B. Esha Aumjaud’s Post

October 16th is World Food Day! Right to Food for a better life and better future! The 1948 general assembly of the United Nations resolution has adopted the #UniversalDeclarationofHumanRight (UDHR). Article 25, of this declaration states everyone has #therighttofood, among other things. Food is also the third most basic human need after air and water. On this special occasion of #WorldFoodDay, I’d like to highlight the right to food and food security. The right to food is expressed by having access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food. Everyone, everywhere in the world is entitled to these universal rights. However, these rights are far from entertained. 📌 Not everyone has a place on the table As we speak, luckily the majority of people have the pleasure to enjoy their daily meals. On the contrary, this is a harsh reality for as many as 2.3 billion global population. One in 11 people globally and one in five in Africa is struggling with hunger. 📌 What factors affect food security? Food security is one such sensitive issue susceptible to natural and human factors.  Many factors ranging from the global economy, politics, climate change, peace & security to resource utilization, determines food security. These adversities impair the lives of millions in different parts of the world. 📌 Climate change is among the major factors to affect food security. The impact of climate change not only adversely affect food availability, but also nutritional quality and hinders access to food. The impact could even be manifested by exacerbating food prices. The overspills of COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts in different parts of the world have added fuel to the fire. 📌 Almost a decade past since the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) have been introduced. The 2024 #SDG progress report indicated most of the agenda are off- track. Goal 2- Zero hunger- which anticipate ending hunger and improve food security by 2030 is the most affected target of all.  This is an indication how short of an effort was made by world leaders and a reminder to enhance actions towards achieving anticipated targets.   📌 Every action count, and we have one to make.  Actions against reducing climate impacts, reducing food waste, responsible resource utilization, maintaining peace, resolving conflicts and exercising fair food prices will all contribute for a food secure community.  As for me, better life and better future cannot be guaranteed when millions are left behind. Leave no one behind! The right to food is the right to life!  #Worldfoodday #foodandnutritionsecurity #climateaction

🌍 New Report from IPES Food Highlights the Urgency of Localising Food Systems 🍎 A new IPES Food report exposes the growing fragility of corporate-controlled global food systems, worsened by crises like Russian’s war in Ukraine, COVID-19, and climate change. Disruptions in grain shipments, fertiliser shortages, and volatile food prices have become the new normal. But there’s a solution: vibrant, localised food systems built around small-scale producers and territorial markets. These systems are proving to be more resilient, equitable, and sustainable than their global counterparts. Key findings show: 🌾 Territorial Markets feed most of the world's population, despite limited support. 💡 Lack of Resilience as these close-to-home supply chains adapt well to crises. 🌱 Increase in Sustainability as localised food production enhances climate resilience. 💰 Driver for Economic Stability as local markets provide steady incomes, especially for women and youth. The report calls for urgent investment in local markets to reduce dependence on fragile global supply chains, aligning with #FoodCLIC’s mission for more inclusive, sustainable food systems. Let’s support these vital changes and make food sovereignty a reality for all! 💚 Read more about the report here: https://lnkd.in/efnYdFqN

Good to see major food businesses including Iceland Foods, Tesco and Nomad Foods call for companies to be legally required to report on how much money they make from unhealthy food 👉 https://lnkd.in/e4izhBAE This builds on calls from businesses in the #HopeFarmStatement for government to introduce binding food system targets and a joined-up suite of policies to improve the public’s health, boost farm resilience, and protect nature & environment 👉 https://lnkd.in/e2XdzRaP It's also aligned with what we're hearing from citizens in #TheFoodConversation, who want government to take bold action on food for a fairer, greener, healthier society. Kerri from London said, "People's interests should be ahead of making profit. Businesses are such powerful actors and something really needs to change. Policymakers and businesses have to work together to find a solution that works for people, not just the politics and the corporate profit.” First 💯 Days asks of the new government: https://lnkd.in/eEdnBJdT Madeleine Speed Richard Walker OBE Paul Polman Henry Dimbleby

Lots of folk on here quite rightly advocate that the 1.9 billion meals served in the public sector each year are a key lever ministers can pull to improve the food environment and help people eat healthier, more sustainable diets. Yet, as I wrote in this morning's Footprint Analysis, the positive mood music around improving public sector food never quite translates into meaningful policy. With due apologies to the optimists in my network, here's my comment on why I fear the latest Quince review into public sector food is unlikely to end in concrete political action. I hope I'm wrong, and if you feel I'm being overly pessimistic please do share your grounds for optimism? It should be noted too how a lot of caterers are working hard to improve the health and sustainability of menus of their own accord (often with net-zero commitments in mind). https://lnkd.in/eWjNdDD8

My research into local government food policy aligns with what Nick Hughes is saying here: public sector procurement is one of the biggest opportunities to fix our broken food system, but one which is unlikely to be realised. Why? - Food is of zero interest to adult social care and children’s services departments. - Local government is highly fragmented and atomised, making coordinated change very difficult. - School, council and hospital budgets are stretched beyond belief. Considerations other than cost are not part of the equation. - There is widespread confusion around whether/how public bodies are allowed to give preferential treatment to local/sustainable/healthy/ethical suppliers England could learn a lot from Scotland on how to improve upon current ways of working.

GOVERNING FOOD AS A COMMONS: A NEW OLD NARRATIVE FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL FOOD POLICIES If you happen to be in Amsterdam on Thursday, November 7, join us in this conversation around #foodcommons organised by the University of Amsterdam https://lnkd.in/dKq7bRwj Food is essential for humans, a cultural and religious determinant, a human right, a renewable natural resource, a medicine and a commodity that can be traded in the market. So, food has multiple dimensions important for human beings. And yet, the commodity dimension has become dominant and it has obscured others. Food as a commodity is the foundational pillar of the industrial food system, that prioritizes food for profit, having food poverty, food waste, biodiversity depletion, Nature pollution, exhausting wild food stocks, food poisoning, ultra-processed food and obesity as unavoidable consequences of letting the market rules govern food production and distribution. Valuing (or revaluing) food as a commons (human right and public good) would provide the normative pillar of different food systems, systems that prioritise food for nourishing people, produced in harmony with Nature and governed by people, eaters that have a stake on how food is produced, what food is produced and what is it for. The Food Commons approach suggests a new way of governing and distributing food, not exclusively as a commodity embedded in the market, but as a commons, public good and human right. In this conversation, Dr. Jose Luis Vivero Pol will discuss how seeing food as a commons can create transformational food policies that guarantee access to food for all. He will present multiple cases of customary and contemporary food commons (aka people governing their own food-producing systems) in Europe, both in cities and rural areas, and he will propose several actions that could be undertaken in Amsterdam to implement a tricentric governance of food systems, where collective actions, state institutions and private sector actors could collaborate to guarantee that every citizen has access to enough and adequate food, and where passive consumers become food citizens (politically responsible individuals who collectively shape their food system according to more democratic, participative, and ecological mechanisms).

"He says a comprehensive food strategy should look in a holistic way at all aspects of how food shapes our society, including cost, availability, societal health, cultural significance and economic benefits from exporting." Thank you Ian Proudfoot for your continous support for a strategically designed food system and national food strategy. https://lnkd.in/g-s3kHqQ

The #right to #food is “#NOT” the same as a #right to be #fed: The WORLD Food DAY-2024 Food is the third most basic human need after air and water – everyone should have the right to adequate food. The right to food is an inclusive right but not simply a right to a minimum ration of calories, proteins and other specific nutrients. It is a right to all #nutritional #elements that a person #needs to live a healthy and active life, and to the means to access them. A #healthy diet is varied and we can’t always eat the same things. Because, it is #balanced in #quantity, #composition, and #calories - neither too few nor too many. It should be adequate, meaning it is appropriate for us, our age, our lifestyle. All these steps are crucial to ensure the right to food worldwide and make up the #Agrifood #System - A Very #Delicate #Value #Chain of the #Globe. The right to adequate food is realized when #every man, woman and child, #alone or in #community with others, has physical and economic #access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement (CESCR). FAO show how the right to food is linked to access to natural resources such as land or water, education, markets, and assistance during crises. https://lnkd.in/gkNZYU9E. At this juncture, nothing else we do has come close to how #food, #agriculture, and #land use are causing global #environmental harm. Without major changes, our food system will continue to push #Earth well beyond its #planetary boundaries (DFBF). Therefore, #agribusiness/nutrition is an integral part of the right to food, and how education and awareness raising are essential vehicles to facilitate its fulfilment. Nutritious diets and access to education are not only instrumental, but vital to achieving people’s #physical, #cognitive potential, #health, and to the #right to food. In short, right to food can also be seen from 3 different perspectives viz., the perspective of the #Indian Constitution, particularly, the Directive Principles of State Policy; later to #international declarations and conventions on the subject, beginning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and finally, for the #right to #food as a moral and social right, independently of all these documents. Hence, #Agribusiness #Education is not a static commodity to be considered in isolation from its greater context; it is an ongoing process and holds its own inherent value as a #human right and use of a human rights to food-based approach requires good agribusiness programs and practices.

The key elements of a better food system, as shared by Dr Roger Robson-Williams PhD: #Local – by locals for locals, strengthening community resilience. #Affordable – everyone can afford nutritious food. #Connected – people are connected to each other, their food, and environment via food. #Healthy – healthy food environments lead to healthy people. #Regenerative – nutritious for people, protects and supports te taiao. #Resilient – can withstand and recover swiftly after crises. More in Roger's post below:

The Food Commons Transition. Collective actions to produce, distribute and consume food differently We could design different food systems, whose main goal would be to feed people adequately, enabling food producers and food workers to earn a living. My proposal: to modify the normative valuation of food, from commodity to commons. Food as apubloc good, as we did in Europe for health and education at the beginning of XX century. https://lnkd.in/ekUSdfzZ