Agricultural biodiversity, social–ecological systems and sustainable diets

Abstract

The stark observation of the co-existence of undernourishment, nutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity, the triple burden of malnutrition, is inviting us to reconsider health and nutrition as the primary goal and final endpoint of food systems. Agriculture and the food industry have made remarkable advances in the past decades. However, their development has not entirely fulfilled health and nutritional needs, and moreover, they have generated substantial collateral losses in agricultural biodiversity. Simultaneously, several regions are experiencing unprecedented weather events caused by climate change and habitat depletion, in turn putting at risk global food and nutrition security. This coincidence of food crises with increasing environmental degradation suggests an urgent need for novel analyses and new paradigms. The sustainable diets concept proposes a research and policy agenda that strives towards a sustainable use of human and natural resources for food and nutrition security, highlighting the preeminent role of consumers in defining sustainable options and the importance of biodiversity in nutrition. Food systems act as complex social-ecological systems, involving multiple interactions between human and natural components. Nutritional patterns and environment structure are interconnected in a mutual dynamic of changes. The systemic nature of these interactions calls for multidimensional approaches and integrated assessment and simulation tools to guide change. This paper proposes a review and conceptual modelling framework that articulate the synergies and tradeoffs between dietary diversity, widely recognised as key for healthy diets, and agricultural biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions, crucial resilience factors to climate and global changes.

Agrobiodiversity conservation enhances food security in subsistence-based farming systems of Eastern Kenya

“…Agricultural sustainability and soil fertility on smallholder farms are determined by land use and management practices [16]. In Eastern Kenya, smallholder farms are characterized by intensive farming with limited agricultural inputs, which has resulted to impoverished soil and reduced crop productivity.…”

Adequação normativa dos planos estaduais de segurança alimentar e nutricional no Brasil

“…Percebe-se que em países onde a fome e a miséria caracterizam-se como principal problema, o conceito e as políticas de segurança alimentar e nutricional estão mais associados à dimensão do acesso a quantidades suficientes de alimentos 9,10,11,12 . Nos países onde a fome foi superada, o conceito e as políticas são direcionados para os aspectos qualitativos da alimentação 13,14,15,16,17 . Já em países em transição epidemiológica, como o Brasil, assumem-se conceitos e políticas que envolvem ambas as dimensões 2,18,19,20 .…”

Combining micro-bottom-up and macro-top-down modelling responses to nutrient cycles in complex agricultural systems

“…The combination of a broader environmental-agricultural-societal nexus to incorporate a nutrition-sensitive food system and a balanced diet to sustain human health does not appear to be comprehensibly modelled (Sobal et al 1998;Cannon and Leitzmann 2005;Allen et al 2014). This has been identified as necessary (Ingram 2011;Keding et al 2013), including as a key conclusion from the 1st International Global Food Security Conference in 2013 (Dogliotti et al 2014).…”