Key takeaways

  • The current global pandemic provides a major stress test for the world's food systems.
  • The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition has published a set of suggested interventions.
  • In the longer term, new and better approaches, including public-private collaboration, are needed.

The global health impact of the COVID-19 virus could be larger than expected because of its effects on healthy food supplies, according to the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a foundation based in Switzerland.

If action is not taken, the COVID-19 health crisis “will unwittingly use the food system as a catapult” to have a greater impact on the global burden of disease, GAIN said in a statement.

The disruption is likely to make food producers revert back to unhealthy staple foods

Healthy nutrition is a critical determinant of immune system strength, yet in crisis mode nutritious foods are the first to be lost, explained Dr Lawrence Haddad, GAIN’s executive director. COVID-19, therefore, could increase people’s vulnerability to disease.

“It’s a massive and deadly stress test for the food system,” Haddad told Apolitical. GAIN is examining the threats which the crisis poses around the world, searching for vulnerabilities in food systems and finding out ways to strengthen them, he said.

So why does the food people eat make such a difference, and how can policymakers react?

Why food matters

Across the system, the disruption is likely to make food producers revert back to unhealthy staple foods and financiers back these less risky investments, while consumers under financial and psychological stress make their diets less diverse, Haddad said.

“All of those things make it much less likely that we’ll have affordable, nutritious food,” he said. Staple foods like rice and potatoes tend to be lower-cost and easier to store compared to more perishable foods with vital micronutrients.

In efforts to fight hunger, governments have neglected the need “to not only feed but nourish their populations”

GAIN is expecting the crisis to fall hardest on those with low incomes who are “more vulnerable to losing work, and more vulnerable to increased food prices,” said Haddad. These households spend a far higher proportion of their money on food, and nutritious foods are often unaffordable even before price hikes which are beginning to set in.

This is likely to damage their defence against disease, including both infections like COVID-19 and long-term chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity.

Another particularly vulnerable group is farmers, given their older age profile and the mortality pattern of COVID-19, as well as their reliance on mobile workforces, GAIN’s statement said.

What to do?

Fortunately, there are several ways for governments to respond and adapt to the situation. GAIN has published a list of suggested interventions for low- and high-income countries which it believes could mitigate some of the crisis’ impacts.

Along with interventions like keeping trade routes open and stimulating domestic food production, Haddad says governments need to focus more emphasis on nutritious food. Governments could reform their social protection measures to incentivise people to purchase healthy foods, for example.

In their efforts to fight hunger, governments have neglected the need “to not only feed but nourish their populations,” he said. Policies such as supporting research and development in agriculture, or implementing food taxes and subsidies, have all been geared towards making staple foods cheaper, Haddad said.

In the long-term, the crisis could help remind people of the strong link between food and health

Meanwhile, as the world economy struggles to pick itself up from a dramatic downturn, GAIN is working with around 800 small businesses in nine countries, Haddad said, as well as development and multilateral financial institutions to explore rapid financing options.

Especially in Africa and South Asia, he said, small enterprises are the backbone of the food system. “If they go under, local food systems go under,” Haddad said. “Small enterprises have the least ability to deal with an economic shock.”

A long shadow

Despite these very immediate threats, in the long-term the crisis could help remind people of the strong link between food and health, Haddad said, and lead to broader improvements in nutrition.

Perhaps most importantly, COVID-19 has been a massive wake up call for food safety, said Haddad, which he refers to as “the soft underbelly of food systems.” Governments around the world had been very complacent about the idea of “zoonoses,” when diseases jump from animals to humans, he said, which experts have attributed the outbreak to in Wuhan, China.

Every part of the food system, from farming through to transport and storage, has a great deal of room for optimisation, Haddad said. As the crisis deepens, therefore, there has rarely been a more important time for innovation and collaboration between the public and private sectors.

“You make lots of decisions in the crisis period that cast a long shadow on future development,” Haddad said. — Jack Graham

The Covid-19 Crisis and Food Systems (Policy matrix)

(Picture credit Unsplash)