food to fit the budget of poor households and is using a floating supermarket to take these products to remote communities in the Amazon.6


of door-to-door vendors selling to low-income villages in India, and west and east Africa.6


Unilever has a small army According to the article


published in The Guardian in November 2011, one of their favourite slogans claims: “we bring you the kind of foods that people in the developed world have enjoyed for years”.6


Knowing the attraction of American lifestyle


has among people living in developing countries, who can resist this kind of temptation? Sadly, we can already see the impact of these new


business strategies. Last year 39% of acquisition deals by consumer goods companies were in emerging markets, compared with just 1% in 2008.7


Further, the pace at


which the consumption of “unhealthy commodities” (soft drinks and processed foods that are high in salt, fat, and sugar) is rising in low- and middle-income countries, is even faster than that has occurred historically in high-income countries. As a result, the developing world is set to match the developed world’s unhealthy commodity consumption rates within three decades.8 More disturbing is the fact that all the consumers in the world are not treated the same way by these corporations. While many companies have pledged to eliminate trans fats and reduce salt, sugar and fat in foods sold in wealthy countries, these nutritional improvements are often not implemented in food sold in poorer markets.6 As a result, the developing world will face a double whammy: a growing pandemic of non-communicable disease that results from a stronger predisposition to develop obesity9


as well as increased over-consumption


of nutrient-poor products, well before they can deal appropriately with two “old friends”, hunger and stunting. This double burden may have a devastating impact on both economic growth and health care budgets since the capacity to deal with the adverse health impacts of this change is limited in the developing world. For decades in the developed world, we have let the big food companies decide for us which foods to eat. As a result, there has been a loss of many indigenous foods and the decline of food literacy and a growing inability of people to shop for and cook food in a healthy way. Let’s not repeat the same devastating scenario in the developing world. It is necessary to tackle the global problem of food


and nutrition insecurity by investing in developing world agriculture.10


Investors and development aid agencies


must fit under genuinely country-led food security plans that target the most marginal farmers, including women. This food security strategy needs also to integrate a framework that links economic viability, sustainability and health along the food chain. Indeed, there is a need to


6 iAM


“For the first time in human history, there are more people living in cities than in rural areas, more people who are overweight than underweight, more deaths among adults than among children.”


develop and implement food and nutrition policies that will address issues of not only sustainable food production (i.e. locally-produced diverse foods) but also processing, distribution and consumption. A strong emphasis should be put on protecting and improving traditional food production as well as on valuing nutritious indigenous foods and culinary practices through appropriate food/ nutrition guidelines to protect public health.11 The urgency of the situation is stressed in a recent


research paper published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)12


where it is concluded that “fighting


hunger today and thus minimizing the phenotypic predisposition to develop obesity and NCDs should receive extra attention by national policy makers and the international community. Particularly food programs that help improve pregnancy and pre-pregnancy nutrition should be promoted. By helping to curb a likely obesity epidemic, these programs will yield an extra return in the future - over and above their current anti-hunger dividend. Second, given the speed of the nutrition transition and the higher susceptibility of consumers in developing countries towards developing obesity and NCDs, there is a need to design and devise policy measures that help avoid adverse nutritional outcomes in


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