Fruit and Vegetables for Healthy Diets
The United Nations has declared 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV). A year to bring the importance of consuming fruits and vegetables as part of a diversified, balanced, and healthy diet to the attention. At SeedNL, we focus on making quality fruit and vegetable seeds available for all farmers and therefore, consider the role of fruits and vegetables for healthy diets to be of utmost importance. In many countries, consumption is not up to the recommended standard because fruits and vegetables can be too expensive, unsafe, inconvenient, unattractive, or just not available. 3 billion people are not able to afford a healthy diet. Additionally, fruits and vegetables are not solely important at the individual diet level. It also supports the whole food system, as it can be beneficial for biodiversity, environmental sustainability, and improving farmers’ livelihoods and employees along the value chain.
A Summit Brief on Fruits and Vegetables for Healthy Diets
Research Partners of the Scientific Group for the Food Systems Summit have prepared a Summit Brief. In this brief, entitled: ‘Fruits and Vegetables for Healthy Diets: Priorities for Food System Research and Action‘, the authors present evidence on food system issues for fruits and vegetables in healthy diets. They explain that: ‘there is still a need to better understand the different ways that food systems can make fruits and vegetables available, affordable, accessible and desirable across places and over time – but that we know enough to accelerate action in support of fruit- and vegetable-rich food systems driving healthy diets for all’.
The paper summarizes evidence underpinning food system actions to make fruits and vegetables more available, accessible, and desirable through various factors:
Push factors: The authors argue for the need to increase production together with accompanying measures to prevent losses, particularly in regions with low productivity. One of the areas where they find an opportunity for action is in seeds. Stating that providing support to make seeds and planting material available through formal and informal channels is important.
Pull factors: The authors indicate that we need to better understand consumer preferences and behaviours as well as incentives to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables.
Policy factors: The authors push for ‘reverse thinking’, by placing dietary outcomes at the start of the policymaking and legislation.
In the steps ahead the authors call for two main considerations:
‘Acknowledging that power shapes food systems, from concentration of economic and political power in a few global agri-food businesses, through to marginalisation of certain groups in societies from accessing healthy diets, so this needs to be considered in terms of both inclusive processes in deciding policies and actions and in assessing their equity impacts’
‘There will be trade-offs among food system outcomes, so starting with a focus on healthy diets is important but understanding how food system decisions then impact fair livelihoods and sustainable environments is key.’
The authors conclude with one main message
‘Having these conversations through the lens of equity, to address the needs of both winners and losers of food systems change, will be a vital part of the UNFSS process towards enabling fruit and vegetable-rich food systems for healthy diets for all.’
Picture Reference: East-West Seed
