The "zero hunger" goal faces "hidden" challenges

16 October is the 39th World Food Day, with the theme "Action for the Future, Healthy Eating and Zero Hunger". Looking back at the theme of World Food Day for nearly a decade, this is the first time that hunger has been linked to a healthy diet, which means that "zero hunger" is not only a response to hunger, but also a guarantee of adequate nutrition for the human body.
since 2015, the number of hungry people around the world has increased year after year, breaking a 10-year slowdown. According to the State of World Food Security and Nutrition report, released by the United Nations and others, 821.6 million people worldwide are facing food insanity by 2018, with one in nine people starving.
is not only a food problem, but also affected by environmental, economic and other factors. How to deal with the global food crisis and achieve "zero hunger", China Science Daily invited food crop researchers and policy research experts to discuss technology, policy and institutional integration strategies.2019 State of the World's Food Security and Nutrition report shows that the number of hungry people worldwide has increased for three consecutive years, from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million in 2018.
Shenggen, director of the International Food Policy Institute, told China Science that the causes of the increase in hunger are complex, but regional conflicts and climate change are the main factors. Currently, as many as 18 countries and nearly 74 million people are affected by conflicts, which can easily lead to famine. In addition, global warming caused by climate change affects food production and multiple natural systems, and unhealthy dietary habits and unsustainable food systems are constantly threatening human health and the Earth's environment.
, large numbers of children and adults face multiple burdens of malnutrition: undernutrition (hunger), micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger) and obesity. According to statistics, 149 million children are stunted and under-tall, and 672 million adults are obese. Humans need to solve both the problem of "not eating enough" and "not eating well".
Since 2009, Zhang Chunyi, deputy director of the Biotechnology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and deputy director of the China Crop Nutrition Enhancement Project, has been responsible for coordinating and organizing multidisciplinary research teams composed of experts from more than 30 relevant research institutes and universities throughout the country to conduct research on micronutrient deficiencies in Chinese groups, especially among the poor, and has achieved important results.
Zhang Chunyi said the causes of malnutrition are complex, but all forms of malnutrition present a common characteristic, namely, food production is not adapted to nutritional needs, inappropriate dietary structure.
note that micronutrient deficiencies due to inadequate dietary diversity are associated with increased rates of stunting (low height-to-weight) in children, which can even lead to permanent cognitive impairment in children.
present, Zhang Chunyi's research area has been extended from remote and backward areas to cities, and the research object has been extended from rice, wheat, corn and other bulk food crops to vegetables. The researchers found that hidden hunger was more serious in poor areas, but also in cities. Survey data show that the number of people with hidden hunger has not decreased.
for quite some time, food security has focused on quantity assurance and has not included nutrition in food production indicators. "Before it was too late to focus on nutrition, now that china's food problem is shifting to hidden hunger, researchers should focus on the nutritional quality of crops and address the problem of unreasonable food allocation." Zhang Chunyi said.the key to solving this problem, says Mr. Yu, is a global effort to transform our food system and promote healthy diets.
recently, the EAT-The Lancet Report highlighted that dietary changes include increased global consumption of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, as well as reduced consumption of foods such as added sugar and red meat. In practice, the healthy and sustainable diets of different countries are not the same, depending on the local conditions.
, the report notes that dietary methods are unaffordable for most poor people. The cost of this meal programme exceeds the per capita income of households of 1.58 billion people.
is one of the solutions to hidden hunger, but it's more economical to supplement with food, says Yu Shenggen, a professor at the U.S. Department of Health. Reducing the price of nutritious foods should be a priority policy.
" For food crops, there is no contradiction between nutritional quality and yield. Zhang Chunyi said.
zhu Chunxuan, director of the Center for Soil Use and Environmental Change and a researcher at the Nanjing Soil Research Institute, also said that after global warming, some areas have shown a suitable situation for crop survival, such as the extension of farming period in northeast China. At the same time, extreme weather has led to an increase in crop yields or crop cuts. But in terms of production technology and land resources, global food production capacity can solve the problem of hunger.a growing number of researchers are looking for solutions to nutritional imbalances and malnutrition through crop nutrition enhancement, which is the use of agricultural techniques to screen, nurture, evaluate and promote new varieties of nutrient-enhanced crops rich in micronutrients.
Zhang Chunyi's team has been working on folic acid nutrition enhancement since 2007, hoping to grow crops with high folic acid content.
Unlike genetically modified crops, he says, researchers use molecular markers to select self-relationships with high folic acid content from crops, find genes that control folic acid accumulation levels, and lock in these variants that lead to esotypes through genome sequencing techniques and correlation analysis for crop modification.
2014, Zhang Chunyi's team, in collaboration with the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Foraging Sciences, finally bred fresh-food corn varieties with high folic acid.
" to cultivate such a new variety usually takes 8 to 10 years, but this is only a small step in the long march, from the perspective of the industrial chain, nutrition-enhanced crops on the table, there is still a lot of work to be done. Zhang Chunyi said.
It is true that certain nutrients can be technically increased, but the breeding of new varieties does not amount to the elimination of hidden hunger, and the public is unaware of the existence of these fortified foods or how to choose foods that are appropriate for them."
Zhu Chunxuan introduced that different groups lack of nutrients are different, at this stage should carry out popular science, tell the public the dangers of nutrient deficiencies and how to prevent. At present, Japan, Singapore and other developed countries have labeled calories and nutrients on the food table, to guide the audience scientific choices, it is worth learning from.
most important thing is to encourage cross-sectoral cooperation and action, introduce medical institutions, conduct health science, ensure the efficiency and quality of medical examinations of residents, form a database on the health of residents, and provide first-hand information for the formulation of a healthy eating programme for all. Zhu Chunxuan said.
, Yu Shenggen believes that the global flow of advanced crop breeding and agricultural production technologies should be encouraged. For example, China has made remarkable progress in combating hunger and malnutrition, with the rate of stunting among children falling from 18 per cent in 2000 to 8 per cent in 2013.
"China's scientific research can be more global in methods and data, and increase opportunities for scientific cooperation with countries in Africa, Latin America and South Asia. At the same time, research should be based on the vision of reducing global hunger and malnutrition. Yu Shenggen said.