Trade, nutrition, and sustainable food systems

By:
Anne Marie Thow and Nicholas Nisbett
Date:
2019
Resource type:
Blogs/news/opinion

Comment piece in the Lancet provides good insight on how trade policy impacts healthy and sustainable food systems. The authors set out three recommendations for consideration of how to effectively align trade policy and public health policy to effect positive outcomes:

  1. Public health actors need to recognise the fundamental and front-line nature of trade policy as both a barrier and potential catalyst for health.
  2. Engage more effectively and with the right stakeholders to push for policy space within trade and investment agreements.
  3. Reach beyond trade to promote a development discourse that makes explicit the nutrition imperative; nutrition is crucial to achieving most of the Sustainable Development Goals.

This short piece is worth a read, and speaks to the importance of coordinating actions among a range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors. 

This resource presents evidence or data but has not been peer reviewed