Agri-food systems can address obesity

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Obesity is a public health problem associated with the diet of populations that has increased worryingly in the last 20 years.

According to estimates from the State of Food Security in the World 2024, the prevalence of obesity in adults affected 881 million people in 2022, and the number is projected to climb to 1,200 million people by 2030. In Latin America and the Caribbean currently, 141 million adults are affected by obesity, which is equivalent to an alarming 29.9 per cent of the population. This increase means it almost doubled since 2000, when the region registered a 15.4 per cent prevalence of this condition.

In addition, the prevalence of overweight in children under five years of age reaches 8.6 per cent in the region, also above the global estimate of 5.6 per cent.

The World Obesity Atlas 2023 estimated that the global economic impact of overweight and obesity will be $3.3 trillion in 2030 and $4.3 trillion in 2035. These economic losses are associated with higher health care spending and reduced income and productivity linked to absenteeism, presenteeism (lower productivity at work), and early retirement or death.

Measures for the transformation of agri-food systems and the development of healthy food environments against obesity include the promotion of healthy diets and school feeding programmes, together with social protection and policies that improve food environments, which contribute to greater access to, and promotion of, healthy diets.

In addition, food and nutrition education, integrating communication and technologies, incorporating nutrition into the curriculum and promoting active school environments and school gardens, are the ways to raise awareness and influence changes in eating patterns. This goes hand in hand with sustainable agriculture and the supply of nutritious food, which are part of healthy diets.

These efforts are strongly supported by measures such as the development of food systems-based dietary guidelines, legal frameworks for front-of-pack nutritional labelling, and the regulation of the promotion and sale of high-calorie, high-sugar, high-fat and high-salt foods around schools.

In the face of data that eloquently show the great challenge we face, FAO remains committed to supporting the implementation of these policies in different countries by delivering evidence, good practices, and recommendations aimed at transforming agri-food systems against obesity in a framework of regional cooperation.

DANIELA GODOY

Senior Policy Officer for Food

Security and Nutrition

Food and Agriculture

Organization