Can the challenges of poverty, sustainable consumption and good health governance be addressed in an era of globalization?

Tim Lang

The nutrition transition has taken different characteristics in various developing countries, cultures, and historical eras. Huge policy challenges arise. Is the nutrition transition inevitable? Can its patterns be altered? What policies minimize its adverse health outcomes most effectively? This chapter, while perhaps adding further complexity to an already difficult issue, outlines four policy elements that ought to inform and be part of the debate about the nutrition transition.

The first element relates to the interaction between food and nutrition and the environment – the issue of sustainable consumption. The second is social inequality – the extent of poverty and food insecurity. The third is governance, the notion that, if human policy “frames” nutrition, then human forces should themselves be shaped to do this equitably, responsibly, and effectively. The English word “governance” refers not just to what governments do, but also to the actions of other powerful social forces, such as private business.

The last element is culture, a key and often a missing component in the nutrition transition debate. Food culture is the “pull” in the transformation of tastes, just as marketing and corporate reach are the “push”.