious food moving—and expand the flow. Unlike the 2008-2009 food price crisis, this coming crisis is not one of drought, oil prices, and biofuels. This is a car crash of supply chain logistics.”

Yes, cars crashing. Noisy.

There is also information noise. Some good, and some bad. As science and data emerge, the noise will get filtered out. Until then, we have to adapt to the loud stream of information to find the gems. Here are a few:

• The Nutrition Connect has been diligently publishing blogs on food, nutrition, and COVID on a weekly basis. We are up to 21! There have been a few really good papers on the implications of COVID on the food system.

• Maximo Torero of FAO published a Nature commentary on food supply chains. He argues that while stocks of food are sufficient, that is quickly changing with food price spikes, food sitting at ports, exports being banned, and dumping of commodities.

• Chris Barrett at Cornell University also published an important piece on food shocks. He argues that food supply disruptions must be met with safety nets to ensure that the world avoids catastrophic hunger.

• The Economist published an excellent overview of export trade, supply, and demand changes in the food system and what can be done to avert hunger. They argue that trade must stay open and keep food flowing.

• Jennifer Clapp points out the inefficiencies and weaknesses of the food system in this short op-ed in the New York Times. She argues, instead, to support local value chains and supply.

• The NYT has a well-rounded piece on meatpacking processing facilities and the fall-out of potential large-scale declines in meat production and processing, along with potential positives on the climate.

• Yours truly published a piece at Bloomberg Opinion on the challenges and maybe gleams of hope that the continent of Africa has to avoid catastrophic food insecurity.

And then there is the future of restaurants, the places where many of us go to socialize, try new cuisines, and enjoy the fruits of our food system in all its finest glory. A few very thoughtful articles have been published on the future of restaurants and what they will look like (NOT THE SAME, NOT AS MANY, AND NOT AT THE SAME PRICE STRUCTURE…). Some will close their doors, forever. There is that silence again. Here are a few good reads:

• The New Order, by Tom Sietsema: “Restaurants can’t possibly return to their old selves, at least not immediately. I imagine fewer tables, longer lines outside restrooms, hand sanitizer where flowers used to be, and shorter menus with fewer contributors.”

• As Restaurants Remain Shuttered, American Cities Fear the Future, by Jennifer Steinhauer and Pete Wells: “The danger facing restaurants, which thrive on crowded rooms and get by on razor-thin margins, poses a special threat to small cities and large towns where a robust food culture plays an outsize role in the economy. In places that had been hollowed out by poverty and suburban flight, like parts of Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit, they are engines of growth.”

• My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore? by Gabrielle Hamilton: “And yet even with the gate indefinitely shut against the coronavirus, I’ve been dreaming again, but this time I’m not at home fantasizing about a restaurant I don’t even yet have the keys to. This time I’ve been sitting still and silent, inside the shuttered restaurant I already own, that has another 10 years on the lease.”

While sitting still and silent may no longer be an option for the global economy (it is imploding on a profound level), nor the food system, if we are to remain viable, we need to support our food system workers, producers, and entrepreneurs. They need personal protection, living wages, and decent work. These buffers will keep economies chugging along, and potentially stave off widespread hunger and malnutrition. Until then, turn it up and bring the noise.