Food systems transformations, the nutrition

transition and sustainable development

Introduction
This essay will explore ways in which changing food systems are contributing to the nutrition transition.
We understand a food system to be all steps from the production to the consumption of food, and,
depending on the state of the food system, to be a key cause of malnutrition. We understand the
nutrition transition to be a phenomenon in which a population’s economic development lowers their
nutritional health (9). These health impacts, measured since the 1980s, predominately come in the form
of dietary diseases and rising rates of overweight and obesity (9). The dietary shifts particularly involve a
move from low calorie diets favouring carbohydrates to high calorie diets favouring sugars, fats and oils,
and processed foods (9). First taking effect in industrialized countries, the nutrition transition is now
occurring in low- to middle income countries across the world (9).

There are many food-system drivers causing the nutrition transition: in this essay we will examine three.
First, we look at urbanization (a demographic driver), followed by agricultural production (food supply
chain), and finally globalization (a political/economic driver) in an effort to discover the effects of each
factor, how they are interrelated, and who is being affected.

Urbanization
The urbanization process is defined by populations of the world increasingly living in more urban areas
(1). Since 2007, more than 4 billion people live in urban areas (2). This is a relatively new trend, no more
than 200 years old (1), and the UN projects that by 2050 the number will have increased to 7 billion
people living in dense, urban environments (2). This is largely a product of wealth: when a population
becomes wealthier, they tend to move from rural to urban areas (1). First, higher income countries
experienced urbanization, and now we are seeing the same trend repeat in low- to middle income
countries (3)

But for the positive economic effects which cause urbanization, there are nutritional concerns which
arise as a consequence of urbanization. And these negative health consequences are contributing to
nutrition transitions in many countries in the process of urbanization which will be discussed in this
essay. First, we will explore what exactly these consequences are, how they come about, and their
health impact on the effected populations.

Urban diets tend to be distinct from rural diets, which means, urban nutrition tends to be distinct from
rural nutrition. Research shows sugars, processed foods, and fats are a greater part of the urban diet as
opposed to the rural, which is heavier in starchy carbohydrates (4). Urban populations also consume
more calories than rural population which has been shown to contribute to more overweight and
obesity in these communities (4) along with a lack of exercise, which is also higher in urbanized
populations (4). The greatest consequence of these dietary and exercise shifts is disease prevalence.
Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and obesity were found to be higher in urbanized
portions of Africa and India than non-urbanized areas (4). Urbanization has an interesting effect on the
rural areas of China in contrast to these observations. Economic growth in China has seen the rural
population experience more malnutrition and micronutrient diseases (5). A contributing factor causing
this issue may be the rising food prices as a result of urbanization (5). In 2018, a fifth of the population
moved to urban areas for employment (5), causing a nutrition transition from a rural to an urban diet.
Consistent with the findings from other developing or transitional economies, however, the increasing
urbanization in China has caused the same nutrition transition from less carbohydrates to a higher fat
and sugar diet (5). Protein intake is also shown to increase as a result of urbanization in these countries
(5).

Agricultural Production
Agricultural production is the process by which animal and plant products are cultivated for human use
(6). And with around 11% of the earth dedicated to crops and 26% dedicated to pastures for animals (6),
the agricultural production of food is a large part of this process. There have been substantial shifts
regarding the manner in which agricultural production operates—shifts in technology and policy, for
example—and these factors have, and continue to, contribute to nutrition transition.

There are several pathways which connect agriculture and nutrition illustrated by the framework below.

TANDI Framework for Agriculture and Nutrition Pathways

Source: (12)

We will now explore some aspects related to the first three pathways in relation to agricultural
production and nutrition.

Due to technological shifts in the agricultural process in the middle of the twentieth century (8), we have
seen an increase in the production and consumption of high fat oilseed crops (7). The relationship
between the production of these unhealthy products and consumer behaviour is linked. However,
although consumer demand drives agricultural production, it is constrained by limits in the supply chain:
under 50% of the demand for fruits and vegetables is met by the agricultural industries in low-income
countries, for example (7). Government policy has an effect on consumer access to agricultural goods.
Typically, policy from higher income countries work to raise the price of agricultural goods by limiting
imports, and policy from lower income countries work to lower the price of agricultural goods by
restricting exports (9). The environment also influences agricultural production: from soil-quality to
drought (7).

Agricultural production and urbanization are also importantly linked. Farmers in rural areas have a
limited amount of land and natural resources with which to produce crops (10). As Urbanization
increases and more people relocate to urban areas, rural farmers can produce more product and create
more income (10). The time at which rural population growth ceases entirely is referred to as the
‘structural transformation turning point’ (10). This turning point could predict a positive dietary
transition for rural areas, considering the correlation between more individual income and better
individual nutrition (11).

In Ethiopia, for example rural land ownership is positively correlated with food security, with volatility in
food prices predominately effecting lower-class urban dwellers (12); and livestock ownership has better
nutritional outcomes for people in Kenya and Kampala (12). Researchers have investigated rural
communities in the Brazilian Amazon, finding a link between an increase in the food acquired through
supply-chains and an increase in their intake of foods high in sugar (13). This dietary shift has the
potential to cause a nutrition transition in these Amazonian communities.

Globalization
Globalization is defined by the increasing connectivity and dependence that populations of the world—
including their economies, cultures, and a range of other features—have on each other (14). It is a result
of international trade, of international exchanges of information, technology, and foreign investment
opportunities (14). Trade routes like the two-thousand-year-old Silk Road may have laid the seeds for
globalization, but technological innovations like the steam engine and the industrial revolution of the
early twentieth century gave birth to the globalization of today (15).

The globalization process is a glaring contributor to the nutrition transition. Some convergences
between globalization and nutrition include: global food marketing, food policy, foreign investment,
cultural shifts, and urbanization (16). Urbanization has been observed to have increased significantly in
G7 countries, China, Korea, and India since 1991, in lock-step with the increased globalization of these
regions (17). Globalization also influences the food supply-chain, affecting factors such as: the cost of
food, the variety, the quantity, and the desirability (18). These influences cause positive and negative
nutritional effects. Globalization can affect undernutrition, for example, by making food cheaper; but
this has the potential to cause overnutrition and the consumption of unhealthy varieties of food which
contribute to the nutrition transition (19).

Shifts in agricultural production are also linked to globalization. An economic process of globalization is
the global integration of markets, including agricultural markets, which makes it so each agricultural
producer focuses on a limited number of products contingent on the resources of their region, and then
trades that agricultural product with another market in the global integration who focuses on a different
product (16). This results in cheaper food and a more efficient system but has also resulted in a large
increase in the consumption of edible oils. Global oil crop production has increased 60% between 1999
and 2003, and consumption has seen drastic increases during this time period in countries like China and
India. (16). The global integration of agricultural markets has also enabled more foreign investment,
growing over six-fold during the 90s (16). Over a thousand world trade policies were changed during this
time period to provide more incentives for foreign investment in agriculture, and this has been linked to
the rise of edible oils and processed foods (16).

Trade liberalization is key in causing a dependence on dietary patterns linked to overweight and obesity
and chronic disease (20). It alters the food environment to promote the accessibility of these foods, and
encourages foreign investment which not only propagates the main culprits of the nutrition transition
but also undermines the support for domestic industry (20). A great example that illustrates this issue is
South Africa, which has experienced a large rise in trade liberalization and nutrition transition over the
last fifteen years (21).

Conclusion
The nutrition transition clearly has a consistent effect on the nutritional health of low- to middle income
countries. Changes in dietary patterns, a higher consumption of fats, sugars, oils, and calories in
particular, are rising in these regions along with overweight and obesity rates. Urbanization, agricultural
development, and globalization each have a strong role to play when it comes to causing the nutrition
transition. The ways in which these three drivers interrelate with each other, give rise to and maintain
each other—and multiple other factors briefly touched on in this essay—creates a complex food system
which has sacrificed nutrition for efficiency and economic development. Globalization appears to be the
most influential driver of the nutrition transition, mainly because it is by way of this driver that majority
of the others have gathered steam. Slowing the nutrition transition will involve government
intervention, which will inevitably result in an economic loss. Trade policy has been pointed to as a
method of preventing the nutrition transition in developing countries (20).
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