Highlights
- Shortening the food gap
- Sustainable and healthy food systems
- Reducing critical nutrition gaps
Sustainable and healthy food systems remain a critical challenge, especially in rural communities. South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. And the food disparities are still widening, and that continues to leave people in rural communities vulnerable to lack of access to
food.
People in rural communities not only deserve food, but they also deserve healthy, nutritious food. Widespread challenges limit access to nutrient-dense foods by poor people in rural areas. Shortening the critical diet gaps is one of today’s most urgent priorities, and that is why TSGN wants to change the lack of access to nutritious food in rural communities. People living in rural communities in low-income households bear a triple burden of malnutrition – undernourishment, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight prevalence – because the current food systems have not made nutritious diets sufficiently available, accessible, or affordable to them. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems worldwide heightened these challenges and made access to nutritious food harder.
To reduce critical nutrition gaps, a food system transformation needs to have three aspects: driving change towards more diversified nutritious diets, empowering women and other disadvantaged groups, creating agricultural/farming opportunities, and improving physical access to healthy food. For poor people to consume more nutrient dense foods, they must be able to make healthier choices – choices based on better information and greater access to affordable nutritious diets. Empowering people in rural communities, including women in food systems, to earn better incomes and take control over consumption through agricultural opportunities created through sustainable food systems, can yield significant benefits in both nutrition and income outcomes.
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