Triple Danger to the World’s Population

Kate Ryan of Thompson Reuters Foundation reported (27/1/19) that, the Lancet Commission on obesity needs a $ 1 billion fund and action strategies targeting food policy and production. This is to assist health, the environment and economic well being of the world’s population. The biggest threats to the world population are obesity, undernutrition and climate change. This is linked by profit motives and policy inertia, a top commission official said on Sunday.

The approaches to agricultural production, urban design, transport and land are connected with the three issues of obesity, undernutrition and climate change. This will take a colossal toll on the planet and population, the commission said.

“What we’re doing now is unsustainable,” said William Dietz, an author of the study and public health expert at George Washington University. “The only thing we can hope is that a sense of urgency will permeate,” he said on a conference call with reporters. “We’re running out of time.”

Subsidies of $500 billion to beef, dairy and various food industries worldwide, given by governments should instead, be used to fund sustainable, healthy farming. Fossil fuel subsidies of $5 trillion should be moved to sustainable transport and renewable energy, the commission reported.

 These dangers are linked by mass production of nutrient-deficient food that not only contributes to obesity and malnutrition but plays a major role in greenhouse gas emissions that is a major cause for climate change, the report said. The production and distribution of agricultural products burn fossil fuels that contribute to rising global temperatures, drought and extreme weather, it said. The International Food and Agricultural Organization has said agriculture, forestry and other land uses are responsible for 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the planet. These issues are further aggravated by inaction by policy makers, influence by profit-thirsty food companies over public policy and insufficient public outcry for change, the report said.

As illustration, it said that in 2016, companies making sugar-filled beverages spent almost $50 million to lobby against U.S. government initiatives to reduce consumption of  beverages thought to contribute to poor nutrition and obesity. “With market power comes industry power, said Tim Lobstein, a commission author and the director of policy at the World Obesity Federation, a British-based professional group. “Even willing governments struggle to get policies implemented against industry pressure,” he said. Approximately 815 million people are severely undernourished and 4 million deaths are connected to obesity, the commission said.

The commission said a permanent international agreement, parallel to that reached on global warming in 2015, is needed to address and improve food production and distribution.

Reference: “ Obesity, bad nutrition, climate change pose triple danger, commission says” by Kate Ryan, Big Story, Thompson Reuters, 28/1/2019.